When the Israelite was in the
house on the night of the Passover, the blood sprinkled on the doorpost
and the lentil, he couldn't see one drop of blood. His security, his peace, his
safety had nothing to do with him seeing the blood, but only
with him believing God. believing the revelation God
had given in his word. And God said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. Now you hide behind the door.
You see, faith is believing God, period. Faith is believing God's
revelation of himself in his son as given in Holy Scripture. That's what faith is. There is
no blessing men and women can enjoy in this world to be compared
with the blessing of faith in Jesus Christ. Oh, the joy of
faith. Oh, the peace that is ours in
believing. Faith doesn't save us, but faith
apprehends God's salvation. Faith doesn't put away sin, but
faith rests in sin put away. Faith doesn't justify us, but
faith believes Christ who did justify us. Faith is something
that God gives to men, and faith is something that God works in
men, but faith is not something that's passive in men. Faith
looks to Christ. Faith lays hold of Christ. Faith
reaches out and touches Christ. Faith leans upon Christ. Faith sees Him. Faith comes to
Him. Faith bows to Him. Faith walks
with Him. Faith, oh, the blessedness of
faith. Oh, gift of gifts. Oh, grace
of faith. My God, how can it be that Thou
who hast discerning love shouldst give that gift to me? Indeed,
He has. I believe him. Oh, I'd love to
believe him like I ought. I wish I believed him as he is
worthy to be believed, but I do believe him. Do you? Understand me and understand
what the scriptures teach. There are many, many kinds of
false faith. Satan is a master deceiver, and
if he can, he'll take you to hell. with a false faith. While you've got a Bible in your
hand and a song on your lip and a scripture verse for everything,
you'll still go to hell. False faith, of course, is heretical
faith. That faith which is faith in
something contrary to the revelation of God. That faith which believes
things contrary to the teaching of Holy Scripture. That faith
which looks to a false Christ, a false God, who trust a false
notion of grace is a false faith, and it is as damning as it can
possibly be, as damning as any other evil in the world, though
it may be very sincere. But then there are many forms
of false faith that are not heretical. False faith is a faith that simply
is a notional faith. I don't know how to state that
as it ought to be stated. False faith simply receives facts,
looks at the facts, and says, those things are so. I believe
the facts, and everything's all right. Paul describes it as believing
Christ after the flesh. He said, we knew Christ after
the flesh, not anymore. And you see, false faith simply
has somebody to recite some facts to them, maybe demonstrate the
plausibility or even the certainty of such facts, and says, well,
I don't have any choice. I believe that. I'll give you
an idea of false faith. When I was seven years old, I
was sitting in a church service, building about the size of this
one, and the preacher had preached something. I don't know what
it was. He was a heretic, so I'm certain there wasn't any
truth to it. But he had preached something, and they were singing
Just As I Am, and he had told a story and scared folks to death,
and I was scared to death of going to hell. And several folks
began to weep, and young people and old alike walked to the front
of the church, and I did too. I didn't want to go to hell.
And I knelt down at an altar, call it what they called it,
an altar. And I promise you, if you ever
kneel at an altar, a physical altar, you're not kneeling at
the altar. I don't care whether it's in a Baptist church or a
Catholic church. Christ is the only altar at which faith kneels.
But I knelt at an altar, and a fella, a pilot with Piedmont
Airlines, a big fella, nice as he could be. He was deceived. I'm not angry with him. He was
deceived. I knew him all my life. Name was John. He came up. He
was all prepared. He had his Bible all marked out
with the right verses. And he said, Don, so glad to
see you here. You know you're a sinner, don't
you? I said, yes, I do. He said, you've done some bad things,
haven't you? I said, I sure have. He said,
you don't want to go to hell, do you? I said, no, sir. And
he took the scripture and says, look here, the wages of sin is
death, but the gift of God is eternal life. And the scripture
says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
He said, do you believe on Christ? I said, I don't know. Let me
tell you how to believe on Christ. Call on his name. Repeat this
prayer after me. And now everything's all right,
because you said it. You're saved now. And you know
what? I walked back to where I was
sitting. in exactly the same shape I was
in before, with one exception. I had a refuge. I had a refuge,
a hiding place. It wasn't much of a refuge, but
it was enough to keep me from believing God. It wasn't much
of a hiding place, not a hiding place from the wrath of God,
but a hiding place from the mercy of God. False faith is such faith. False faith receives certain
facts and says, now I believe those facts. Believe that Jesus
came into the world, that Jesus died, that Jesus rose again,
and you're saved. Oh no, you're not. Now true faith
believes those things, but that's not faith. False faith may be
a doctrinally accurate faith. But it involves no bowing to
Christ, no looking to Christ, no bowing to the word of God.
It involves nothing of surrender, the surrender of my mind, my
heart, my thought, my life, my will, everything to Christ. False
faith will bring you to hell at last. And then there is a
form of false faith that is commonly promoted in the pulpits of this
wicked and adulterous and evil generation. faith in science. Are you looking for a sign? Are
you waiting for God to show you a sign? Now, don't trust the
characteristics too much. Let me do that. In the pulpits
of our land, it is a common idea that somehow if a man sees a
miracle, if he sees a wonder, if he sees somebody speaking
in tongues, and he sees somebody who was sick, made hope. It's
always a sickness, you know, you can't really put your finger
on, but he made hope. It's something that can't be
demonstrated, but, oh, it was a wonderful thing. I had a little
catch in my back. And the preacher laid his hands
on me, knocked me in the floor, and screamed, hee-yo! Look at
that. It's all better. Now you believe. Folks saw Lazarus raised from
the dead. and believed because Lazarus
was raised from the dead, but they didn't believe a thing.
They didn't believe anything. All they believed was a miracle
they saw. There was no faith involved in
it. They believed that Lazarus was dead. They believed that
Christ raised him from the dead, but that's not believing him.
And they turned in wrath upon him whom they said they believed.
Are you looking for a sign? Looking for something to buttress
faith? Looking for something by which you can say, oh, now,
now I believe the Word of God because I have a sign. I feel
like a believer. Wonder how that feels. I feel like I've repented enough. Oh, now I feel my sin like I'm
supposed to. Do you now? Now I feel that wonderful
sensation of grace in my soul. And now since I have a feeling,
now since I have done something, now since I have mustered something,
now since I have something else that I can lean on, now I believe
God. Oh, no you don't. Oh, no you
don't. You see, faith rests upon the
Word of God That's all. Not experience, not
feeling, not emotions, not visions, not revelations, not logic, not
historic proof, not philosophy, not theological accuracy, but
the revelation of God in his word alone. That's the only basis
for faith. true God-given saving faith has
for its solitary foundation, thus saith the Lord. That's all. That's all. Without any evidences,
without any props, without any buttressing, without anything
to back it up, thus saith the Lord. Now that's my message to
you tonight. My text will be Luke chapter
11, verses 27 through 32. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God. I've been preaching to you on
Tuesday nights about these examples of faith given in Hebrews 11,
and I've tried carefully to show you in every example given in
that chapter that those men and women who are described as believing
God had a direct word from God they believed. It was not just
that they just had faith. Everybody talks about having
faith. The most perverse society ever lived, topside of God's
earth, talks more about faith than any society and knows less
about it. Just keep the faith. Keep the
faith. In what? In who? On what basis? On what foundation? Believe what? Believe who? Faith. True, saving faith. That faith
that brings salvation to the soul in the experience of grace. That faith. believes God's revelation
alone. Read with me now. Luke chapter
11, verse 27. And it came to pass, as he spoke
these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her
voice and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that beareth thee,
and the pats which thou hast sucked. And he said, Yea, rather. Blessed are they that hear the
word of God and keep it. If you want to, you can write
somewhere in your translation or in your margin, believe it.
Guard it. Hold it. That's what faith does. And when the people were gathered
thick together, everybody's interested. This fellow just cast out a devil.
A dumb man had been made to speak and the moral majority had been
embarrassed. So they all gathered together, thick crowd gathered. He began to say, this is an evil
generation. How come? They seek a sign. They seek a sign. They won't
believe God. They won't believe God. It's
an evil generation. They seek a sign. And there shall
no sign be given it. I want stoop. I want condescend
to be brought in judgment by you. No sign shall be given it,
but the sign of the prophet, or Jonah the prophet. Verse 30,
for as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so shall the son of
man be to this generation. Verse 31, the queen of the south,
the queen of Sheba. shall rise up in judgment with
the men of this generation and condemn them. For she came, look
at this, she came from the uttermost parts of the earth. Somebody told her over yonder
in Jerusalem, there's a man who has greater wisdom than any man
who's ever lived. There's a man by the name of
Solomon who's richer than any man who's ever lived. There's
a man over in Jerusalem who can tell you and give you understanding
in all mysteries. His name's Solomon. And this
queen said, I've got to meet that man. There's a man over
in Jerusalem greater, more splendorous, more magnificent, higher, mightier
than any man who ever sat on a throne. And she said, I've
got to meet this man. And she came from one side of
the world to the other. She came from the uttermost parts
of the earth because she believed the report of a man. That's all. That's all. I've got to meet
him. She came from the other side of the earth, from the uttermost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold,
a greater than Solomon standing right in front of you. A greater
than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh shall rise
up in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it. For they
repented at the preaching of Jonah, a preacher who really
didn't want him to repent, a preacher who did everything he possibly
could to keep from preaching to him, a preacher who came to
them reluctantly, a preacher who came to them without any
concern for them. But he came to them with God's
message. And they heard the message that God gave by the lips of
a man who really didn't care for them at all. And they were
spared in mercy. And behold, a greater than Jonah
is here. Now give me attention for just
a few minutes. I want to show you four things. First, verses
27 and 28 describe the blessedness of faith. The Lord Jesus had
just cast out a devil by the power of his omnipotent grace.
causing the dumb man to speak after performing this great miracle
before the eyes of men that could not be disputed. This wasn't
something done in a corner. This is a fellow who had not
been able to speak, and everybody who knew him knew that his tongue
stuck to the roof of his mouth, and he could not utter a word.
And the Son of God caused the dumb to speak by casting out
a devil. religious rights, the moral majority,
were scared to death they would lose their influence. And so
these Pharisees, they came to the Son of God and accused him
of casting out Satan by the power of Satan, casting out Satan by
Beelzebub. They blasphemed him, they accused
him, as if to say, really, you're the devil incarnate. And the Lord Jesus silenced their
accusations. By the time he got done talking
to them, they had tempted him, hoping to catch him in a trick
statement, trick him into saying something he didn't mean to say.
By the time he got done with them, they didn't have anything
else to say. As he explained publicly who he is, the King
of Glory, by what power he works the finger of God, and that the
result of his work is Satan being cast out. And then at the same
time, he exposed the hypocrisy of these religious zealots, these
Pharisees, describing them as those whose houses had been cleaned
and swept and now were possessed of seven devils greater than
before. This woman seems to have heard
these things. She seems to have observed the
power of our Lord's grace. She remembered what he had done
for her. But she's in this crowd and she's,
she's seen and heard these things and, and the remembrance of these
things, perhaps the joy at seeing the Pharisees embarrassed. That'd
be enough to make a fellow say amen. But she, she saw these
things and she breaks all the rules of polite decorum. And
she cried out loudly, blessed is the wound that bare thee and
the paps which thou hast Now these words were not, and it's
sad that I have to spend time here, but I must spend time here. These words were not a pronouncement
of praise and veneration for Mary. They were not. The fact is, Mariolatre, the
idolatry of Rome, the idolatry of the papacy, The idolatry of
those who teach that Mary is the mother of God, who teach
that we are to pray to Mary, who teach us that somehow Mary
is several cuts above the rest of humanity. It is so common
that it has to be dealt with. And I have to remind you, people
have pictures of Mary. She looks almost angelic, doesn't
she? got a halo over her head because that means she's holy.
That means she's special. That means she's really a saint. She's close to being God. In
fact, Mariolatre, the teaching of Rome, is really a teaching,
very subtle teaching, but a teaching that Mary is indeed God. She is co-God with Jesus Christ
because she's co-Savior. And so folks pray to Mary. They
ascribe miracles and wonders and grace to Mary. They confess
sin to Mary. They call on the name of Mary.
Hail Mary, mother of God. Blessed art thou among women
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Oh, but preacher,
those are the words of scripture. They are indeed. But as they
are used by the papists, they are blasphemy. They are couched
in the phrases of one who worships nothing but a sinner named Mary. You see, Mary is not a mediatrix. Mary is not our intercessor in
heaven. Mary does not sit on the throne
with God, except as all believers sit on the throne with the Son
of God. There is not a word of praise
here to Mary, but rather it is a figure of speech. A figure
of speech by which this woman, who is not named for us, expressed
adulation and praise for the Lord Jesus Christ. So while it
doesn't sound like that to me, stop and think for a moment. I'll embarrass these kids over
here to my left. If I want to embarrass your daddy, he'll sit
there and glow. Celeste, a week or two ago, your
kids are an honor to you. Well, what does that mean? Well,
it does speak well of David and Celeste, but the intentions speak
well of the kids, well-mannered, well-behaved, well-disciplined,
polite children, and that's the intention. And this is exactly
the intention of this woman. She's saying, oh, Your mama,
she has reason to rejoice because you came from her womb. And so
the word here is the word of praise to our Savior. Now, don't
misunderstand me. Mary was indeed a blessed woman. Both the angel Gabriel and Elizabeth,
the mother of John the Baptist, spoke of her as being one who
was blessed of God. I don't doubt for a moment that
Sister Mary, and when I say Sister Mary, I'm not talking about some
silly looking woman in an ugly outfit. I'm talking about Sister
Mary like I talk about Sister Judy. Sister Mary was a woman
of remarkable character. She was a woman of exemplary
faith. She was a woman whose behavior
would well stand up as an example for us to follow. She was a woman
of steadfast virtue. But Mary's blessedness was the
blessedness of a sinner saved by grace. Nothing more, nothing
less. Mary, we saw this morning when
she came to the temple and brought the Lord Jesus, that holy thing
that had been born of her, when she brought him to the temple
to be circumcised after the manner of the law, before she could
be admitted into the temple, she must bring the sacrifice
of atonement for her uncleanness because she was a woman who was
a sinner, just like you and me. She came to the temple carrying
her Savior in her arms, whom she had carried in her womb for
nine months, whom she worshipped as God in her heart when he was
in her womb and when he was in her arms. She worshipped the
Son of God as God her Savior. When the Savior heard this woman's
praise, he immediately, being the omniscient God, Being fully aware of the heresy
that would be attached to it. Being fully aware we would have
what Mr. Graham calls the greatest religious
leader the world has ever known sitting in Rome. That doddering
old fool. Oh, brother Don, you shouldn't
say that. Well, let me say it again. Dressed up in some silly
looking costume looks more silly than a Masonic order costume.
Silly looking thing. Walking around with a stick and
folks bow down and kiss his toe. He said it was Mary who saved
him after an attack shooting. And so our Savior seizes the
opportunity. He seizes the opportunity to
put that error, that heresy, that damning heresy aside forever. And he says, yea, rather. Look
at it, verse 28. Yea, rather. Oh yeah, my mama,
she was blessed of God. God chose her. God favored her,
God accepted her, God blessed her, but rather blessed are they
that hear the word of God and keep it, believe it. True blessedness
is the blessedness of grace bestowed upon all who are born of God.
All to whom God grants the gift of faith, the hearing of his
word, faith in his son, are truly blessed. Now, when he says, blessed
are they that hear the word, he's not talking about the way
some of you hear it tonight. Some of you hear it because you're
sitting here and your ears work. That's not the hearing he's talking
about. If that's all you have, this is going to be damning to
you. It'll be a positive curse. It'll bring you into the lowest
hell. Oh, but if you hear, the seeing eye, the hearing ear,
the believing heart, these are gifts of grace. Do you hear? I mean hear so that you can't
refuse to believe. Here, so that you can't refuse
to look to Christ. Here, James, so you can't refuse
to lean on Him. Here, so you can't refuse to
give up hope and fall down on Him. Oh, blessed are you that
hear and keep this word. You who've heard the gospel of
free grace through the mediation of Jesus Christ, through his
blood, through his righteousness. And you believe you are blessed
with all the blessings of grace by God Almighty from all eternity,
blessed with all the blessings of providence in all the days
of your life and shall be blessed with all the blessings of heavenly
glory through the merits of Christ, the Son of God. Now, then look
at verse 29. Here's the demand of unbelief.
Unbelief always demands something else. And does so with the pretense
and show of piety. Does so with the pretense and
show of humiliation. Oh, but I can't believe. You
can't. You can't. Can't believe. I know
you can't, because you won't. Because you think God's a liar. I wouldn't say that. I know you
wouldn't, but God did. That's what he said. If we believe
not, we make him a liar. 1 John chapter 5 verse 10. I tell my daughter something.
She's 30, 31 now, getting old. She's 31 now. You know what? If she didn't believe me, she
wouldn't dare indicate it. She wouldn't dare indicate it.
I take it as an insult. How many times you, growing up,
you boys, I know we live in a different generation, you say something,
somebody say, so you see, you called me a liar. I'll fight
you. Oh, no, no, no, I'm not calling you a liar. That's what
they say. You don't believe me. That's what it is. And we get offended
with that and we are liars. God's not. He's true. He's faithful. But the unbelief
demands something more than God's Word. Our Lord Jesus says in
verse 29, when the people were gathered thick together, he began
to say, this is an evil generation. Evil, precisely for this reason,
they seek a sign. But there shall no sign be given
it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. Turn back to Matthew
12. Look at Matthew's account where the Lord says something
very similar. Matthew 12, verse 39. He answered and said unto them,
An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there
shall no sign be given it but the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Now, without question, our Lord is speaking specifically of this
generation in which he walked upon the earth at that time.
an evil, adulterous generation. Politically evil, philosophically
evil, morally evil, spiritually evil, adulterous, men running
everywhere seeking after other gods. Read the first chapter
of Romans and you'll see it. Give an indication of how evil
the generation was. You remember when our Lord spoke
to his disciples about divorce? And the disciples were astounded
at what he said. They said, well, if a fellow can't put away his
wife just because he don't like looking at her anymore, it's better for
him not to marry. I mean, they put away the wives for whatever
reason they want to. Go get them another one. For any reason. Without
any regard to God. Without any regard to the things
of God. An evil and adulterous generation. But the emphasis,
both here and in Matthew, appears to be upon the evil of those
who seek a side. As the basis for believing God. Now, if you can prove it to me,
I'll believe. If you can prove it, if you can
prove that God created the world, I believe. Oh, well, let's create
a creation science research foundation and we'll prove to men that God
created the world and then everybody will believe. You know what? Folks have spent millions of
dollars in such research and I have never yet seen anybody
who believed because of it. Or shouldn't we try to prove
to men that God created the world when the evolutionists everywhere
are saying it just popped into existence? Nah. Won't do them
any good. Won't do them any good. The only
thing that'll do you any good, God said, in the beginning, God
created the heavens and the earth. And by faith, we understand that's
the way it was. I said on the plane coming in
the other night, I was so tired, I didn't really want to talk
much, but there's a fellow on there who's a big shot, nice
fellow, very, very nice fellow, big shot. He invented a lot of
things, made a lot of money, and he was telling me about some
of his inventions, and then he started talking to me. He said, this
fellow right here, he's got the only theory that makes any sense
about the Big Bang, and he was showing it to me. I said, the
Big who? You know when it all started.
Oh, I know something makes more sense. And I don't have to draw it for
you. God did it. God did it. Well, I don't know. I'm not God. I wasn't there.
I didn't see it. But I know God did it. These folks said, give us a sign. Something we can see. Give us
a sign, something we can feel. Give us a sign, something we
can understand. Give us a sign, something we
can prove with our great minds. And they professed they would
believe God if the Lord would simply prove himself in the court
of human judgment. You, you bow down now to my great
brilliant being and I'll decide whether or not you're to be believed.
What horrid evil. Now let me tell you something.
God ain't gonna do it. God ain't gonna bow to you. God
ain't gonna stoop to you to be judged of you. Oh, he stoops
in grace to save, but he'll not stoop to your reason. He'll not
stoop to your demands. He'll not stoop to your requirements. Oh no. God demands that you bow
to his. For the scriptures tell us God
holds the wisdom of this world in utter contempt. The Jews require
a sign. The Greeks seek after wisdom.
God said go to hell with it if you're determined to. I ain't
going to show you anything. I ain't gonna show you anything.
Now look at verse 30. Here's the sign of Jonah. The
only sign upon which faith can rest. Hear me now. The only sign upon which faith
can rest. It can't rest anywhere else.
It cannot. It cannot rest on its spirits.
It cannot rest on observation. It cannot rest on logic. It cannot
rest on history. It cannot rest on science. The
only sign upon which faith can rest is the sign of the prophet
Jonah. What is that? Oh, Jonah was in
the belly of the whale three days and three nights, and then
he came out of the whale's belly. Yeah. Yeah. That's what happened. All right. But the sign of Jonah
was a message. The only sign upon which faith
can rest is the revelation of God in holy scripture in the
crucified Christ of the accomplishment of redemption by almighty grace. That's all. That's all. The sign
of Jonah, you see, was a declaration and a prophecy of grace and of
redemption accomplished. The declaration of grace was
just this, while Jonah was in the belly of the whale, while
he was in the belly of hell, he said. When the seaweeds were
about his face and he was choking to death, he said, salvation
is of the Lord. That's the old Messiah. This
is God's work. This is God's work. The prophecy
was that which Jonah pictured. A man was swallowed up in the
wrath of God, by the appointment of God, by a whale specifically
prepared of God, delivered into the sea of God's wrath by the
hands of men who claim to call upon God. Remind you of any other
man? It's all about a man, Christ
Jesus. After three days, when the wrath
of God had passed over, when the wrath of God was no more,
when the wrath of God was taken away, that man was cast out upon
the earth again, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Having
fully satisfied the wrath and justice of God, having put away
our sins, which was the cause of God's anger, was cast out
of the earth, raised from the dead, because sin was put away.
He was delivered because of our offences. He was raised again
because of our justification. See, under the risen God-man,
who once was made to be sin for us, he is now justified in the
Spirit, because God raised him from the dead. And this risen
man proclaimed grace to sinners who deserve God's wrath. Jonah
hit the ground running to Nineveh, and he began to proclaim judgment,
judgment, judgment, judgment. Forty days! And God's going to
overthrow Nineveh. But God turned the word of judgment
to a word of grace, and Nineveh repented. Look at verses 31 and
32, and learn something about the judgment of God. The Queen of the South shall
rise up in judgment with the men of this generation and condemn
them. When God comes and each one receives
justly his due, when Christ sits on the great white throne and
gathers us before that throne, all who have merited God's wrath
demanding a sign, show a sign. Teach us something. Prove something.
Give us something to lean on other than your word. The children
of Nineveh and the children of the Queen of Sheba will rise
up at the bar of God. Okay. The Quaid of the South
shall rise up in judgment with the men of this generation and
condemn them. For she came from the uttermost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, because a
man told her about a man, and she believed the record. Behold,
a greater than Solomon is here. I've been telling you about a
man who is God incarnate, a man who is the man who made Solomon
wise, a man who is the man who gave Solomon his wealth, a man
who is the man who gave Solomon his wisdom, a man who gave Solomon
his power, a man who is the man who is God who made Solomon righteous,
made him righteous by the free gift of grace. You've heard the
report. Will you come to it? No, I won't
see your side. The men of Nineveh shall rise
up in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, this generation
that seeks after a sign. For they repented at the preaching
of a prophet like Jonah. They heard Jonah. Jonah spoke. God spoke by Jonah. I'm not going to listen to that
fella. He raises his voice too much. He doesn't use good English.
He doesn't dress properly. You can find every excuse you
can to go to hell and find them easy, or you can bow one of the
two. Jonah's going to rise up. Men
and women are going to rise up and condemn this generation that
seeks after a sign. Behold, a greater than Jonah
is here. He who sits on the throne of
glory is that man who was swallowed up in the belly of hell by the
wrath of God on the curse tree. He is that man who for three
days and three nights lay in the heart of the earth until
it was clear that judgment was passed. He's that man who rose
again to give life to dead sinners, to all who believe on him. Now you've heard the word of
God. You've heard the gospel. The word is nigh thee, even in
thy heart and in thy mouth. How near does God bring the word
to you? The righteousness of the law says, who's going to
come down from heaven and obey God's law? The righteousness
of the law says, how will a man ever satisfy the wrath of God? The righteousness of faith is
this. The word of faith is nigh thee, even in thy heart and in
thy mouth, that thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus.
and believe in thine heart the testimony of God concerning him
that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believes
unto righteousness, with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation." Will this message then be a blessing to you or
a curse? You're going to hear it again.
You're going to hear it again. If you refuse to believe, you're
going to hear it again. How many there are already in
hell who keep on hearing the word
of God proclaimed by the lips of this frail, worthless man, but they refuse to believe. I don't know much about the fire
of hell, the judgment of hell. I don't talk much about it because
I don't know much about it. I don't want to know much about it. It
gives me no pleasure to think of it. But there's one word that our
Lord used with which he aggravated the torments of old dives in
Luke 16. Oh, you try to forget, but God's
fixed it so you can't. You'll remember. You'll remember. You'll remember. I heard God sent his word, and
I said, I'll have a sign instead. And your conscience will scream
in your ears, remember. Oh, may God give you grace now
to believe on his side. He's all I got. Thank God for
fixing it that way. He's my only hope. He's my only
righteousness. Helpless, I come to you for grace. naked look to you for dress. Cast away every false refuge
and hide in Christ. Amen.