At this time, I believe Brother
Halbert, Sister Halbert are going to treat us with some special
music this morning. Brother and Sister Halbert. ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Turn to Psalm 117. Two verses,
the shortest Psalm in the Bible. Let me read these two verses,
Psalm 117. Praise the Lord, all ye nations. Praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is
great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord. And the truth
of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord. Let us pray. I want to speak this morning,
if God will permit, upon this phrase, and the truth of the
Lord endureth forever, on the subject of the veracity of God,
the truthfulness of God. Now I wish this morning that
I could persuade all who hear me today and I wish that I could
persuade my own heart of the truthfulness of God. We live
in a time when many things happen around us that we do not understand. There's so many things that come
up many things that we have to deal with day by day that somehow
or other if our feet and hearts were not really fastened like
a vice to the truth of God, we would indeed be shaken and wonder
if there is any real truthfulness in what the Bible teaches, if
really and truly God is sovereign, if truly God does rule in his
universe. Now, beloved, we are confident
that God is God everywhere We're confident that nothing, that
God never has to say, as the old preacher said, oops, God
never makes any mistakes and nothing ever gets out of control
as far as God is concerned. Now sometimes we look at situations
and we say, well, it's out of control. Souls are hurled into
eternity and it seems that it's senseless and it seems that that
there's no explanation and it seems maybe that God just wasn't
in control of the situation. But yet the Bible says that Jesus
Christ has the keys of hell and of death. It says that, which
tells me that death is not without government. It's not just happening
out here in the world and events are not just happening out here
that there is no government controlling them, but our God controls all
things. I believe the Word of God. I
must believe the Word of God. David said over in the 116th
Psalm in verse 10, he said, I believe. Therefore have I spoken I believe
and I believe the word of God I believe the truth of God and
I hope today that I could persuade your heart of the truth of the
Lord and that you would believe his word and that you would trust
him and That you would you would continue to believe his word
in his attributes The Lord is always faithful He is always
faithful in his revelation he's always infallible and in his
actions it's always according to promise according to his promise
now God is true in all things and he deserves to be believed
and he deserves to be praised he is worthy of implicit faith
and confidence. I'm talking about the God of
the Bible. The God of the Bible, his truth
endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord. Now God has
demonstrated the veracity of his word in many undeniable ways. Thy word, the psalmist said,
is true from the beginning. The Word of God is true from
the beginning. Now no one can with honesty read
the Bible and deny its truth. Every revealed purpose of God
has come to pass exactly as it was revealed. Every revealed
purpose of God has come to pass exactly as it was revealed. Every promise that God ever made
either of wrath or mercy, he has fulfilled. He has fulfilled
all of his promises. There's not a prophecy in the
scriptures except those which relate to the second coming of
the Lord Jesus, which has not been accomplished with such precise
accuracy that the prophecies themselves read like history
books recording past events. The prophecies of the Bible have
come to pass. What God prophesied and said
would happen has always happened. The truth of the Lord endureth
forever. Now, I say that God is true to
his word and God is true to his people. God is true to his word. He is true to his people. It
is of the Lord's mercy, we're told in Lamentations chapter
3, verse 22 and 23, that we're not consumed because his compassions
fail not. They are new every morning. Great
is thy faithfulness. The faithfulness of God reacheth
unto the clouds. God is faithful. Now, child of
God, have you not in your own life's experience proved the
truth of the Lord? His love is unfailing, His faithfulness
is unabated, His goodness is unchangeable, God is true. Now, He promised to do us good
and nothing but good all the days of our life. God promised
to do His people good. He said that all things work
together for good to them that love Him. And there are many,
many things that we don't understand that happen in this life, but
yet the Lord said that He would withhold no good thing from them
that walk uprightly. God is true to His Word. I know that many times we struggle
with faith and we don't understand why, And we don't understand
how that things come about as they do, but, beloved, we must
trust the Lord. We've got to learn to trust God. God can be trusted. The truth
of the Lord endures forever. One of the old Puritans, Joseph
Hall, said, how shall I depend on him to raise my body from
the dust of the earth and to save my soul at last if I cannot
trust him for a crust of bread in this life? How am I going
to trust God for the future if I can't trust Him for the present,
if I can't trust Him for right now? We must learn to believe
and we must believe what God says. We must learn to trust
the Lord because His truth, the Lord's truth, endureth forever. Now the Lord, I believe His providence
has fulfilled in his providence, the Lord has fulfilled all of
his promises toward his people. Now, God is not, there's not
been one promise that has ever failed that God made to his people. You can trust him for the crust
of bread and you can trust him that on resurrection morning
he'll wake you up in the grave and bring you forth out of the
dust of the earth and that he will save you at last in eternal
heaven. You can trust him to do it because
he has fulfilled his providence, has fulfilled his promises in
the past and will fulfill them in the future. Now the Lord promised
to forgive the sins of all who trust. His Son. He promised to
do that. And He has so fully forgiven
us that He will not even impute sin unto us, Romans 4 and 8 says. He promised to keep and preserve
us in life and grace in Christ and we are kept by the power
of God through faith in Jesus Christ. And again let me say
that the gospel, that gospel which we preach, that gospel
which we believe as God's elect, that gospel which has been revealed
to our hearts, This gospel of free and sovereign grace in Christ,
it's a true gospel. I'll tell you, it is a true gospel. It is written by the inspiration
of God Himself in 1 John 1 and 9 that if we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. And then in 1st John 1 and 7,
it says that the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us
from all sin. Now, beloved, the covenant of
grace, which we read about in many places in the Word of God,
that covenant that God entered into before the foundation of
the world with His Son, Jesus Christ, and with the Holy Spirit,
that covenant which is ordered in all things, David said, and
are sure This covenant is true. It is indeed true. You can read
Jeremiah 31 verses 31 through 34 about this covenant. And I want to say this morning
that you can anchor. God will remember these covenants. He will remember His covenant,
the covenant of grace. It is a true covenant. And then
the accomplishment of redemption by Jesus Christ is true. He did, sure enough, redeem his
people from their sin. He did accomplish redemption. He has entered into the presence
of God. He has obtained eternal redemption
for us. Now He has given pardon to all
who believe, and this is true. I want you to understand that.
I'm giving you the testimony, not only of the Word of God,
but also of my own heart this morning. If God promised to pardon,
He will pardon. The Lord's truth endureth forever. Now if you trust the Lord Jesus
Christ, God has forgiven you of all your sins and the blood
of Christ perpetually cleanses you from all sin and it's so
because God said it. It is the truth of the Lord and
this truth endureth forever. Now God's faithfulness to himself
God's faithfulness to His covenant, His Word, and His Son is the
assurance of pardon for believing sinners. His faithfulness to
His own law and justice demand the pardon of those for whom
Christ died, those who trust Him. Now, it demands it. God's law and God's justice demands
that all who trust His Son, that they'll be pardoned of all their
sins. Now, if I understand the Word
of God, and I believe that God has given me some understanding
of His Word, if I understand the Word of God, the greatest,
the most abominable evil in this world is the horrible sin of
unbelief. It's the sin of denying the truth
of the Lord. It's the sin of saying in God's
face, you're a liar. You're not telling us the truth. You're lying to us. Now I'd rather stand before God
guilty of any crime known to man than stand before Him guilty
of having heard and refused to believe the gospel of His dear
Son. anything. I'd rather be guilty
of anything than to have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and
refuse to believe it. Any crime, any sin than that
sin. Now why do I say that? Because
unbelief is man's willful declaration that God himself is alive. That's what it is. It's man standing
in God's face saying, you're a liar, God, what you said about
your son is not true. Well, listen to 1 John 5 and
10. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave
of his Son. And this is the record that God
gave unto us, eternal life, and this life is in his Son. And he that hath the Son hath
life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. And
so if you don't believe the record that God gave of His own Son,
you call Him a liar. You say that God is a liar. Well,
my friend, we do not want to be guilty of such unbelief when
we stand before God. The only way for your soul to
be saved, the only way for you to escape judgment and the wrath
of God for all eternity is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You must believe the record that
God gave of His Son. The truth of the Lord endures
forever. Unbelief is without a doubt the
most daring, the most obnoxious evil in the world. And some of
you sit here this morning in unbelief. This is a terrible,
terrible evil. I know that you look on other
things. You look on what somebody did this past week or what you
read in the newspaper and said that was the worst evil that
could ever befall a human being. It's the worst thing in the world.
But the worst thing in the world is that men and women created
by God who breathe the breath of God every day, who wear God's
clothes and drink God's water and eat God's food, they stand
in God's face and say, you are a liar. Your word is not true. Your testimony and the record
that you've given of your son is untrue. Now you say what you
want to, but that, my friend, is a sin for which men ought
to go to hell and a sin for which they will go to hell is unbelief. I will not believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. I will not believe that God laid
my sins on Him. I will not trust Him to save
my poor soul. I won't do it. I'll just keep
on expecting to do the best I can and believing that God somehow
or other in the end will save me at last. He won't do it, my
friend. He'll send you to hell unless
you trust His Son, unless you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Life is in Christ nowhere else. You get it from the hand of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Life is in the hands of the Son
of God. And you get it from Him or you
don't have it. You can't have it. Now, unbelief
is natural to man. It is the bent of the human will. It's your nature. Unbelief is
an act of the will. Our Lord said to some in his
day, he said, ye will not believe. Ye will not believe. Now both faith and unbelief involves
the will. I know that faith is the gift
of God, effectually wrought in His elect by the Holy Spirit
in regeneration. I know that it is. I know that
nobody, and I know that no man can by nature, believe God. Now that's a sad commentary on
your nature and on my nature that we cannot believe a God
that cannot lie, a God that cannot deceive, a God that can never
tell a falsehood. But you can't do it, my friend,
in and of yourself. Your will says, I won't believe
in a God that can't lie. I won't believe in a God that's
truthful. I won't believe in a God whose
truth endures forever. That's an act of your will. You
say, I wondered what my problem was. That's it. Your own nature
is bent to unbelief. Your own nature says, I just
can't accept it. I just can't believe that. I
just can't believe it. Now, faith is God's gift wrought
in us, not upon us. It's wrought in us. He works
in us. Paul said, both the will and
to do of his good pleasure. God gives his people the will
to believe. Yet faith is a, in a mysterious
way, it's a voluntary thing. It is. A man must believe. God's not gonna believe for you.
But he does give faith. He does. Now if I believe God,
I do so willingly, and unbelief is a voluntary thing. If you
refuse to believe God, you do so voluntarily. You choose to
do so, unbelief is your own fault. It's a crime for which you must
bear all the blame and all the guilt. Every bit of it is on
your shoulders. You say, I just don't know enough
to believe, preacher. Well, but now, still the unbelief
of your heart is all your, it's your sin. You're to blame for
it. And the guilt is yours. Well,
you might ask the question, why do men refuse to believe? Why do they refuse to believe?
Why does a man or woman sit under the sound of the gospel over
and over and hear the testimony of the pure word of God and hear
the truth of God that it endures forever and refuse to believe? Why do they? Well, the fact is
that unregenerate men prefer to embrace and trust any form
of darkness to believe in the revelation of God. Men will believe
a lie and not have any problem with it whatsoever. They'll believe
a lie in religion, they'll believe a lie day after day, but they
won't and cannot believe God. and believe the truth of God.
Now listen to me, how readily that man receives the changing
speculations of science. How readily will men receive
the myths of mysticism and the opinions of the educated and
the learned people of the earth. Men prefer feelings to faith. Therefore, emotional religion
becomes very appealing to people. And also men prefer faith in
themselves to faith in Christ. They'd rather trust themselves.
Man whose breath is in his nostrils is nothing. But yet men prefer
to trust themselves and not trust the truth of God that endureth
forever. And the scripture says, a man
who trusteth in himself is a fool. Now, therefore, free will works
religion is very attractive because men would rather trust themselves,
what they can do, what little bit they can contribute. They
would rather just say, I'll do it myself, rather than trust
somebody who has already done it. The Lord Jesus Christ has
done the work. Full salvation has been wrought
by the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, it's finished! But yet
you say, I'll just trust myself. Surely I can do it. I can get
by. I can make this thing work. No
sir, my friend, listen to me. Men prefer visions and signs
and miracles and experiences to divine revelation. They'd
much rather have that than to have the truth of the Lord that
endures forever. Therefore, charismatic religion
is a very acceptable thing to them. They like charismatic religion
because they want a vision or an experience. They're interested
in perspiration and not inspiration. All they're interested in is
just having somebody excite them. But I want you to know, my friend,
that it's the truth of the Lord that endures forever, not visions
and not charismatic religion. It's divine revelation that endures. Arminian or Calvinism, it's appealing
to them. It's acceptable of it intellectually,
you see. But we're talking about faith.
in the truth of God. We're talking about men and women
believing, simply trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, why
do men and women refuse, then, to believe God and the gospel
of His free grace in Christ? It's because, as we've explained,
they love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are
evil. They prefer to be in darkness
and blindness rather than be in the truth, according to their
nature. And also, the answer is simple.
faith in Christ begins with an acknowledgment of personal sin
and depravity and guilt and inability. No unregenerate man will make
such an acknowledgment. His pride, his self-righteousness,
and the love of self keeps him from making this acknowledgment. I'm a sinner. We hear a lot of
preaching today on repentance, people getting sorry, real sorry
for what they've done, but very few people ever finding out and
admitting to what they are. My friend, listen to me. You
don't go to hell for what you've done. You go to hell for what
you are. And you're a sinner. You're a
sinner by nature. You were born that way. You do
what you do because you are a sinner. You're born that way and unless
God saves you through his son and through free sovereign grace,
you'll go to hell thinking, well, I quit this, preacher. I quit
that. What else must be done? You can
quit all you know and all that the preacher knows and all the
deacons know and all religion knows and still go to hell. It's what you are, my friend,
that you've got to face before God. And that's why a bunch of
this repentance is not enough. People said, I'm sorry for what
I've done. Well, that ain't enough. You
got to come to the place where you're sorry for what you are.
And you're a sinner. You're a God-hater by nature.
You'd stick a butcher knife in God's back if you could get to
him. You'd throw him down off of the throne and get up on the
throne yourself if you could because you're a sinner by nature. You were born that way. You're
bad in here. and until you're converted and
until you come to see what you are. And that's why, see this
is so obnoxious to people that they won't admit it. They won't
acknowledge it. And that's why they refuse to
believe the Word of God. It's a problem in the soul, in
the heart. It's a deep down, deep rooted
problem. And it'll take the power of God
to deliver you from your from your vain ideas about yourself. A dog is not a dog because he
barks. He barks because he's a dog. And we gotta remember that. Men
do what they do because they're sinners. And give you time, put
you in the right circumstances, and you'll do just what other
people do because you're born that way. And that's why you're
not fleeing to Christ. You don't know what you are.
You don't know how bad you are. And whenever you begin to see
that by the revelation of God's spirit, I'm a sinner and nothing
at all in the sight of a holy, a thrice holy God, then you'll
be interested in finding the way that God has made for sinners
to be reconciled unto him. You'll be interested in finding
the way whereby you can escape the judgment and wrath of God.
Do sin! Now then, some of your repentance
is not enough. Because you never got yet to
see what you are. You're only sorry for what you've
done. And that's just a small part of this thing. Am I telling
the truth? I'm telling you the truth. All
right then. Now, I want to give you some
facts about faith. What is faith? Well, very simply
stated, faith is just taking God at His word and acting upon
His word, acting upon God's revelation. Let me illustrate this. When
the disciples had feast all night and caught nothing in Luke 5
verses 1 through 7, the Lord told them to cast their nets
on the right side of the ship. And Peter said, Master, we've
told all the night and we've caught nothing. But Peter went
on and he made this statement. He said, Nevertheless, at thy
word, I will let down the net. Nevertheless, because you said,
you told me, you know more about fishing than we do. We've been
fishing all of our lives. But yet you're God and you know
the lake. You know where every school of
fish is in the lake. You've got everyone up numbered.
You know where they're at. And at thy word, we let it down. We fished all night. We haven't
caught anything. But when you say, let the net
down, the net's going down. Peter went fishing. Now then
they cast the net down and they took in more fish than their
nets could hold. Their nets were breaking because
they obeyed the Lord and they acted upon the word of the infinite
God. Now when? They needed money to
pay taxes. When Peter needed some money,
he had to have some money to pay his taxes and the Lord sent
Peter out to catch a fish. with the promise that he would
find the money needed in the mouth of the first fish that
he caught. This is in Matthew chapter 17
verses 24 through 27. And believe in Christ, Peter
went out there and went fishing, caught the fish. The money was
in his mouth. He took it out and paid the taxes. Now then, you say, well, ah boy,
that's really mysterious. That's far out. Well, my friend,
it may sound like it's far out, but listen to me. When God tells
you to do something and God says it's going to be this way, when
God's word testifies of a truth, you can bank on it. I mean, take
it on down to the bank and deposit it. It's true. The Lord knew
every fish as we said earlier in the sea and he knew the one
that had there had been a coin that had fallen overboard I suppose
out of a ship or something that got in the water and the fish
had picked it up and the Lord ordained that that fish pick
that coin up and that that was the fish that would get hooked
on Peter's hook when he went fishing. Just believe his word
that's all. Believe his word. Now, beloved,
that's what I believe. I just believe that you ought
to act on what God says in His Word. Now, when the Lord told
Peter also, I'll illustrate this a little further. When the Lord
told Peter to come to Him on the water, Peter believed that
he could, and he did. Matthew 14, 28 through 29. We know that Peter started out
and then the winds got boisterous and he fell and cried to the
Lord to save him, which the Lord did. But then the Lord said,
O thou of little faith, why don't you just believe on? But his coming to the Lord on
the water was just when the Lord bid him to come. He said, if
you bid me come, I'll come. And he did. Now, beloved, that's
faith. God reveals. Faith simply believes
what God reveals about all things and just acts accordingly. Well, that puts you in a different
world, don't it? It really does. You go through this world believing
God. You say, well, I just believe God. I just believe God. One time, Paul was on a ship
and it was raging. The storm was raging. And God
spoke to him the night before and said, Paul, I'm going to
give you everybody on the ship. It's going to be all right. Great
storm. And so Paul said, well I just,
he just said to the whole, he said, I just believe God. Said
we don't need to all jump overboard and try to swim to shore, just
believe God and stay on the ship because God said it's gonna be
alright. And so faith is just submitting to God's revelation
regarding all things. Regarding himself, regarding
his son, regarding salvation, regarding the creation, regarding
the creation of the world, the fall of man, and the providence
of God, grace, the resurrection, and the judgment. It's just believing
what God said. That's what faith is. Believing
what God said. Now, this, my friend, is the
nature of faith. It takes God at His word. Faith
believes that the truth of the Lord endueth forever, and that
this book is the truth of the Lord. Now there's five things
about true faith that I want to give you quickly. Here, listen
if you will. Number one, faith is an index
of the heart. Faith is an index of the heart. Faith is the proof of love. Love believeth all things, 1
Corinthians 13 and 7 says. If I truly love God, I believe
Him. If I love the Lord, I believe
Him. If I do not believe Him, it's
because I do not love Him. And so faith is an index. of the heart. Second, faith is
the proof of grace. It's the proof that I have grace,
that I've experienced grace, that grace has worked and acted
upon me and operated upon my soul. Now listen to me, the evidence
and proof of God's grace is not good works, though good works
are the fruit of grace and faith, but it's not the proof of grace.
But the proof of grace is that I believe God in my heart. I believe God. I trust God. I read my name in the book of
God's election by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I read it
there. It's down there because I believe
it to be there. I know that I've been redeemed
because I trust Christ. I trust Him, and faith is that
choice gift which Christ purchased for all of His redeemed ones,
and I know that I'm born again because I believe, and faith
is the proof of grace. It's the proof that I'm in grace,
that I stand in grace. Faith. And then thirdly, faith
inspires prayer in the believer. It inspires prayer in the heart.
When God told David what he would do, Because David believed him,
he prayed for God to do what he promised. I like this verse.
Let me read it out of 2 Samuel chapter 7 and verse 27. Listen to what this says. For
thou, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy
servant, saying, I will build thee a house. Therefore hath
thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee. And now, O Lord God, thou art
that God, and thy words be true, and thou hast promised this goodness
unto thy servant. Therefore now let it please thee. to bless the house of thy servant,
that it may continue forever before thee, for thou, O Lord
God, hast spoken it. And with thy blessing, let the
house of thy servant be blessed forever." God said, I'm going
to bless your house forever, David. And so David said, well,
OK, if the Lord said that, then I'm just going to pray that way.
Whatever God says, then that's going to be, that's going to
be fuel for my prayers. That's going to be, that's going
to be, that's going to feed my heart. That's going to move my
heart to prayer. And that's why you ought to know
the Word of God. Know what God has promised and fill your mouth
with arguments. God said it, Lord thou hast said,
do as thou hast said. And faith will do just that. That's the way faith takes hold
of the Word of God, and faith inspires the heart to pray. Now then, let's go on to the
next thing, and that is that faith pleases God. Faith pleases God. Hebrews 11,
6 says, But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. Now Enoch pleased God. How did
he do it? He walked with God by faith.
But without faith, remember, it is impossible to please him. We do the works of God. The works
of God requires of men. Whatever God requires of men,
we do when we trust the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in John
6 and 29, Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work
of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. And so do
you want to do the work of God? If you want to do the work of
God, if you want to walk with God, if you want to please God,
then you believe on Him whom God has sent. Who is that? The
Lord Jesus Christ. Trust Him and believe on Him.
Now the only thing that God requires of us and the only thing that
He will accept from us is faith in Christ. You're not looking
for anything else. When you trust Christ, God has
everything that he wants. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
and his people will be brought to give God the only thing that
he wants and the only thing that he accepts when he brings them
to faith. Now that's what the scripture
teaches. Now listen The fifth thing is this, this
faith glorifies God. True faith, the kind of faith
I'm talking about that says the word of the Lord endureth forever,
the truth of God endureth forever, the truth of the Lord endureth
forever. This faith glorifies God. Faith says God is true.
And all who believe God see the glory of God. Everybody that
believes God sees the glory of God. John 11 and verse 40, Jesus
saith unto her, this is the sister of Lazarus. Jesus said to her,
Lazarus is in the grave. She was concerned about it and
she was heartbroken and sorrowful. And Jesus said to her, said I
not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe thou should see the glory
of God. And she did believe, and God,
the Lord Jesus Christ raised Lazarus from the dead. She saw
the glory of God. And everybody that believes,
God sees the glory of God. They see things other people
don't see. They see God working. They see
God doing. They see God accomplishing. They
see God performing His purpose. They see God leading on. They
see God taking His people and doing as He would do with them.
They see the hand of God. They see the glory of God. They see mysterious and unusual
things other people don't ever see. Other people sit back and
say, well, I don't know anything about it. I can't understand
this business. I don't know what makes these people tick. I don't
know what it is that so-and-so gets so excited about. And I
don't know what they're singing about. What are they singing
about? What is it that's making them so joyful and happy? Listen,
my friend. Those who believe God see the
glory of God. There may be some things make
you a little happy here on earth. My soul, listen, God's people
see some things that makes them eternally joyful and happy, because
they see the glory of God. They see it. All right, now,
no one else can. Abraham, you know, he saw the
glory of God because he believed that what God promised, he was
able to perform. And he was an old man, 100 years
old, and his wife was 90, and God gave them a son when they
were that old, because he believed God. He believed God and he had
a baby when he was 100 and his wife was 90. Way past the time
when they could bear children, they did. Because Abraham believed
in what God promised and God said it's going to happen. And
Abraham believed it. It didn't make any difference
how old he was, he believed it. He just acted on the Word of
God, said, I believe it, and he saw the glory of God. Isaac,
the promised seed, which is a type of every child of God, regenerate
child of God in the world, every child of God that's born again
from heaven, Isaac was a type of that. No strength in the flesh
can give a new birth, and no strength in Abraham and Sarah
can bring forth Isaac. It's the power of God that can
bring a soul out of death, and it's the power of God that can
give a man 100 and his wife 90, give him a child. It's the power
of God, and that's what it's all about. He believed God, he
saw the glory of God. Now then, in Isaiah 7 and 9,
it says, if you will not believe, God said to old wicked Ahaz,
the king, he said, if you will not believe, Surely, ye shall
not be established if you won't believe. And here's a word of
warning to every unbeliever here in this meeting this morning,
and I want to give it to you. If you will not believe God,
if you won't believe the testimony of God's Son, if you won't believe,
if you go out of this place and say, I won't believe, I just
won't believe, listen to me, you will never believe, you will
never be established in the kingdom of God. You'll never be established
in God's kingdom if you lean upon your own works. You'll be
damned if you lean upon your own strength. You'll be damned. You might just as well trust
and worship Satan as trust your own righteousness. You just as
well might. You say, well Preacher, now wait
a minute. You're going to destroy everything I've been hoping in
and trusting in. You know I'm getting some years
on me and I've been believing all through my life that if I,
if I, if I, then things are going to be alright. when I leave this
world? Well, let me just blow it up. I want to just destroy it and
if I can this morning, I'll rob you of your hope. It's a false
hope. I'm telling you, if you don't
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll never be established in
the kingdom of God. You might as well trust the devil
as trust your own works. They'll get you the same distance
and that's to hell. That's what they'll do. Only
Christ can save. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved, Acts 16 and 31. But he that believeth
not shall be damned, Mark 16, 16. He that believeth on him
is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already,
because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God. John 3 and 18. He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. John 3
and 36. And so I give you that word,
every unbeliever. If you don't believe, you'll
be damned. If you don't believe, you'll
never be established in God's kingdom. Now then, word to God's
people, everything in God's house is given to faith. Everything
in God's house is given to faith. But if you will not believe,
surely ye shall not be established. In all things spiritual, our
instability, beloved, springs and can be traced to our unbelief. Isn't that right? Any instability
in our lives as believers can be traced to that old evil heart
of unbelief that we have in here. Now listen, you'll not be established
in comfort, in doctrine, in hope, in consecration or usefulness
unless you just believe the Word. and continue to believe what
God said. Now remember, faith gives stability
to God's saints in this world. Unbelief makes us unstable. It
makes us wavering. It makes us hesitant. But faith
gives stability. It gives stability. Whatever
happens, you just believe God. Though the mountains crumble
and fall, I mean though this old earth tremble, Though the
neighbors go crazy, have to be put in the insane asylum, though
somebody shoots people on the campus, though somebody does
this, somebody does that, just believe God. My faith is in the
living God. I trust the Lord. My anchor is
in Him. In Him is all my spring. I trust
Him. My dependence, confidence is
in Him and in Him alone. then you'll have some stability
about you. But he that wavereth is like the sea, that the waves
come and go. No stability there. But if you
trust God, there'll be some stability in your life. Something you,
you just, you're all on a foundation. There was a sick lady one time,
she's a believer, and a preacher come to visit her in the hospital,
and she's about to die, and she said, he said to her, he said,
are you sinking? And she didn't hear him, and
he said, are you sinking? And she raised up off of the
pillar, her head, and said, sink? Why, how can I sink? If I was
on the sand, she said, I could sink. But she said, I'm on the
rock of ages. I can't sink. I'm on the rock
of ages. And so, beloved, that's where
all God's people are. They're on the Rock of Ages. That's where
they are. And so believe that and trust
the Lord. Unbelief makes us unstable, but faith will stabilize our
hearts. Our unbelief, let me say, is
inexcusable. Inexcusable. God has proved his
truth and faithfulness to us. Has he not? His goodness cannot
be questioned, yet we often question his goodness. His providence
cannot be doubted, yet we often doubt His providence. His grace
cannot be denied, yet we often deny His grace. We do. There is yet within us an evil
nature, a perverse will, and a wicked heart of unbelief. And
let us confess our sin. I see nothing in this world so
evil as the unbelief of my own heart. That's the most evil thing
I know anything about. Even my faith is full of unbelief. May God the Holy Spirit be pleased
to both subdue our sinful nature and increase our faith. We might
well pray, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Now listen to me now, time is
short. Only God knows when that we'll be called out of this world.
The young, as has often been said, may die. The old must die. Time is short. The hymn writer
said, swift to its close ebbs out life's little day. swift to its close, ebbs out
life's little day. Now when we're children, we were
children, hours seemed like days. For some of us now, the days
now seem like hours. And to a few of us, we find that
the days to be just like minutes. When Jacob was 130 years of age,
he said, few and evil have the days of the years of my life
been. Few and evil. Life is just a
brief appearance in time, and soon we'll enter eternity. Our
hearts are all beating funeral marches to the grave. In light of the brevity of life,
the nearness of death, and the certainty of judgment, and the
length of eternity, Let each one of us this morning consider
the things of this world to be of no real value and realize
that all that really matters in this world is our relationship
with the Lord. That's the thing that's the only
thing that really matters in this world. When we come to the
end of life's brief journey, it'll not matter whether we die
rich or poor, educated or uneducated, influential or unknown, what
will matter is this, were we as poor sinners resting in Jesus
Christ as our all in all. Oh, to be among those of whom
it will be said, these all died in faith. These all died trusting. These all died believing that
the truth of the Lord endureth forever. May God bless His word
to your heart. May God bring fruit out of this
message. How many more will you hear? How many more will you be privileged
to hear? How many more messages will God give you an opportunity
to hear? Some people, young people last
week, sure they had lots of time ahead, but they're in their graves
today. You never know, time is short,
so very short. I will and you shortly must stand
before the Lord. Are you ready to leave this life?
Trust the Lord. Trust the Lord. Seek ye the Lord
while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Mike could we have a hymn now?