1 Corinthians chapter 15. Paul's epistle to the Corinthians
chapter 15. We read these first eight verses
last week. I want to read them again to
us tonight. Beginning here in verse 1, 1 Corinthians 15, the
Apostle said, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein
you stand, by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory
what I preached unto you, lest you have believed in vain. For
I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures.
and that he was buried, and he rose again the third day according
to the Scriptures, that he was seen of Peter, Cephas, then of
the twelve. After that he was seen of above
five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained
unto this present, the summer, falling asleep. After that he
was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of all
he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. Our subject tonight is found
here in verse 2, the last few verses there. You have believed
in vain. I thought to myself as I read
that little statement, what an awful, awful, fearful thing it
was for the Word to come to us in convincing power and say that
you have believed in vain. Wouldn't that be awful? Awful,
dreadful. subject to think about, but I
want us to think about it tonight. If we can, this obviously is
one of the most awakening little subjects, little statement that
you and I can read, and probably it's going to have more effect
upon us that's gathered here tonight than it would any unbeliever
or false religionist You find out when you look at a passage
like this that's very awakening and searching, it always makes
God's children tremble. You take a subject and you think
sometimes, boy, this is going to make lost people awake and
concerned and it has absolutely no effect upon them. And you're
the poor little child of God sitting there and he's trembling.
And there's a reason for that. The Lord's people tremble at
His Word. They regard it. And that's what
the Scripture teaches us. To this man will I look, God
said. To him that's poor and of a crushed
spirit, a contract spirit, and trembles at My Word. And you
come here tonight and you look at this little phrase, you have
believed in vain, and it could shake you. It could cause you
to tremble. To think if this Word comes to
you and say to you, You have believed in vain. If we look at it tonight in the
present or the past tense and apply it to our own life, it
would be an awakening thing to come to me and say to me, Bruce,
you have believed in vain. I began to believe the Lord in
1973. I professed Jesus Christ and
faith in Him for 50 years. Going on 50 years. And to me,
for this Word to come to me and speak personally to me and say
to me, you have believed in vain. What an awakening thing that
would be! And that means everything I've
done in the past is vain. If one's faith is vain, then
everything he's done in faith is vain, isn't it? How many prayers
have I prayed in 50 years? They're vain. How much have I
given? How many visits have I paid? How many hospital rooms have
I gone to visit people in? And if I have believed in vain,
then all of that is in vain. All of it is unprofitable and
unacceptable before God. And we could even go farther
than that. It's not only vain, but it's sin. You have believed
in vain, and whatsoever is not of faith is sin. So, if the Word
comes to me and says, Bruce, for 50 years you've not only
believed in vain, but your prayers have been sin. Your giving has
been sin. I studied this message this week,
and I've come here tonight and preached this message to you,
and it's sin. It's not only mixed with sin,
but it is sin itself, because my faith is vain. My faith in
the Lord is not saving. It's not profitable. It's not
accepted. So when we consider this subject,
we look back over however long that we've been professing faith
in Christ, So if our faith is vain tonight, then everything
we suffered, some of you have suffered for your faith. What
if it's vain? And when we consider Preza, we
come here tonight, as I said, Preza, here I am singing, leading
the singing, and I'll close in prayer tonight before we leave.
And it's all vain. It's just vain. It means nothing,
and it's sin. But it goes farther than that,
doesn't it? It's more awakened than that. What about the future? What about ten years from now? Fifteen years from now? What
about tomorrow? What if I go to the doctor's
office and he says, Mr. Crabtree, I'm sorry, it's terminal.
You've got heart trouble and it's going to kill you. You've
got cancer in just a few more days and you're out of here.
And the Word could come to me and say, your faith is vain.
Wouldn't that be fearful to be facing death and have this Word
say, you have believed in vain? Or if you're on your deathbed
and death's cold dew lies upon our brow, man, if this Word come
to you then and say, you have believed in vain, wouldn't that
be not only awakened, but fearful? But I think we could carry it
one step further. What if we stood before that
celestial city? We stood there at the gate and
we begin to knock and say, Lord, Lord, open unto me. And he would
say, I don't know who you are. And we would say, well, you've
eaten and drank in our presence. We've preached in your name.
We've cast out devils in your name. We've done many wonderful
works in your name. And doesn't that tell us that
they had some kind of faith? They believed in His name and
they worked in His name. And yet their faith was vain.
And He turned them away from heaven. And you know the reason I bring
this up tonight, there have been people just like this There's
been people that have gotten older and they realized it, they
became aware that their faith was vain. And boy, that is an awakening
thing. Can you imagine what Nicodemus
thought when the Lord, he came to the Lord, and he was a master
of Israel, he was a theologian, he taught at a seminar, and he
was now an old man, and the Lord told him, basically, your faith
is vain. You don't even know anything
about the new birth. You don't know anything about
the Lord or yourself. Your faith is vain. Don't you
think that shook him and his young soul? Our Saul of Tarsus
on his way to Damascus, he believed God, but not according to knowledge. And the Lord basically told him,
your faith is vain. And there he lay in the dust,
knowing his faith was vain. But here's the blessing about
this, if we find out in this life that it's vain and seek
a true faith. Lord, if I never believed you
before, give me grace to believe you now. If my faith has been
vain before, give me grace to believe you now. But it is a
very awakening subject, isn't it? Very awakening. little phrase
that we read here, your faith is vain. I think that brings
us to this question, what kind of faith is vain? If you have believed in vain,
then that tells us there is a vain faith, and what kind of faith
is it? Let me give you five faiths quickly
on this point that is vain, that it's not saved. And first of
all, there's a faith that devils have. James was talking about a dead
faith, and he said this to those he was writing to, you believe
there is one God, you do well. The devils also believe and tremble. Devils have faith. They have
faith that God is a just God, He's a holy God. They have faith
that He will punish sin. But the faith that they have
only increases their torment, because they believe that God
is going to punish them someday. So there's a faith, and I guess
you know something, probably that faith is more than a lot
of professing Christians have. Because at least they tremble. Secondly, there's a vain faith
that is a temporary faith. Remember those In Matthew chapter
13, where the Word was sown, and it was called stony ground,
and there wasn't enough soil for the seed to grow, it fell
on the stony ground and it sprang up, but it had no root in itself. And the Scripture says, with
joy they received the Word, and they believed for a while. And then, When temptations came,
they fell away. They believed for a while. How
many people have you and I seen this happen to? They made a profession
of faith in Christ. Some of them were baptized. We
had such hope for them. We were so encouraged with their
profession, and they believed for a while. Then trouble come,
temptations come, and what happened? They quit. They quit believing. They may not acknowledge that
they quit, but their life shows that they don't believe anymore.
They quit. Listen to Psalms 106 concerning
the children of Israel when they saw the Lord destroy the Egyptians
in the Red Sea. They believed, then believed
they God's Word and they sang His praises. Listen to the very
next verse. They soon forgot his works and
waited not for his counsel. They were children in whom was
no faith. They believed for a while and
then fell away. They're like that sow that was
washed And she returned to the dog that threw up all of the
sickness that was in his stomach, and he thought, man, what a relief.
Glad to get that old taste out of my mouth. But after a while,
he got over the bitterness and the sickness, and he turned right
around and he did up. People believe in Christ for
a season, but that's vain faith. It's not saving. It's temporary
faith. Thirdly, there's a mere historical
faith. I really think that it's a miracle. It's not saving, but it's a miracle. This historical faith is a miracle
because almost everywhere you go, people still profess a faith
that they really believe that Jesus Christ lived and He died. People believe that. You find
all kinds of people in different countries, they don't even have
a Bible. But when you mention Jesus Christ,
oh yeah, I believe that He came, I believe He's the Son of God,
that He died. That's a miracle, isn't it? That the very historical
fact of that is still retained 2,000 years after the Son of
God had died. They don't have any interest
in God. They don't have any interest in the salvation of the soul,
but they still believe in the historical fact that Jesus Christ
came. Most people have that kind of
faith. Fourthly, here's another faith that is vain, and that's
the faith that can be overthrown by human persuasion. There was
a man by the name of Hymenaeus and Philetus, and they were going
about preaching that the resurrection had passed already. And they
were very persuasive in their preaching. And Paul said, they
have overthrown the faith of some. Henry Mahon used to say,
if some mere man can persuade you to believe, some other man
can come along and persuade you not to. Faith is something that
has to be sown in the heart by the Holy Spirit and upheld by
the Holy Spirit. It's not a man. It doesn't begin
by man. It doesn't upheld by man. It's
upheld by the blessed Holy Spirit. And I for one, and I know you'll
agree with me, I don't want a faith that can be overthrown by a preacher. Do you? Fifthly, This is a faith, I think,
that we see a lot about. John Bunyan called it a fantastical
faith. A fantastical faith. The meaning
of that is it's in the imagination and it has no ground in the Scripture.
If you read Pilgrim Progress, and I would encourage you to
get that book if you don't have it and read it, at least once
every three or four or five years, there was a young man that hopeful
and Christian began to talk to, and his name was Ignorance. And
there's a reason they called him that, because he was ignorant
of the way God justifies sinners. And young Ignorance, they asked
him how he believed that he was justified before God. How does
God justify you? And here's what he said. He said,
I believe in Jesus Christ rightly. My faith is in dying, buried
and risen Christ. They were trying to tell him,
you don't have faith in Christ. He said, oh yes I do. My faith
is in Jesus Christ and I believe that God sees my good works and
justifies me because I believe in Christ. Ain't that strange? That's a
little bit hard to get a hold of, isn't it? It's something
like we see today. You ask somebody today if they
believe God is holy. Oh, I believe God's holy. You
believe God's a just God and He won't look upon sin. Oh, I
believe God's holy. Do you believe you're a sinner?
Well, yeah, I'm a sinner. Everybody's a sinner. Then how
are you going to be justified before God? And they say something
like this, I believe in Jesus Christ and I do the best I can.
and God justifies. Bunyan called that a fantastical
faith because it's nowhere in the Scriptures. It comes from
the imagination of a man. It has no foundation in the Word
of God at all. In Acts chapter 15, you can turn
over sometime and read this, when the Pharisees, some of the
Pharisees, they were contending with the Apostle Paul about justification. And chapter 15 and verse 5 of
Acts said this, "...there rose up certain of the Pharisees which
believed." They believed. They believed that Jesus Christ
was the Son of God. They believed that He died, He
was buried, He rose again. They were believers in Jesus
Christ. And this is what they said, you
must, be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. That's the
fantastical faith. Because nowhere in the Scriptures
does it say such faith can justify it. Paul said we conclude that
a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. In other
words, it's faith in Christ alone, isn't it? And there will be those
that stand at the judgment, and they'll be so bold that they'll
fuss with Jesus Christ. They'll say to Him just what
I quoted you a minute ago. We preached in your name. We
believed you, and look what good works we did in your name. And
we put our good works with you. You've got to justify us. But
that's a fantastical faith, Bunyan said. Because it's not Jesus
Christ and our faith in Him plus our good works that justify us.
It's Christ alone, faith in Him alone that justifies it. And those who stand there with
this kind of faith will hear these words, you have believed
in vain. So there are those five ways,
but let's not go home without looking at what true faith is. If there's a vain faith, I don't
want it, I'm sure you don't want it, but there is a true saving
faith. And brothers and sisters, it
will never be counted in vain. It will never disappoint. Never. It will justify you. It will
make everything you do pleasing to God, because it's a faith. He that comes to God must believe
that He is, and He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
Him. Without faith it's impossible
to please God, but with faith it is. And that's why the Scriptures
call this saving faith, most holy faith, and precious faith,
and the faith of God's elect, and the gift of God. And it's
given to us. in the behavior of Christ to
believe. But I want to take just a few minutes, and I want to
stay in this context, and I hope I don't confuse us to death with
this, because we've been looking at these phrases themselves and
see how amazing they are. And then we've been looking at
the context of these phrases. And I want us to look at true
faith tonight and consider it here first and foremost in its
context. And the first thing I want us
to consider about true, saving faith that will never be in vain,
true faith as its roots is in the fact of history. Our faith is not in anything
that's taken place today. It's not in anything that we
see. It's not in anything that we feel or we experience. Our faith is in something that
has already taken place, already been accomplished. That's what
Paul says here in verses 3 and verse 4. And look at it again.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received,
how Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
that He was buried and that He rose again the third day according
to the Scriptures." Salvation, the Gospel, is something
that we do not do. It's not something we participate
in. It's something that took place
in history 3,000 years ago now for us. But when Paul preached
this, Jesus Christ had been dead and risen again and ascended
about 25 years. When he wrote this letter to
the Corinthians, it was about 25 years after the Lord Jesus
Christ had finished the work and went back to heaven. And
Paul said, the message that I have for you and the message that
you must believe is grounded in history. I'm telling you what
happened. And it's fact. It's historical
fact. And that first and foremost is
what our faith is in. It's not in some new thing that
modern man has invented. Your faith is not in that. It's
not in some new truth that's just been revealed, but it's
in the old historic record. Did you notice all of this was
in past tense? Christ died. Christ was buried. And Christ
arose. And it was all according to history. But what history? God's history. Biblical history. And that's
the very root of your faith. Your faith goes back 3,000 years
ago to the Son of God coming down from heaven. and live it
and die and raise it and enthroned in heaven. Your faith takes hold
of something or someone that took place in the history of
this world. The historical record tells us
that 2,000 years ago the Son of God came down from heaven,
born of a virgin, lived a holy life, did great miracles, died
on a cross, was buried and rose and ascended to heaven, and true
faith believes that record. True faith lays hold upon that
historical fact. Listen to John chapter 20. Many
other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples,
which are not written in this book. But these things are written
that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that believing you might have life through His name. Why
is this book written? Why do we have the scriptural
account of the Son of God coming down from heaven? That we might
believe it. And believing it, we'll be saved. Some have made this statement.
Everybody from atheists to agnostics to other people. I have great
respect for the man, Jesus. I believe that he was a great
example and so on and so forth. But I don't put much stock in
some of his claims. I don't know about him coming
down from heaven. I'm really doubtful that he was
born of a virgin. I don't know for sure that he
did some of the miracles that's recorded in it. I don't know
about some of his claims. He claimed to be God. But yet
I have great respect for the man Jesus. How can it be said on one hand
that a man has great respect for Jesus and admires Jesus and
yet turn right around and deny his claims, or to deny any point
of the historical record. That can't be, can it? If Jesus
Christ is who the record says that He was, if He did what history
says that He did, then when we believe on Him, when we really
look at it properly, we'll say, what kind of a man is this? This is the most glorious person
that ever lived. He is indeed the glorious Son
of God. We'll be amazed if we believe
the record that He gave of Himself, claims that He made for Himself. But listen, if He made some claims
that's untrue, if He said, I and my Father are one, and they're
not, If he did not stand before Lazarus'
tomb and call that stinking corpse from the grave, if he made those
claims and did those things and those not true, what would you
say about such of a man? Would you have respect for him?
Would you admire him? Absolutely not. True faith lays
hold on the historical record and it believes everything that's
written of it. It doesn't pick and choose. It
believes everything that's written in this record. That's why we
just sung that song. How firm a foundation you saints
of the Lord is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. What do you think of God's Word
tonight? What do you think of the Bible? What kind of feelings do you
have towards the Holy Scripture? It's God's Word. It's God breathed. You tremble at it. You'd never
deny one jot or one tittle of it. Your faith is in this historical
fact that we read in God's Word. That's why the devil has been
fighting this book ever since God's been speaking. Yea, that's
what God said. God didn't really say that. God
didn't really mean that. And why is He doing that? I tell
you, brothers and sisters, if He can destroy this foundation,
you won't have one to stand upon. There is no faith apart from
the Word. It's impossible. Faith takes
hold of the historical record. And what is that? What God has
written. And faith believes it. It doesn't pick and choose. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. He has the Holy Spirit. He that
believeth not God is made him a liar, because he believeth
not the record that God gave of His Son. Our faith is in Jesus Christ
coming down from heaven and telling us who He was. Telling us what
he was all about, what he was going to do. Our faith is in
the historical record. And we know nothing apart from
it, do we? Nothing. That's the first thing about
faith. It's in the historical record. Jesus Christ did indeed
come down from heaven, was born of a virgin, did these wonderful
miracles, died upon the cross, was buried and descended back
to heaven. And you believe it, don't you? You believe it. You
believe it because you find it in the book. That brings us to
this. What does the record, what does
the historical facts tell us about Jesus Christ and what He
did in regard to our sins? If we believe the historical
record, we believe the facts, then what does the record say
he did in regard to our sins? He died for them. He died for
our sins. That's what he said there in
verse 3, wasn't it? And what his meaning there is,
he died as the substitute. He died in the place and room
of sinners. He died to pay the debt that
they owed for their sins. He died an atoning victim. He died a vicarious sacrifice. His death satisfied the demands
of God's justice and God's law. His blood made reconciliation
to God on behalf of sinners. He made peace through the blood
of His cross. All of this is found in the historical
record. When Christ died, this is what
He accomplished. And the proof of it is that He
died, He was buried. You don't bury a live man dead.
And the proof that he accomplished what he determined to accomplish
in his death, he rose again. He rose again and was victorious
in his battle. True faith cannot doubt that
the work was accomplished because true faith believes the record. And the record says Christ died
for our If you're doubting tonight whether
or not your sins were put away, then go to the record. This is
God speaking. If the Lord Jesus Christ stood
here right now in my stead, He would say nothing but what He's
already said in here. He wouldn't give no new revelations
of anything. He'd say what He said right here.
And when you and I doubt, And we want the Lord to speak to
us. If He comes to us to speak to us, here's what He will say.
I died for your sins. Believe it and be at rest. Believe it and be at peace. The record does not say, in the
matter of our justification, in the matter of our sins being
atoned for, that there was something left for us to do. Christ died. He already died. He already was buried. He already
rose. All of this is in past tense. It has to do with history. And
you know something about history? You can't change it. You can't
rescind it. What's done is done. If Jesus
Christ died and atoned for sin and rose again for our justification,
that's done. All that's to be left is you
to believe it. Believe the record that God given
of His Son. True faith lays hold upon the
finished work or a person who finished the work. The person who says in regard
to his sins being put away or in regard to being justified
before God that faith is not enough, faith in this dying and buried
and risen Christ is not enough, I must add my part that his faith
is vain. That faith is vain. True faith
lays hold upon the historical record. The fact of history. And the fact is that he's died.
He's put sin away. And he was buried and rose again.
That's history, isn't it? Believe it. These things were
written that you might believe. Then believe it. You think it had changed when
Paul preached to these Corinthians? You think somebody would come
to him and say, Paul, that's been 25 years ago. That's sort of history. You got
anything new? No. And it ain't changed today. It's been 2,000 years ago and
it still hasn't changed, is it? You look at me and you say, Bruce,
it's too old. Ain't the world saying that now? Get something
new! That's old! And that's the only
thing that'll save you. The foundation of our salvation
was laid in the history of this world. And it's the only thing
that will save you. You must go back and believe
what one glorious person did on your behalf 2,000 years ago. And that's the only thing that
will save you. That's the only gospel that will save you. There
is no other gospel that will save you. Every other thing is
in vain. You'll believe it in vain. You receive this gospel, Paul
said, you stand in it and wherein you are saved. And you believe
it and your faith will never be vain. It will never disappoint
you or confuse you. Look at faith this way when you
think about the nature of faith, the character of faith. That
must be a humbling faith that believes the historical fact
for this reason. Faith believes that Christ died
for our sins. Will you just take that word,
this little sentence, and roll it around in your thoughts for
a few minutes? Every word carries such weight with it. Christ died
for our sins. Who was Christ? He was the servant
of God. Sin of God. A holy person. A just one. He died A most horrible
death in agony, spilling his blood, forsaken of God, cursed
of men, tempted of devils. He died a tremendous death, a
horrible death. And for what cause? He didn't die for our goodness. Somebody thinks, boy, I must
have been a good man if Jesus Christ died for me. Boy, the
potential I must have if Jesus died for me. What can I do since
He's my example? No, no, no. Here's the humbling
fact that faith lays hold upon. Christ died for our sins. I tell you, there's as much difference
in faith and pride as there is light and darkness. Do you know
it? Pride cannot live long where
there's true faith in the heart. Because true faith looks at the
cross, the bloody cross, and says, I took His life. He gave up His life because of
what I did. I caused His death. And how can
anybody get lifted up in pride when he looks at the cross of
Jesus Christ? And that's what faith does, isn't
it? They shall look upon me, whom they have pierced." And
what does the very next word say? They shall mourn. They shall
mourn. Oh, faith must be a humbling
thing. Those who are lifted up in pride need to examine themselves
to see what kind of faith they have. Faith believes the record. And the record humbles the pride
of man. Since all of this is true, since
faith is in the historical fact, the fact is that Jesus Christ
came down from heaven and died for our sins and atoned for them.
Since all of this is true, when faith believes the historical
record, what value does it place then upon the gospel? when faith
really sees the fact of history. He lays hold upon it and really
enters into it. What does faith say about the
gospel then? Oh, this is glorious gospel. There's nothing like
it. It just meets my need. It can
be no other way. That's why the Scripture talks
about rejoicing in faith. When we believe the record that
God gave of His Son, oh, it becomes wonderful, doesn't it? It rejoices
you from the low bottom of your heart. It gives you peace in
your mind. That's unbelievable. If a person is not rejoicing
in the Gospel, rejoicing in what Christ did for sinners, then
what he needs to do is pray, Lord, give me faith. Give me
faith to believe this. Faith purifies the heart. That's
what Peter said in Acts chapter 15, verse 5. It purifies the
heart. And the way it does, it gets
in the heart and brings the reality of this gospel, this historical
truth and this fact. And it says, boy, this is being
true. This is being true. This is wonderful. The gospel
saves me. And it changes our whole attitude
about everything, doesn't it? And it will affect everything
about you. Your heart, your thoughts, your
emotions, your life and the way you live it. It purifies the
heart. We have this thing going on today,
they call it compartmentalizing. Compartmentalizing. Movie stars are doing it. Politicians
are doing it. Just all kinds of people are
doing it. They're putting different things in different compartments
and separating them. I heard one do this. He was a
politician. They were asking the politician
how they could believe in an abortion, be religious, believe
in Christ, and yet believe that you could kill a baby. And they
said, that's a different thing. I keep my religion over here,
and this is my job over here. I compartmentalize everything.
I've got this faith, you see, and this faith pleases God. And
then I've got my job where I have to cheat and lie and steal, but
I do that to support and please myself. Then I've got these ungodly
friends that I hang out with. I go to the bar and I drink with
and get drunk with. But that's alright, because I've
got them all in their proper compartments. Ain't that silly? Faith purifies the heart. And if you purify the heart,
everything else is going to follow suit, isn't it? True faith seeks the approval
and the pleasure of only one, and that's God. That's God. If a man is seeking to live a
life of sin and serving of sin, if he's seeking to live to this
world and to please his ungodly friends, he don't know the first
thing about faith and a living Christ. Because faith seeks His
approval. Faith seeks His smile. Faith
seeks His acceptance. Lastly and quickly is this. Where
this faith is in the heart, and where it has begun in the heart,
by work of grace of the Holy Spirit, that work will never
die. It will never die. Faith begun
is heaven won. That's what our old forefathers
used to say. Faith begun. Begun by the Holy
Spirit. Given in the heart as a gift
of God. Upheld there by the Lord of Glory. That will never stop. I'm telling
you, it may get cold. It may get weak. It may be called
little faith. But it'll never die. These all
died in faith. One Scripture in closing. Look
in 1 Peter 1. We'll read this and we'll close.
1 Peter 1 and look in verse 3. 1 Peter 1 and verse 3. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. To that inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. wherein ye
greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are
in heaviness through manifold temptations, trials. That the
trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that
perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto
praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ,
whom having not seen ye love. And whom, though now ye see him
not, yet believeth. What do you believe? You believe
the record, don't you? You rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory. And look in verse 9, receiving
the end of your faith. And what is it? The salvation
of your soul. Faith is going to end in sight,
brothers and sisters. When you pillar your dying head
and your eyes closed, you'll wake up in glory. And you'll
see the Son of God with your eyes. The eyes of your soul. Father, we thank you. Thank you
for your gospel. Thank you for grace to believe
it. We believe what you've said. We take you at your word. And
it gives us our assurance and confidence. Because you cannot
lie. These things have already been
accomplished. You've already did it. And now
you turn to us and you tell us to believe you and be saved.
To look to you and live. And oh Lord, thank you for grace.
Thank you for not giving us any rest until we turn to your word
and take your word for it. And therefore we find our rest.
Thank you for this, dear people, that have put forth an effort
to come out tonight. And I pray that you will bless
them and keep them and uphold them. And bless this congregation,
Lord, and add to it your graces. And we pray for your work in
this day, that you'll carry it on. And if you're pleased, save our children. Save our grandchildren. We ask these things for Christ's
sake. Amen. Anything before we go?