Now if you'll turn back with
me to John chapter 6. The Lord had just the day before
taken five barley loaves and two small fishes and fed 5,000 men plus the women
and children that were there. That's a pretty good group of
people, isn't it? And then he left them. They were going to come and take
him. And you remember that the Jews, their conception of the
kingdom of God was the nation of Israel. believed that the
Messiah was going to come and reestablish Israel in all of
its former glory. That's how they conceived the
Christ. They thought he would be a man
like Solomon or David or one of the prophets Moses or somebody
like that, a great man. I think actually they had in
their mind that when he came onto the scene And with mixed
visions, the visions in the Old Testament, the visions of the
prophets, a lot of times we're talking about the end of time
when Christ would appear. And His appearance in the end
of the time is a whole lot different than when He appeared as a babe
in Bethlehem's manger. When He comes back the second
time, He's not coming back in humility. He's coming in all
the glory of His Father's house. And that's how they looked for
the Messiah to come. They thought he would come in
there on a charger. They thought he would come in
there with pomp and majesty and just take over that whole outfit
and just put down the Roman rule and put down all these enemies
that they had and reestablish Israel in its former glory. That's
why the disciples, they argued among themselves who's going
to be chiefest in the kingdom of God. They wasn't talking about
in heaven. In their mind, they were talking about an earthly
kingdom and who's going to be the Joab like David had and so
on. That's how they reasoned these
things. And they were going to take him
by force, right then, right there. They were just going to take
him and make him king and go to war. We're wrong, right there.
But the Lord escaped out of their midst and went up into a mountain
by himself. And then his disciples, he told,
if you'll read the other accounts in the other Gospels of this
same circumstance, you can kind of fill in the details. He told
them to get a ship and go to the other side, and that's what
they did. They went down and got in their ship and left. He
was up on the mountain alone. But they got out there and a
storm rose up and a mighty wind and that little boat was being
tossed to and fro and they rowed all night long and didn't make
any progress worth talking about. And all of a sudden, in the darkness,
out there in that storm, comes the Lord walking on the water.
Walking on those tempestuous waves, He's just walking. And they see him. And then they
recognize who he is. And he said, don't be afraid.
It's I. It's me. And when they brought
him into the ship, John's account says immediately. Now, they rowed
all night. Hadn't made any headway at all.
He steps into the ship. The sea goes perfectly calm.
And all of a sudden, they're at their desired destination.
What a picture of faith, huh? What a picture of Christ when
he comes into the sinner's heart, peace, and he's exactly where
he wants to be. So these things had transpired. If he had 5,000 people escape
this mob who ignorantly wanted to make him an earthly king,
what would he want with an earthly kingdom? He's the king of kings. He's the blessed and only potentate.
He's not going to be brought down to rule over this little
nation over this. He's King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. And then he walks on the sea and he rescues his disciples
out here who are desperately in trouble. And then this multitude, this
mob follows him over to the other side and they're filled with
questions and things. And he turns to them and he said,
you don't seek me because you saw the miracles and are convinced
that I'm God's Christ. That's what you're telling everybody,
but that's not why you follow me. You follow me because you
ate of the loaves and were filled. You're just here for the food.
You're just here for the earthly benefits. That's what he's telling
them. It's not necessarily the barley loaves and fishes, but
any earthly benefit. Your whole idea of the Kingdom
of God, your whole thing is based on this earth and what's reasonable
to a natural man and what's logical to a national. That's how your
whole concept of God and His Christ is. You just followed me because
you ate of the loaves. You weren't convinced of anything.
You weren't convinced of anything.
And he said, labor not for the meat which perisheth, verse 27,
but for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which
the Son of Man shall give unto you. For him hath God the Father
sealed. As their bodies, he said, as
your bodies took the loaves and fishes and were sustained and
satisfied and filled, and your hunger taken away, so God by
a miracle of grace, had set before them this meat, this meat that
perisheth not. He said, it's been set right
before you, just like I set before you the loaves, just like I prayed
and gave thanks and set before you the, and what you saw was
so minuscule, what you saw was so little, what you saw, what
are these among so many? What you saw, it couldn't calm
the sea. What you saw couldn't give rest
to your heart. Huh? He said, you saw them things. Oh, but he said, this meat, this
meat that I came to give, it's not like that. It's not like
that. Don't labor for this other meat.
It's a waste of time. As you ate those loaves and were
filled, so God, by a miracle of grace, has set before them
the meat that perisheth not." Those fishes and loaves were
gone now. They were hungry again. He said,
this meat don't go away. It don't go away. What you get
stays. and grows and flourishes. Well, here's the lesson. Christ
is the spiritual meat of faith. It's the only thing that can
sustain it. I'm telling you right now. You
say, well, I have faith. We'll see. We'll see. That's
what the Lord said. We'll see. Because He's the only
one who can sustain faith. It's the only thing that can
sustain it, and it's the only thing that can satisfy the hunger
of it. Faith is hungry. It's hungry. And the only thing that will
satisfy the hunger of true, saving faith is Christ. You can't satisfy
it with ceremonies. You can't satisfy it with owl
walkings and decisions. You can't satisfy it with devotion.
You can't satisfy it with any of those things. The only thing
that will satisfy true saving faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. That's it. And it's
the only thing that gives it any joy or peace. I read in here
all the time how they rejoiced. They rejoiced. He says over there
in Hebrews, I think it's chapter 3, that we're His house. if we
continue settled and grounded and rejoice. Huh? Does your faith rejoice? Does
it rejoice? Is it joyful? Do you have joy?
Peace? Does it generate love? You see
what I'm saying? It's the only thing that can
give joy and peace. The mechanics of religion can't
feed and satisfy the hungry soul. It can't do it. You study from
now on. Get out all the books. Get out
all the old writers. Get out whatever you want to.
Get in there. Get the mechanics. Draw your
graphs. Draw all these things out. Get
them all underlined. Point A and point B and Roman
numeral one. Get it all out there. Memorize
it. The Jews did. I don't care. I'll tell you right
now, those scribes, they hand transcribed the scriptures. You
go through the scriptures and leave out a comma, boy, they
was on you. Uh-uh. Uh-uh. Put that comma.
It goes right there. Right there. You take a word
and change it a little bit, oh no. No, no, no, no. Uh-uh. This word goes there. They knew. They memorized. Memorize them. Our Lord said, you search the
scriptures because in them you think you have eternal life and
they are they which testify of me. But he said, you won't come
to me that you might have life. Faith comes to Christ. Gives
life. Life. The mechanics of religion
can't feed and satisfy the hungry soul. They might pacify the conscience
the way whistling in a cemetery does to a young child. We had
two railroads in this little town. I lived in them when I
was small up in northern Ohio. The Pennsylvania Railroad and
the New York Central crisscrossed in this little town, and they
called the town Crestline. So I lived out on the New York
Central line on the north side of town, and the shortest way
for me to get home was down the railroad track. But that railroad
track went past cemeteries. And I get next to them cemeteries,
and I don't care what you thought when you left the street light.
When you got out there in the dark, it's a whole different
story. And those railroad bums and things living alongside the
tracks, and I'm about 10 years old, and I'm walking down them
tracks pretty soon. I'm whistling and singing, and then I'm running. You see what I'm saying? That's
all the mechanics of religion can do for you. They just pacify
a conscience. the way whistling in a cemetery
pacifies the fears of a frightened child. And they might give you
some temporary relief, like a rabbit's foot. We used to carry rabbit's
feet around, good luck, and we'd rub on that rabbit's foot, you
know, or a four-leaf clover or something. But nothing lasting,
nothing permanent, nothing to rest your soul. You really want
to rest your soul on something like that? Nothing. Nothing there. And neither
can the works of men satisfy a hungry soul. What little bitty
profits from his work is gone in a moment's time. Now, you
got up this morning, and I commend you. You're here. For whatever
reason, you're here. I commend you for that. But if
you're here out of duty, then that work's already given you,
and it's about gone right now, isn't it? Everything it gives
you is just about gone. And soon as the service is over,
it's all gone. Now you've got to do another work. You see what
I'm saying? Works just offer temporary satisfaction
to the soul. And what you profit from a work
is gone in a moment's time, and you're left wanting for more. And so it is with the duty and
works of any kind. They cannot satisfy the hungry
soul. And then religious curiosity
is another thing that fails here. Seeing things that are not normal. Huh? I remember the first time,
the first time a man called my attention to the absolute sovereignty
of God, I was shocked. I said, this book says that?
I said, where? He said, everywhere. I said,
I've been reading this thing all my life. Well, he said, let's
go to Daniel chapter 4. I went over there. He ruleth
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
None can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? I'm
the potter, Romans chapter 9. Do not I have power over the
clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another
unto dishonor? What if God, what if God decided
to do this, and with much long-suffering to endure these vessels of wrath
fitted for destruction. And what if God decided that
according to His eternal mercy and grace, He's going to take
this other vessel and make it a vessel of honor? What if God,
huh? That's sovereignty, my friend. I never at one time even had
a thought, never entertained a thought in my mind about the
Lord Jesus Christ being sovereign. And he walks out, having not
ascended to the Father yet, still on this earth, walking, appearing
to his disciples. And he walked out there and he
said, fellas, all power in heaven and earth has been given unto
me. That's sovereign, ain't it? You
know anything that ain't in heaven and earth? I don't either. Been given unto me. How come
that tsunami hit Japan? You reckon that was out of his
hands? News media said it was. Huh? Of course, news media said
the world was flat for thousands of years. We see things that ain't normal.
We hear things that nobody else is hearing. And we consider these
great mysteries, the mysteries of the Gentiles and the mysteries
of these things, and our curiosity gets up. But that can't feed
a hungry soul. That just lasts so long and then
curiosity's over. I know lots of folks who were
curious years ago and delved into these mysteries and got
all the answers to the mysteries and got all the P's and Q's in
one point, and now they don't feed at all. They're still hungry. They're still hungry. To me, curiosity is like a bite
of chocolate before a meal. It tastes good, but it don't
fill you up. It just don't fill you up. It
doesn't satisfy. You need meat. That's what Christ
is telling them. You're here out of curiosity.
You're here to see these things that nobody else can see. You're
here to see things that you never heard of before. Well, he said,
don't seek them things. Because he said, here's the meat.
The meat God set right out before you. That which satisfies the
soul. He set this meat out and I can
give you this meat. We need that which perishes not. And He is the meat which endureth
unto everlasting life, which He alone can give, because He
alone is sealed by God the Father. Now, I was looking at that this
morning. What does that mean, sealed? That means designated,
appointed, commissioned, authorized. God authorized me to be here.
He anointed me. He appointed me. He designated
me. He sent me here for this express
purpose. I don't know about you, but when
my wife seals those lids on them cannon jars, it's not just to
decorate. I intend to eat what's in it,
don't you? Huh? That's what he's telling them.
God sealed him for this purpose. That's why he's here. That's
the whole purpose. To eat. Not to sit back and look
at, not to sit back and admire for a minute, not to satisfy
your superstitious curiosity, but to eat. And when you eat,
what happens then? Then you're satisfied. You're
satisfied. And that's the way it is. It's
to be eaten. So it is in the manifestation
of Christ. God didn't send him here as a
decoration. He sent him here to reveal the
meat. that faith hungers for and which, when it's eaten, endures
unto everlasting life. Now, the question. Let's move
on to that. Here's the question, and it's
always the same. I've been preaching for quite
a while now, and men come to me and ask me this question.
I couldn't tell you how many times I've heard this question.
What do I need to do to be saved? It's always the same, ain't it?
Oh, it's worded differently. They word it differently. Now,
when the rich young ruler come, he said, what good work do I
need to do to be saved? What good work? It's always the
same. What must I do to be saved? Here
in John chapter 6, this crowd of men and women put it this
way. Look down here at verse 28. John 6, 28. Then said they unto him, what
shall we do that we might work the works of God? What can we
do? What can we do? Now, you've got
to know and consider this in the light of who these men were.
They were Jews. They were men and women who'd
been taught that The righteousness that God requires from men is
that righteousness obtained by doing of the law. And there's
some truth to that. That law must be honored. That
law must be kept. But not by a fallen man. What's
a fallen man going to do with this law? This law requires perfection. This law requires spiritual obedience. He's not spiritual, he's carnal.
He's sold under sin. So they've been taught that this
righteousness that God requires from them came from their obedience
to the law. It's what I call law works or
works. Keeping the holy days, fasting,
praying three times a day, tithing, going to the synagogue, and then
so on. And as I told you earlier, there's
635 of these things if you're going to keep them. Now if you
decide to meet God standing on the foundation of your works
on this law, You don't just go get 10 commandments. You can't
keep the first commandment, let alone 10 of them. And you sure
are not going to keep 635 of them. But the problem is with the first
one. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength. Anybody in
here think they can do that? Well, the whole rest of the law
hangs on that. Without that motivation, you've
broken the whole law. That's not my word, that's his.
You break this, you broke the whole law. In fact, he said,
you go through all 635 of them, and if you break any one of them,
you're guilty of the whole law. Because again, you go back and
break the first one. Because if you loved him with
all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, you wouldn't have broken
any of them. You see what I'm saying? Here's what to do. Here's what to do. They're asking
him now. He comes along here and they
believe that this righteousness hangs on the doing of the law,
but in a carnal sense, in an outward sense. They had a form
of righteousness. A form is like a concrete form.
That's a hollow shell. And they observed these things
outwardly, but inwardly they were full of dead men's bones.
And they're asking him this. Now he's coming along and he's
telling them to do another work. And they're looking at this and
weighing this in the light of all these other things and here's
what they're asking him to clarify the work. Clarify the work. Clarify what you're talking about.
What must we do to work this work of God? What's required
of us? You don't like why we're here. Alright, if there's something
wrong, tell me what's wrong. What must we do to do the work
of God? If we're not doing it, tell me
what we need to do. And we'll do it. Clarified. Well, here's what he said. Verse 29. Jesus answered and
said unto them, This is the work of God, that you believe on Him,
whom He has sent." Now, very quickly, let me give you three
things here concerning faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
if you don't get anything else, get this first one. Just hang
on there. You'll be hanging on that from
now on, if you get it. Faith is the comprehensive summary
of all true work. What on earth are you talking
about? It takes in the whole scope. Now just let your mind
go as far as it'll go when it comes to work. What's troubling
you about the work? Is it the law of Moses? Is it
the moral law? What's troubling you? Is it the law of the believer?
What work is it? Is it the work of faith? Is it
the work of of creation. I don't care. You take that,
let your mind go as far as it can go. It's not near about going
to go around all the work that's involved. But you let your mind,
your mind, not mine. I'm not asking you to think like
I think. I'm asking you to let your mind envelop as much of
the scope of work as you can take in. That's what I'm saying. is the comprehensive summary. It engulfs anything and everything
that has to do with work. It engulfs it and takes it in
and summarizes the whole thing. It says, here it is. Here it
is. That means that faith comprehends
all that the living God requires and commands men to do. One old writer said this, he
said it's the forest, a whole forest, a vast forest. You all cut timber for a living.
Just think about this. The whole forest as it lies in
a single acorn. That's what faith is to work.
It's all right here. It's all right here. That's what
he said. Here's the work. Here's the work. This takes in
the work of creation. Why on earth would He create
all things? It's according to this purpose
of grace, God's purpose to save a people for the glory of His
own name, and He created to that end. You see what I'm saying? Faith takes in the work of creation.
Faith takes in the beginning work, the work of God the Father
who designed these things, who predestinated these things. Takes
that in. Faith is the comprehensive summary. You see what I'm saying? It engulfs
the whole thing. Our minds and hearts are filled
with troubling questions about judgment, and the fall, and present
sins, and past sins, and future sins, and righteousness, and
justice, and holiness, and wrath, and death, and daily walk, and
judgment, and just let you... I don't care what the work is.
Faith takes it in, summarizes it, and fulfills it in that little acorn. Oh, my heart's troubled. Am I
lit? Am I saved? Can I be saved? How can I be
saved? What is it that troubles your
heart this morning? What can we do to please, to
satisfy, to reconcile, to find favor and fellowship with God?
He said, believe on me. Believe on me. Can you do that? That's the work of God. You can't
do it. He can. He can. Faith is the comprehensive
summary of all true work. And then secondly, how can faith
comprehend this work? Well, let me give you four things
that will help you here. The first way is this. Faith
comprehends God. It acknowledges God. God is God. Not just a word, He's God. Now,
if He's God, He rules, doesn't He? He's not God if He don't
rule. If there's a power higher than
Him, if there's any kind of principality or spirit or power in this world
that can overthrow anything that God intends to do, then God's
not God. Whatever it is that overthrew
Him is God. If there's anything anywhere
wiser than God, then He's not God. Faith comprehends God, and as
it comprehends God, it comprehends all God's work. It comprehends Him. He's sovereign. He's immutable. He's eternal.
He's all-knowing. He's everywhere present. He's
all-wise. He's God. And it acknowledges
God in His Word. Now, my friend, I'm going to
tell you something. You're going to quit arguing if God ever shuts you
up to His Word. If God ever comes to you in His
presence, with His presence, and makes you to know that this
is His Word, then I don't care who says what, you're going to
say, let every man be a liar and God be true. You're not going
to argue with me. Now, I might be off on the wrong,
I ain't saying you ain't going to get off on the exit somewhere,
because you will, 50 times a day. But I'm telling you, when you
see in God's Word the error, somebody points it out to you,
you're not going to stand there and argue and jump up and down
and fight against them. You're going to say, hmm, that's what
it says. That's what it means. You're
not going to keep fighting with it. Faith comprehends God. And it acknowledges God. And
it acknowledges God in His Word. And it bows to the Word of God.
You can't satisfy faith with ceremonies, rituals, experiences,
or feelings. Faith craves the Word of God. That's all it needs. Just show
me in here. Show me the promise. Show me the declaration. Show
me in this book. Show it to me. And faith will
say amen. It'll say amen. Faith's not interested
in opinions. And faith is not interested in
what somebody thinks. Faith desires to know what God
says on the matter and rests. what it believes on His testimony
alone. And then secondly, faith bows
to God's way of reconciliation. Now here's the best definition
of it I can find in the Scripture. It's in Romans chapter 3. He
said, they're being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that's in Christ Jesus whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness
for the remission of sins, that He might be just and justify
all that believe." That's a lot, isn't it? This is the way of
God's reconciliation. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto Himself, not charging their trespasses unto them. Now,
you're going to find a big problem with that if you believe in universal
redemption. Because if he's not charged sins
to anybody, then there's no reason to have a hell, is there? Huh? People won't jump on that word
world. He reconciled the world. Well, that was put in there because
he was preaching to Jews. And these Jews thought they were
the only people on the top side of God's earth that he was going
to save. He wasn't just reconciling Jews, he was reconciling Gentiles. He reconciled his church out
of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue unto heaven. It doesn't
mean that he reconciled or his purpose was to reconcile every
man, woman, boy, and girl in the world. He plainly tells us
that he chose a people. Plainly talks to us about elections.
And you're a fool if you deny it. You're just a fool. You're
going against the word of God. Faith bows to God's way of reconciliation. How'd he do it? He didn't charge
their trespasses to them. Huh? You mean my sins are not
my sins? Not if they're laid on Christ.
Huh? They're His sins then, aren't
they? My sins were laid on Him. Read about it over in 1 Corinthians,
2 Corinthians 5, and read down through there what it has to
say about reconciliation. The only basis of reconciliation
that I can preach to men, according to the Word of God, is that Christ
was made to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. Now that being made to
be sin has to do with burying my sins in His own body on the
tree. It has to do with my sins being
laid on Him, charged to Him, legally. legally as my substitute
and as my representative. And God executed on my sins,
on him, exactly what my sins deserved. You see, faith bows
to that. Faith rejoices in that. It rejoices
in that. And this is how we're reconciled
to God and how God's reconciled to us. I don't care how you want
to look at it either way. I've got nothing else to tell
you except what I just told you. Yeah, but I want to know how
God's reconciled. Same way. Same way. No other way to reconcile
God except the death of Christ. And that's why I say all this
business about law, righteousness, and all these things is foolishness.
If there was any other way, God wouldn't have killed his son.
But he did. Righteousness can only be found
in God's representative man. It says, by his righteous servant
shall he justify many. No other way to have a righteousness.
He's the end of the law, Paul said, for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. Can't be any forgiveness of sins
apart from our substitute. Huh? If he didn't put away my
sins, I still owe him. I still have. And then thirdly. Faith fully comprehends the law
because it rests in Christ, who exalted the law, made it honorable.
You want to talk about works, good works, the believers' works?
My soul, huh, you can't keep the law, you can't honor that.
You mean to tell me that you're going to try to, by your own
works, you're going to try to honor that law and exalt that
law above what Christ did by His obedience? Then you're a
fool. You're a fool. Can you imagine
what an insult that is to God, who humbled himself and become
a servant, made of a woman, made under the law? Why did he do
that? To exalt that law and make it
honorable. And now you come along and say, well, it ain't honorable
enough. I'm going to honor it. You can't honor it any more than
you do in believing on him. You can't exalt it any higher
than it's exalted in Christ. You see what I'm saying? Faith
doesn't ignore the law. It doesn't say that the law wasn't
necessary. It tells you that the law is
exalted as high as it can go and honored as much as it can
be honored in Christ. How are you going to honor it?
You're going to believe on Him and rest in Him and rest in His
righteousness. Faith depends on the work of
God in Christ. Then think about this. Here's
the fourth thing. It fully comprehends all the
work of God because it establishes a right relationship with God. Paul said in Philippians 1, verse
6, he said, here's my confidence. He said, I'm writing to you about
these things. And I know what I preach to you,
and I know where you stand. I know how you receive these
things. I've got confidence in you. But here's where my confidence
is. He that hath begun a good work in you, he said, I'm persuaded
he'll do it till it's done. He's going to do it all the way
to the day of Jesus Christ. He's going to finish the work. And then I know this. It's because
the sovereign work of the Spirit cannot be resisted. Now, it's
just plain foolishness to be talking about the Holy Spirit
of God who moved on the waters of creation and brought this
world into existence at the command of Christ and by His design.
It's foolishness to talk about resisting His power. He's God. You're not going to resist Him?
I don't know who you're resisting when you do resist, but you ain't
going to resist Him. There was two calls in my house.
My mother'd come over the stairway and yell up the stairway, time
for breakfast, get down here. And sometimes I'd lay in bed.
Didn't want to get up just yet. Take my time and dawdle around.
But I tell you, when my dad come to the stairway and say come
down, the next thing you were going to know was being pulled
down. So you come down when he said come down. There's infinite
more power in the call of the Holy Spirit than that. You're
not going to resist Him. He takes over your being. When
He comes in, nothing else can stay. He comes in in His fullness. And what He says, you obey. Just like He said, let there
be light. There was light. It didn't resist
Him. We'll separate the water from
the land. They separated. There was no resistance there.
You don't have a problem with that, but you have a problem
with, you say, well, I can still resist. You can? Paul said, here's
my confidence. It's in God. It's in God, because
Christ in whom we're chosen and redeemed call cannot fail, and
because the sovereign work of the Spirit cannot be resisted,
and because the Father's eternal purpose of grace cannot be defeated."
Who's going to defeat Him? He works all things after the
counsel of His own will. All things. And we depend on Him. Faith depends
on Him. You want to talk about that kind
of work? Faith depends on Him. Faith trusts him with a childlike
trust. One of those little boys comes
up to you, Luke, and says, what time are we going to eat? One
o'clock. They don't come back every two minutes. They just
look at the watch, look at the clock. One o'clock comes, they're
ready to eat. Never dawned on them that you
weren't going to eat at one o'clock. You told them you were going
to eat at one o'clock. You see what I mean? It's a childlike
trust that we have in him. We love him with a spousal type
love. There is no thoughts of separation
here. We love him. We love him. You
free to go. They all left him. They got upset
over here and he started talking about his blood being drink indeed
and his flesh being meat indeed. They got all mad and they said,
well, he's talking, he's preaching cannibalism and this and that
and they all left him. He turned to 12 and he said,
you free to go too. And they said, where are we going
to go? We don't have anywhere else to go. You've got the words
of eternal life. You see what I mean? That love,
it's got nowhere else to go. So faith is the comprehensive
summary of all work. And secondly, I know how to comprehend
the whole scope of the law and works. And then thirdly, I know
this. All true saving faith is going to be tried of God. and
proven to be the work of God. When he told them, he said, this
is the work of God that you believe on me. But he's gone down there
a little bit. He tells them, he said, but you've
seen me, and you've seen the works of God that I've done,
and you don't believe on me. This work going to be tried.
They said, we believe. We'll see. We'll see. It's going to be proven. And
I've told you this often, and I'll tell you again this morning,
that only the faith of God's elect, this precious divine gift
of grace that enables us to walk with God, that quiets that screaming
conscience and finds rest in Christ, is going to pass through
the fire. And it's going through the fire. That's what I'm going
to tell you. It's going through the fire.
If it's not true faith, it ain't going to go through the fire.
Those three Hebrew children, They came up before that king
and he said, I'm going to put you in the fire. And they said,
well, we can't do anything to stop you, but we're not careful
how we're going to answer you. We ain't bound down. So fire
it up. It's going in the fire. But faith
has that quiet, patient confidence that it can go through the fire.
It can go through the fire. Peter said, we've been begotten
of God unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ to
an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away,
reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last
day. And we greatly rejoice in this.
But sometimes, he said, you're in heaviness. Why? Because God's
trying you. He's trying you. Oh. Tried, tempted of Satan, drawn
by the world, blown about by false doctrine and opposition.
Tried of God. Verse 7. That the trial of your
faith. That's what's being tried. That's
what's being tried. The trial of your faith. Being
much more precious than gold, it perisheth, though it be tried
with fire, might be found under praise and honor and glory at
the coming of Christ. And then here's a thought, and
I'll close after a few more remarks on this subject. Christ is coming
for you. Let that sink in. Well, he's
coming for believers. He's coming for you. He's coming
for you. Well, I'm not a believer. He's
coming for you. I am a believer. He's coming
for you. Christ's coming for you. I know
He is coming in the last day to gather all things in heaven
and earth to Himself, to raise these vile bodies and give us
glorious bodies like under His, to gather all men to Himself
to be judged according to their works. And true faith comprehends
that day of judgment and that fire of indignation and it looks
to it with confident peace and assurance because it sees it
and its relation to their relationship in Christ. That faith comprehends
that day. But I'm telling you this, he's
coming for us in an hour that we ain't looking for him. Oh,
yeah. My dad worried 20 years how he
was going to die, and he was laying there in a chair, and
my two kids, one on each side of him, and they decided to order
a pizza. Sunday afternoon, he went down,
heard Brother Mahan preach, and then went over to John Howsom's
house and sat over there, and they was fixing to order a pizza.
He yawned, went out to meet God. Just that quick. You think he
was planning on meeting God when he sat down in that chair? He
was planning on eating pizza. He went out to meet God. In an
hour, we think not. He's coming for you. Coming for
you. Doctor may come out and shake
his head and say, you got three months. You might have three
months, you might have two, you might have six. What's the difference? At the end of that time, he's
coming for you. If you live 50 more years, he's coming for you. And you may have a heart attack
here this morning. I was sitting, you know, I hate
to even tell you this. I was sitting in a free will
Baptist church up in northern Kentucky one night and the old
founding father of the church came in. He came in late. Song
service was over and the pastor was just getting ready to preach.
And he called him by name, Brother Scott or whatever his name was.
He came in, him and his wife, and my wife and I sat back in
the back. And at that time, I was playing music and going to church
and singing. And I was in and out of a bunch
of different churches. And we'd sat down. He was getting
ready to preach. And this old preacher come in,
him and his wife, and they sat down in front of me. And he introduced
him for who he was and acknowledged him. And he said, how are things
between you and the Lord? And that old man went to throw
up two fingers like this. Same way he's been doing all
of his life in that ungodly familiarity. He's going to throw up them two
fingers and say, me and God just like this. He throwed them two
fingers up and God killed him dead. He was dead when his head
hit the pew. That quick. Just that quick. He's coming for you. Can you
hear me? He's coming for you. On me faith. Can you hear me? Not works, not decisions, not
experiences. Only faith can comprehend that,
can envelop that, can go into that and give you patience, hope,
and rest. He's coming for you. Thank God
He is. Only faith can say that. Only
faith. Oh, what a statement. What must
we do to work the works of God? Here's the work of God. I'm the
meat. I'm the meat. He said, believe
on me. Believe on me. He that believeth
on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. You see what I'm
saying? the comprehensive summary of
the whole work. I don't care what the work is.
Man, I was sitting there in my study and I kept thinking, the
more I thought, the more it took in. The more I thought, the more
it took in. There's no end to it. It's as infinite as God.
Faith encompasses all this work and satisfies it because it sees
Him of whom all this work is about and lays hold on Him. Here's the work, He said. And
this work is the work of God. Do you believe? By grace are
you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. We're
his workmanship, he said. His workmanship. Father, take
the message this morning. I didn't bring the message to
scare folks, but to encourage them. Look, in all the things
that are going on, in all the various things that grab our
attention and our minds and our hearts and all the troubles that
bring us down, help us to see that here's the work of God,
to believe on Him. For Him has God the Father sealed.
Use this message for Thy name's honor and glory. We ask it for
Christ's sake. Amen.