Ephesians 2, and let's begin
our reading this morning again in chapter 1. In chapter 2, I'm
sorry, in verse 1. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. among whom also we had our conversation
in time past, in the lust of our flesh and of the mind, and
were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God,
who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ. By grace ye are saved. and hath
raised us up together, and made us set together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the
exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through
Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. By grace you are saved. It's been Paul's intention all
through chapter 1 and now through chapter 2 to magnify the grace
of God in saving us. And he's prayed to this end for
us. And his desire was that these
Ephesians pray for themselves, that the Lord would open their
understanding to see the exceeding greatness of God's grace. Paul
began to talk about grace in chapter 1, verse 2. And you notice,
and this is the way this great man was. He began to talk about
something. And the farther he went, the
more he talked about it. The more something was magnified
in his heart. And he reached the point that
he couldn't even speak of it anymore. He could find no adjectives
to describe it. And it's this way with grace.
He says in chapter 1 and verse 2, grace be unto you. He just begins to speak of grace.
And then in down verse 7, in the last portion of that verse,
he calls it the riches of His grace. The riches of God's grace. And then before he's finished
in chapter 2 in verse 7, he talks about the exceeding riches of
His grace. So grace is magnified. The more
we know of what God in Christ has done for us, poor unworthy
sinners as we are, the more this grace is going to be magnified.
in our estimation, in our hearts. Now one thing I want to remind
you of, and I want to just quickly go back over chapter 1, just
quickly, I don't want to bore you with this. But one of the
mistakes I think that we make is when we go from one chapter
to the next, we think the thought ends in that chapter. But it's
not so, and we have to be careful with that. You notice chapter
2 here begins with and. And that's connected to chapter
1. Paul has the same train of thought beginning in chapter
1 all the way down through chapter 2 down to verse 11. And it's about grace. It's all
about grace. Let me remind you of some of
these things and just show you right quickly how these are linked
together. And we go all the way back over
to chapter 1 and verse 3 and Paul begins Speaking of the blessings,
God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
And then in verse 4, He begins to tell us about these blessings.
First of all is the blessing of election. God has chosen you
to salvation in Christ, He said, before the world was. These blessings,
we know they are not given to everybody. But God chose these
blessings for His chosen people, His elect people. And He goes
on in verse 5 and He says this, that God has predestinated you,
He's predetermined to adopt you as His children. What a blessing
that is. It's not by accident this morning
that you're a child of God. Before you had a being, God predetermined
to adopt you as His child. Isn't that a blessing? It's not
by accident. And then he says here in verse
7, that Christ hath redeemed us. He doesn't say what we're
redeemed from. He just makes this statement. He's redeemed us. And He's forgiven
all our sins, all of this through His blood. He just makes that
general statement. What a blessing that is. He goes
on in chapter 2 to tell us more about this redemption and what
it's all about. Christ reconciled us to God.
And then he goes on here in verses 8 and verse 9, and Paul says
that God is acting towards all His chosen people in a way of
wisdom and understanding. And not only is He dealing with
us in His wisdom and understanding, but He makes known unto us. He
gives us wisdom. And He gives us understanding
to know His purpose, to know His plans, the way of His salvation. And then He goes on in verse
10, and I think probably this is one of the most amazing statements
in all the Word of God. And what He's saying here in
verse 10 is, in a general statement, what God's purpose is. What is
God's purpose? When it's all said and done,
what is God's purpose? And Paul says it's this, He's
going to gather together all His elect people of all ages
and they're going to be one. The church in heaven and the
church upon this earth, they're going to be one. Heaven's going
to be one because it's going to be new. This earth and heaven
and earth is going to be one. The angels, everything. There's coming a day, brothers
and sisters, when all the confusion and all the chaos that we see
around us now, that's all going to be eliminated. And there's
going to be perfect harmony, perfect peace, perfect unity
in Jesus Christ. That's His purpose. He's done
beginning now. He's done reconciled Jews and
Gentiles now. They've got peace. They come
together and worship the same God through Christ the Lord.
But there's coming a day there's going to be perfect harmony and
perfect peace. We don't know it now. This earth
doesn't know it now. But it will someday. That's God's
purpose in Christ. This is my Father's world. Oh,
let me never forget, though the wrong may seem so strong, He
is the ruler yet. He's ruling. This is my Father's
world. The battle's not yet done. Jesus
who died shall be satisfied, and heaven and earth is going
to be one. Just one. That's His purpose.
Ain't that a wonderful thing to think about? Wars will be
no more. Strife and confusion will end. And then he goes on here in verse
11, and he says, In Christ our Lord, the elect of God have already
obtained an inheritance. They've obtained that. It's reserved
in heaven for them now. How can they be certain of that?
Because God has predetermined it. It's His purpose. He's already
laid it aside. And then He goes on in verses
12 through verse 15. In a general way now, He begins
to mention the work of the Spirit in them. See, these are God's
blessings. It's His blessings. Paul said,
He's blessed you. And then he begins to tell all
the ways that He's blessed us. And now he begins to tell about
the work of the Holy Spirit in us. And what is that? You've heard the Gospel. It's
come to you. And you've heard it. And you
believe it. And you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. What is
that? That's a blessing. That's the
blessing of His Spirit in you. And He's sealed you to the day
of redemption. What a blessing that is. And
then in verses 19 and verse 20, he goes on and he gets more specific
here of how they were unable to hear. How they were unable
to trust and believe the gospel. When others made a wretched choice,
and they said, I'd rather die than to come to Christ. I'd rather
die than to listen to that gospel. When they made that wretched
choice, why did you hear? How did you believe? How did
you come to trust Christ? Paul said it was by the work
of this power of God in your heart. You come to believe Him
according to His power which worketh in you. The same power
that He raised Christ up from the dead with. What kind of power
does it take to make a man hear the Gospel and believe it? The
power of God. And what a blessing that is. And then he comes on here in
chapter 2, but his train of thought doesn't end. He goes right on
thinking about the very same thing. He just goes into detail
now. And now he begins to show them
what the Lord has redeemed them from. What they've been saved
from. And here, brothers and sisters,
he begins to get so personal. Before, he'd just been telling
us about these blessings and enumerating these blessings.
But now he gets so specific. Now He shows us and He teaches
us what a miserable, sinful state you and I were in. What did we
do when we were lost? All we did is walk after our
flesh. All we did is fulfill the desires
of our flesh and of the mind. And the devil was in us. He was
guiding us. He was influencing us. And we
didn't even know it. He was our master and we were
ignorant of it. And He laughed at us, and He
mocked us, and He hated us. And He desired nothing more than
to see us finally destroyed. And Paul said, even our very
natures, look what we were by nature, children of wrath. Not
only were we under God's wrath, but our minds were hostile towards
God. Oh, what a sad, perishing state
we were in. But right there, what happened? God, who is rich in mercy, for
His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in
sins, has raised us up together with Christ. He came to us and
He gave us life. That's how Paul magnifies the
grace of God here in our hearts. It's not because of our merit. It's not because of our power. It's not because of any free
will that we had, but why did God come to us? Why did He give
us life? His free, unmerited favor. That's what delivered us. That's
what delivered us. Some of you here this morning,
bless your hearts, He's given you life. You have the life of
Jesus Christ in your soul. When you look back at your life
as a lost person, and that awful pit that you were in, and then
you consider yourself this morning, that you've been delivered from
that awful place, what do you attribute that to? Don't you
attribute it to grace alone? Sovereign grace alone? When Paul
wants us to magnify God's grace, and he wants us to highly esteem
it, here's what he says, remember where you were delivered from.
And when you look at your neighbors and your friends and your co-workers,
and you still see them in that pit, and they're ready to perish
there. And no matter how you pray for
them, and no matter how you witness to them, they go on as if they're
safe and sound. And you know they're ready to
perish. And you know in your heart of hearts, the only thing
that makes a difference between you and them is God's grace. God's grace. And you can say,
there I go, apart from God's grace. Don't you attribute it
to His grace? Brothers and sisters, don't ever forget. Don't ever
forget what you were. The awful condition that you
were in when the Lord found you. magnified, asked for more knowledge
to the Lord to show you what an awful pit you were, and that
you had no power or no will to get out of that pit. Men cannot
get out of that pit. They must be delivered from it.
And when they are, they are attributed to one thing. By grace you are
saved. Isn't that what Paul says? He
mentions this twice. First, he tells them after verse
3, that God had given them life and raised them from the dead
and quickened them in verse 5, then immediately He says, by
grace ye are saved. Who makes you to differ? Who
makes you to differ? Are you different from anybody
else? Yes, you are. But who's made you to differ?
You're not in the pit anymore. You're saved, but who made you
to differ? God and Christ. That's it, isn't it? But Paul's
train of thought doesn't stop. He goes on, and not only does
he tell them where the Lord has saved them from that awful death,
but notice in verse 6, he goes on and tells them to this glorious
height that they've been brought up to. It's not just the Lord
saves a person from sin and from the devil and death, But it's
what He does with them when He saves them. He puts them in this
glorious kingdom, this heavenly kingdom, this spiritual kingdom.
See what He says in verse 6? He raised us up together and
made us set together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Where is Jesus Christ right now?
Well, in His Spirit, He's everywhere. But physically, He's in heaven.
And the saint is in Him. The believer is in Him. So where
is the believer? He's in heaven. He's in the same
kingdom that Jesus Christ is in. This heavenly kingdom. And
you know something? It's not only in heaven, but
His kingdom reaches this world. You're born into it. God put
you into it. Let me show you some Scriptures.
Take your Bible right quick, but you'll have to turn quickly.
Look over in Colossians chapter 1. Look in Colossians chapter 1.
You and I are still here in our bodies this morning. I'm looking
at you and you're looking at me. But everyone who is born
of God is in a spiritual kingdom. They're in a different realm,
a spiritual realm. And it's called these high places,
heavenly places. And look here at what Paul says
about in Colossians chapter 1, and look in verse 13. He said
in verse 12 that we should always be giving thanks unto the Father
because He's made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints of light, who has delivered us from the power of
darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear
Son. Ain't that amazing? That while
you're upon this earth this morning, you're in a heavenly kingdom.
You are in the kingdom of God's dear Son. Look what he says back
over to your left, just a little bit, in Philippians chapter 3. Look at this. When Paul was telling
us how to walk and to always be giving thanks unto the Father,
look what he says in chapter 3, verse 20, Philippians. For
our conversation, that word means citizenship, our citizenship
is in heaven. We belong to heaven. That's our
home. That's our Father's house. Somebody
said the church is just a colony of heaven. And that's so. That's
so. We're not of this world. We live
in this world, but we're not of this world. We're in a heavenly
kingdom. Our citizenship is in heaven. That's why we pray to the Lord.
That's why we sit with Him. That's why we worship Him. That's
why we follow Him. We're in the same kingdom with
Him. Look at another place. Look over at Hebrews chapter
10. Brother Glenn just read that too. Well, look before you go.
Look at Colossians chapter 3. Look at Colossians chapter 3. Look in verse 1 through 3. Here's
where we are. Not only has the Lord delivered
us from this awful pit of sin, but look how high He's exalted
us. Look where He's put His people.
In Colossians chapter 3, and look at verse 1, If ye then be
risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ setteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on
things above, not on things on the earth, for you are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our
life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory."
Where are we this morning? We're in Christ. We're with Christ
in heaven. Ain't that amazing? Now look
over in Hebrews chapter 10. God hath raised us up together
with Christ and seated us in these heavenly places. Look in
Hebrews 10, and look here in verse 19. Brother Glenn was teaching
us from this chapter a little bit this morning, speaking about
the sacrifice of Christ has perfected us. And look here what Paul says
in verse 19, or the writer says in Hebrews 10, verse 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness,
liberty, to enter unto the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Who is
the holiest? It's not over there in Jerusalem.
They don't have that temple anymore. That's gone. Where is the holiness
of all? Look back in chapter 9. We have
access to the holiness. Look in chapter 9 and look in
verse 8. The Holy Ghost is signifying
that the way unto the holiest of all was not yet made manifest
while the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a figure
for the time being present, in which were offered both gifts
and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service
perfect as pertaining to the conscience. For those sacrifices
stood only in meats and drinks and divers portions, and carnal
ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation. But
Christ, being come in high priest of good things to come, by a
greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is
to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy
place having obtained eternal redemption for us. Where is that holy place? Look
over in verse 24. Christ is not entered into the
holy places made with hands, which are only a figure of the
true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God for us. And what does the writer say
over here in chapter 10, verse 19? He said, we have boldness
to enter the holiest. Who is that? It's heaven. It's
heaven. You say, Bruce, I'm upon this
earth. But you're in a kingdom. You're in the kingdom of God's
dear Son, and therefore you have access to heaven. And that's
what we do when we enter our Father's presence. We come by
the blood of His Son. What a high kingdom He's put
us in. Look what He says in verse 20, chapter 10. This is a new
and living way which He hath consecrated for us through the
veil, that is to say, His flesh. And having that high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience, and our bodies washed in pure water." One more place.
Look at Hebrews chapter 12. Clarence, go turn that heat down. It's getting hot in here. Somebody
turn that heat down. It kicked on by itself. I thought I had
it shut off. Look in chapter 12, verse 22. You are come unto
Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general
assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven,
and to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made
perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the
blood of Spranklin that speaketh better things than that of Abel."
He's raised you up and you're set together. in heavenly places,
in a heavenly kingdom, in Christ. Ain't that wonderful? And what
do we attribute that to, brothers and sisters? Grace. Grace. What a display of God's grace. Heavenly places. Look back over
again in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 7. Big man, can you figure it out?
I'm going to have to get Carl, my furnace man, over there. Look in Ephesians again, chapter
2, verse 7. Here Paul, still the same train
of thought. He never changes his thought.
Now notice what he's done. He says, here's where you were.
He looks back and says, here's the pit that you were in. God
has raised you out of that pit. What is he attributed to? By
grace, who do you say? And He says, not only has He
delivered you, but look where He's exalted you to. He's put
you in the Kingdom of Christ. And now, look what He does in
verse 7. He looks ahead. He looks ahead
in the ages to come. See what He says? In the ages
to come, that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding
riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Notice what he does. He looks
from his day down to our day, 2009. And he says, you know what's
going to take place between my time and 2009? God's got all
these elect people of all ages, and what He's going to do, He's
going to do the same thing for them that He's did for you. He's
going to show them the exceeding riches of His grace, just like
He did you. He is going to raise them and
seat them in these heavenly places. And from 2009 on to the end of
time and out in eternity, what is God going to do? He is going
to be showing the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. Every elect soul from here back,
God gave them life and revealed His grace. Every elect soul from
here on, God is going to give them life and reveal to them
His grace. Ain't that a wonderful thing
to think about? How can we be sure of that? Paul said it's
going to happen. How can he be so certain of it?
What if man is not willing? What if man resists Him? What
if man comes in and stifles God's plan? Paul, how can you say that?
How can you be so certain of that? Well, he goes on in verse
8 and says this, "...for..." That word is so important. It
means because of. Because of it. I can be certain
that God's going to do this for, because by grace you are saved. He's got an elect group of people
in this world of all ages, and Paul said he's going to save
them. He's going to reveal the exceeding riches of His grace
to them. Paul, how can you be sure of that? Because salvation
is by grace. the eternal salvation of God's
elect people in every age, if it was dependent upon them, we
may be discouraged about it. We may even despair about it,
but it's not dependent upon the power and will and merit of men,
but upon the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Let me ask you
this question. If you thought the well-being
of the church and the existence of the church depended upon you,
how would that make you feel? Wouldn't that be a tremendous
burden to pack around? It's not dependent upon you.
You get beyond all our responsibility and what we should do and how
we should live. You get beyond all of that. The
Apostle Paul is not speaking of that. He's speaking what the
grace of God is going to do. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
it's not dependent upon you, Peter, or you, John, or you,
James. I'm going to make great men out
of you. But it's not dependent upon you. You're dependent upon
me. Upon this rock, I'll build my
church. And the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. There have been some great men
that God has raised up to help His church and instruct His church.
These apostles were great men. But the church wasn't dependent
upon them. And God wasn't dependent upon
them. They were dependent upon His grace. And we've had some
great men since then. Wyclef, Tyndale, blessed old
Tyndale, one of the finest men. Luther, Calvin, Spurgeon, Bunyan,
Jones. We've had some great men, but
they've all come and they've all gone. And the Lord is still
revealing to his people the exceeding riches of his grace. We don't
have many great preachers in our day, do we? It's not dependent
upon great preachers. Great preachers are dependent
upon God's grace. That's what he said. So Paul
is saying here, because God's purpose of grace is not dependent
upon the free will and power and merits of men, we can be
assured and comforted in this one thing, that in the ages to
come, God is going to do this great and marvelous thing. He's
going to call out His elect and give them life and put them in
this heavenly kingdom. What an encouraging thought,
brothers and sisters. It doesn't matter how bad things
are around us. It doesn't matter how sin seems
to reign, and the morals are being lost. That's sad, and our
heart breaks over that. But does that hinder the Lord
from saving His people? No. Why? Because He saves them
by grace. Sovereign, free grace. That's a comforting thing. Just
when you and I think that things seem hopeless, Things are both
bad. Things are so hopeless. God shows
up and He says, let me show you something. And what does He do? He saves. Now He says, look at
that. You thought all hope was gone.
Your tears were your meat. And you watered your pillar with
them. And you thought it's over with. But let me show you something. Your extremity is my mere opportunity
to show you the exceeding greatness of my great and your great God.
You can take refuge in such a God as this. By grace, but not only
did He say by grace, He said far, far by grace are you saved. And brothers and sisters, if
grace has been that sure from Paul's day to this day, you think
it's going to be sure the rest of the way? Peter said, hope
to the end for that grace that's to be brought unto you at the
revelation of Jesus. It's a good hope if you're hoping
for grace. You've received grace and you're
hoping for grace. That's a good hope. Because grace
won't fail you. Are you saved this morning? Are
you saved? What's your opinion of God's
grace? What's your estimation of it? When you look back where
it brought you from, How does that make you value His grace?
When you see where it's sent you, and see the hope it's given
you in the coming ages, what estimate do you put on God's
grace? Do you say with this great man, oh, exceeding riches, exceeding,
indescribable, sovereign grace. But he doesn't stop there. Let's
go on right quickly to this. By grace are you saved, then
he adds these two little words, through faith. Salvation comes
to us through faith. Faith is not our salvation. It
operates in this world. There's coming a day when we're
going to lose faith. Faith is not going to heaven. Faith is
going to end in sight. But salvation comes through this
channel of faith. By grace, or you say, through
faith. And that simply means the way
that God has communicated to us His salvation. It's through
this one channel, and that's faith. Let me try to explain
this to you in this way, and every time I say this, I feel
like a fool when I'm finished. And I think I've not only confused
those people, but I've confused myself. You can't explain that. Faith is one of the most difficult
things to explain. But when Paul says, through faith,
that means through the channel. Faith is a channel that God communicates
His salvation to us. I've been out in Montana now
several times. And John Mitchell, the pastor
there, he lives up on the shelf, what they call the shelf. And
they don't get enough rain there in the summertime to grow this
wheat, this barley wheat. But they don't get enough rain
there to grow this wheat. It takes a lot of water. So they
irrigate. They have these large channels
that are connected to the reservoir up in the bottom of those rocky
mountains. And they loose that water and it comes down through
these channels and comes out into those fields. It softens
the soil and it germinates seed and it nourishes that seed and
makes it grow. It's the channel by which they
get water out of those reservoirs into the fields. That's the same
way faith is. How does God communicate grace
to us? Through this channel. of faith.
Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Why? Because there is no other channel
but faith. The works of men is not a channel.
The efforts of men are not a channel. There is but one way that God
communicates to us, and we with Him, and that is through this
one channel of faith. By grace are you saved through
faith. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is. See that channel? What's our
rule of coming to God? It's faith. One channel to get
to Him. And listen to this, and I love
this. There's no such thing as having an empty channel. If you
have a channel, it's got the water of life in it. Because
faith is not a dormant thing. It doesn't lay dormant. It's
a channel by which the water of life is always flowing from
God's heart to us. Listen to these passages of Scripture.
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me,
the Lord Jesus said, he hath everlasting life. He that hears
and believes in me, he hath everlasting life. He believes. What does that mean? He has. Life has flowed through His channel. The Lord Jesus said He believes,
but He still don't have life. That's impossible. If He has
a channel, there's life flowing through that channel. You never
had a dry channel. Not this faith. Not this faith. He that believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. You're a believer in Christ?
You're born of God. You're born of Him. Life has
flown through this channel. Now, the larger your channel,
the more water comes to your heart. But a small channel, listen,
a small channel will bring water from that reservoir all the way
down and soften your soul and germinate the seed and nourish
it. You may get more water if you
have a huge channel, if you have a deep channel. But it's not
the channel, but it's what comes through that channel. See that? By grace are you saved through
the channel of faith. I've never seen one of those
farmers out west. I've been out there and walked
up and down. I've even, when I go walking
out there at Brother John's house, I've walked up some of those
channels. Some of them big and some small. I've never seen a
farmer out there, any of those, with his camera. video on those
channels and say, boy, I've just got to show my neighbor how big
my channel is. I've got a deeper channel than
old Farmer Joe. Boy, look at my channel. You
see, it's not the channel. That's not what the farmer's
concerned in. The channel don't supply nourishment. What does
then? The water that comes through
the channel. You don't brag about your channel. And you don't brag
about your faith. You don't stand and say, boy,
I'm glad my faith is so strong. That's a channel. You know what
you glory in? You know what you brag about?
What's coming through that channel? As soon as you look to see if
you have faith, you can't see it. The only way you can discover
you have faith is by faith's object. Looking unto Jesus. Faith is just a channel. That's
all in the world it is. It's not an essential channel,
but it's what flows through it that you and I are interested
in. And the way we determine that we have faith... How's your heart this morning?
What's flowing into your heart? Is grace flowing into your heart?
You see those farmers sometimes, they'll be out in their fields
and they look. And they're checking the soil, and they're checking
the seed, the wheat, to see if it's got nourishment. That way
they'll know water has flown there. When you look in your heart this
morning, in your innermost being, is grace there? Is love there? Is gratitude there? Is humility
there? Is thankfulness there? Is long-suffering
there? Is gentleness there? Is your
heart being nourished by God's grace? Is hope there in your
heart? Is love there in your heart?
Those things are there by nature. And if this is the work of the
Spirit, if this is the water of life, then you can bet this,
you've got faith. You've got faith because there's
no other way to get these things into your heart than through
this channel of faith. Through faith. Well, I told you
when I tried to explain it, you'd get that look in your eyes. It's
through faith. Through faith. And Spurgeon said
this, and maybe I'll unconfuse you a little bit and I'll let
you go. Spurgeon said something to this effect. He said faith is made up of these
three things. First of all, knowledge. Knowledge. Faith. It's essential. It's essential. Knowledge. How shall they believe
in Him of whom they have not heard? I know whom I have believed. Faith is not a blind thing. We
sometimes talk about blind faith, but it's impossible. Faith has
to have facts. Faith has to have the truth.
Faith just can't believe without knowing what to believe, without
knowing who to believe. I know whom. I know whom. Is that what Paul said? I know
whom I have believed. That's why it's necessary for
us to hear and learn of Jesus Christ. Who He is. Who is He? We need to know that.
Faith must know that. He is the Son of God. He is God. In the beginning was the Word.
The Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word became
flesh. And He dwelt among us. He had
no sin about Him. No guile was in His mouth. He
pleased the Father. The Father bore witness to that.
And there He hangs upon Calvary's tree. with our sins in His own
body, being made a curse for us. And there He hangs, and what
does the Father say? I'm satisfied. Faith has to know
this. How shall they believe in Him
of whom they have not heard? This is why we witness to people.
This is why we teach people. This is why we want people to
come to the worship service, to sit and learn. Take my yoke
upon you and learn of Me. Learn of Christ, brothers and
sisters. Learn of Christ's lost friend. Because you can't believe
in somebody that you never heard of. Spurgeon said this, secondly,
not only is faith made up of knowledge, but then the heart
believes what it knows. The heart believes that these
things are true. We hear it from God's Word and
we give credit to it. That's God. And He's the truth. And we believe it. We believe
it. With the heart, man believe unto
righteousness. God said, the blood of Jesus
Christ my Son cleanseth you from all sin. And what does the heart
say? I believe that. The wages of sin is death. I
believe that. But the gift of God is eternal
life. The heart says, I believe that.
I believe it. I believe it. The heart has to
have facts. Faith has to have truths to believe. I know whom I have believed. See that? And Ben Spurgeon said lastly
is this, faith is made up of trust, of reliance. I know whom I have believed and
I'm persuaded that He's able to keep that which I've entrusted
to Him against that day. It's a leaning upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is the most difficult thing
that you'll ever do in your life. It seems easy for me to tell
you to trust Christ. But you'll find it's not as easy
as just saying it. I was reading your last week,
and maybe some of you saw this, Sears Tower, I think it is. They're
going to extend some glass platforms on the 120th story. Glass platforms
that you can walk out on those glass platforms. Just glass. And you can look down 120 stories. Would you walk out there on that
glass and look down? I don't know if I could or not.
I don't know if my heart would let me or not. That's faith,
ain't it? That's faith. That's what it
means to trust Christ. It means you step out on Him.
You say, He's enough. He'll secure me. He has merit
enough. He has power enough. And you
just step right up on Him. And if He don't hold you down,
you go into that pit. But you're going to trust Him
with all your weight. I was reading a story one time.
It was a long ways above Niagara Falls. But they'd stretched a
rope across one of the gorges up there, and the water, it was
deep, and the water was rushing. And they stretched the rope,
and this guy was walking, he had his big bar, and he's walking
across this gorge, and they were on both sides of the gorge just
clapping. He walked across and turned and came back. Everybody
clapping and shouting, man, man! And he asked this one fellow,
he said, do you believe I can do that again? He said, well, I
believe you can. I saw you go over there and back. He said,
do you believe I can do that with you on my shoulder? That's different, ain't it? And
he put that man on his shoulder. They put that man on his shoulder.
And he walked across that rope with that man on his shoulder.
And it was said, the little story that I read about it, the fellow
began to shake. And the guy that was on the tightrope
said, just sit still. Just sit still. I'm walking the
rope. You sit still. That's what it means to trust
Christ. You see, there He hangs on Calvary. There He is in the
grave. There He is ascended into heaven. Yes, He can do it because
He's the mighty Son of God. But do you believe He can get
you there? That's what faith is. It's trust. It's reliance upon. Give all
your heart to Him. Through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sin. And by Him, all that believe,
all who trust in Him, all who wholly rely upon Him, they're
justified. They're forgiven. They're saved.
And when you bring all your heart, all your soul, to simply trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're saved. You're saved by grace. Not by your works. Not by your
marriage. Or you'd boast. You'd brag about
it. But you're saved by grace through
faith. If you've never trusted Him,
God help you to do it. God help you to do it. And I
hope I haven't confused you about it. If I have, I pray that the
Lord will be His own interpreter and teach you what it means to
trust the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray.