Now turn in your Bibles to Matthew
23. I announced this morning that
I was going to speak tonight on seven marks, the seven marks
of true faith which were given by John Newton. And my message begins here in
Matthew 23. The message is a positive message. seven very positive marks of
saving faith, but I'm going to begin the message on a sort of
a negative note. And I think that's necessary.
I think it's necessary in this day of much religion. This is
the day of, in America, of much, much, much religion. Everybody
is religious. And I think we need to call attention
not only to the true, but to the false. Our Lord did. And here in Matthew 23, the master
rebukes the religious crowd, the religious leaders of that
day. And he very carefully, now Newton
in a few moments, I'm going to give you seven marks of true
faith. Here our Lord gives eight characteristics
of false faith, of feigned hypocritical religion. He does, and he's very
positive in it, and it's so revealing, and it's so, it's so revelant
to the day in which we live. And you'll note that as we're
reading the Master's message here. In chapter 23, verse 1,
he says, it says, Then spake Jesus to the multitude and to
his disciples, saying, and he preached this to his disciples,
saying, The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. These are
religious leaders. The so-called scribes and Pharisees
and Sadducees And the first mark is in verse
3. You can put a mark by these,
right? Just put a number 1. Verse 3, Oh, therefore, whatsoever
they bid you observe, that observe and do. They teach the law and
the things of the tabernacle and the temple. But do not ye
after their works, for they say and do not. This is the first
mark of false religion, they say and they do not. They preach one thing and do
another. They preach sacrifice, but they don't sacrifice. They
preach faith, but they don't live by faith, they live by flesh.
Covetous men. Men who preach for gain and self-glory. and a lot of other reasons. They
say and they do not. And then verse 4 says, they bind
heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on other
men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of
their fingers. They tell you what to do and the people what
to do, but they don't do it. And verse 5 gives us the second
mark of these religious men. This is the Master speaking now,
our Lord. And he says in verse 5, put number
2 down here, all their works they do are to be seen of men. They sound the trumpet before
them. Before every work and every prayer and every duty and every
sermon and every meeting, they blast the trumpet to let people
know this is what we're going to do. They love, read on, they
make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their
garments. On the priest and the rulers
of the temple, on their garments, they had these certain colors
and borders that indicated that they were preachers, that they
were rulers of the synagogue and they were priests or something
else. And what they'd do is they'd enlarge these borders and enlarge
these signs and so forth to let everybody know they were religious
leaders. They loved that recognition.
Verse 6 says they loved the uppermost rooms at the feast. They loved
the chief seats in the synagogue. They liked the greetings in the
markets. They liked to be called of men, master, master. See,
this is reverend, reverend, bishop, bishop. They loved these titles.
They do these works to be seen of men. Now, don't be called
rabbi. One is your master. even Christ
and all your brethren. Call no man your father on this
earth, that's not a title for you to tie on to someone. And they do this in the Catholic
Church, they call their priest father, and that's not a title
for you to put on some human being. You weren't begotten of
men, you were begotten of God. I'm the father of Paul Mahan
and Becky, Robbie, and Danny, but a physical father. But he said, one is your father
which is in heaven. Don't be called master. One is
your master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among
you shall be your servant. These are words that these men
do not know. Servant is not a word that they
take. That doesn't appeal to them.
Some masters of theology, that appeals to them. So that's, number
one, they do, they say, but they don't do. And number two, what
they do, they do to be seen of men. And then thirdly, down here
in verse 13, but woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You shut up the kingdom of heaven
against men, you neither go in yourself, neither suffer ye them
that are entering to go in." These preachers here, in this
day Christ is talking about these Pharisees and Sadducees. And
here the Master came and his disciples, preaching the gospel,
preaching the grace of God. revealing what the Old Testament
scriptures clearly taught. And these Pharisees and these
Sadducees and lawyers and scribes ought to have sat down with him
and said, now, teach us so we can teach the people. Tell us
of what you're speaking. Tell us what Isaiah was writing.
And they knew no man spake like this man. They knew that no man
could do the miracles he does except God be with him. Nicodemus
admitted that. The chief Pharisee admitted that.
Why didn't he sit down with him and learn from him and then go
teach the people? No. These fellows here wouldn't
enter in themselves and wouldn't let the people enter in. They
were married to their tradition and there are so many preachers
today. You know, I was a pastor when
I heard the gospel. I was a preacher, and I wasn't
preaching the gospel. I heard a man named Ralph Barnard
preach the gospel, and immediately I said, now wait a minute. What
I've been preaching is wrong. And I got books and studied and
I talked to him and other men and learned the gospel. I didn't
care what it cost. It didn't matter to me that I
had a to defend, or a position to defend, or a Southern Baptist
to defend. Paul said, I count these things,
but don't. I may win Christ, but these men
wouldn't do that. They wouldn't do that. And preachers
today, preachers today, and I had a
preacher call last week. He's in the Church of Christ.
Well, the Church of Christ doesn't believe this message of sovereign
grace. And he told me that his grandfather
listened to me on television. Big's his grandfather, and gave
him some tapes. He said, I want some more. I
want to listen to what you have to say, and I want to get some
of your literature. So we sent him the books and
tapes. But my heart cries out to this man. Does he have too
great a price to pay? Like one man stood out here in
this churchyard, a retired Methodist preacher, and said, I'd come
to your church, but I'd lose my retirement. What you saying so? And this
is what he's saying about these men here. He says, you won't
go in, and you won't let anybody else go in. You know this is true, at least
in your head. Let me show you a verse over here
in Luke 11. Turn over here to Luke chapter
11. I'll let you interpret this yourself. Luke 11, verse 52.
Now, like I said here, lawyers in the Scripture, these men weren't
attorneys. They were scribes and Pharisees. and Sadducees who taught the
scriptures and transcribed the scriptures from the languages,
from the original. Verse 52 of Luke 11, Woe unto
you lawyers, you've taken away the key of knowledge. You entered
not in yourself, and them that are entering in, you hindered,
you stopped them. Don't listen to that man. What's the key of knowledge?
That's Christ. It's Christ. And I run into that so much,
and this day, you know, that one man said one time to one
of the men of our church, said, well, I believe what your pastor
preaches, but I can't preach that. The church wouldn't hear
it. And he said, I have five children
to raise. I can't lose my church, my job,
my living. That's what our Lord is saying
to these men, you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men,
and you won't go in, and you won't let them go, and you won't
let them listen. You won't encourage them. Well,
verse 14, here's number 4. These are the religious preachers. Scribes and Pharisees, you're
hypocrites, you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense you
make long prayer. Therefore you shall receive the
greater damnation. Now listen to me. It takes a
lot of money to run these television programs. A lot of money. These televangelists takes a
lot of money. You can name them. Some of you
have seen them. And the lifestyle, it takes a
lot of money to support the programs and the lifestyle of these men.
These religious hucksters. So what they do is they take
from their followers, and they have them write in. Write in,
just get anybody to write in, whether they write in for a book,
or write in for a tape, or write in for a prayer request, but
nearly everybody writes in will put some money in their envelope.
And they get these big stacks of letters, and they make these
long prayers. They promise if you'll send some
money and do this, they'll pray for you. Read this again now,
verse 14. "...Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! You devour widows' houses!" Who's
the chief support of these religious hucksters? Widows. Exactly right. You can read the
paper. The paper gives reports on that
all around. The chief support of all these
Benny Hens and Ernest Ainsleys and all these so-called healers
and promoters of religious Emotionalism, the chief supporters are women.
Women whose husbands are dead. Women who don't have anybody
to lead them and guide them and teach them. The scripture said
if a woman wants to know anything, let her ask her husband. That's what scripture said. And
they devour widows' houses, they're crooks. And they promised to
pray long prayers over all these requests and so forth. And they're
going to receive the greater damnation. And look at number five. Our
Lord is saying this now, and it's so applicable to this day.
Warn you scribes, Pharisees, you hypocrites, you come from
sea and land to make one proselyte. They're after proselytes. They want to make They want to
add to their numbers. And when you make him, when you
talk him into a profession, talk that person into a decision,
talk them into joining up, talk them into becoming a member of
your group, you make him apostolate. And when you do, you make him
twofold more the child of hell than yourself. You give him a
false refuge. We do our best to preach the
gospel. Our goal is to preach the word of God, to sow the seed.
You can't make it come up. God has to give it life. We preach
for the glory of God. We declare the good news of the
grace of God. And the Lord adds to the church
daily, such as should be said. He saves people. I told a man
from Cincinnati while ago on the telephone, he called and
talked about coming to church here, troubles, troubles, home in trouble. I said, well,
come. I said, come. Nobody will make
you raise your hand. Nobody will give you a card to
sign. Nobody will drag you down to the front. Nobody will try
to convert you. You come and sit and listen to
the gospel. Worship God. Bring your wine.
And y'all listen. And let me know you're there
so I can speak to you. But God, salvations of the Lord. Is that hard to understand? Salvations
of the Lord. You encompass sea and land to
make one possible. There's not a church in this
city that preaches to as many people as we do. Maybe not all
of them put together. On television and radio and books
and tapes, thousands and thousands of them all over the world. And
God blesses that message. But we don't put pressure on
people to join. That's wrong. That's false. All right, down here in verse
23 is another mark, number 6. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
you hypocrites, you pay tithes. You pay tithes. See, this is
the preachers today are CEOs of great organizations, which
need a lot of money. And they have to raise money.
They have to raise a lot of it. And what they do is they force
people to tithe. They go back in the Old Testament
and bring the tithe over to the New Testament to pay their bills. They've got to build and pay
for these impressive buildings. You don't need to tell God's
people what to give. God will lay it on their hearts.
Let a man give as his purpose is in his heart. If God's in something, he'll
support it. If it's not being supported,
get out of it. He's not in it. That's right.
God's people give as he lays it upon their hearts. God doesn't
tax his people. That's an Old Testament law.
The tithe is to support the tribe of Levi. It's not for this day
at all. It's one verse of Scripture to kill any preaching on tithing.
It says, let every man as he purposes in his heart, so let
him give. That's right. As he purposes
in his heart. As unto the Lord. As unto the
Lord. And we don't give for reward,
we don't give out of duty, we don't give because we have to,
we don't give because it's the law. People who give unto God
give because they want to, to help others. You pay tithe of
men Anise and cumin, every little thing. You're careful to pay
tithe on the... I don't know whether you pay
it on the gross or the net. I don't know how that works. I've heard
people argue it. But wait a minute, here's what's
wrong. You omit the weightier matters of the law. Judgment,
mercy, and faith. Now these ought you to have done.
Tithe, oh yeah, these fellas, they were under the law. This
is before Calvary. This is when the temple still
stood. This was when the Passover was still observed. This was
when the Sabbath was still kept. These things they ought to have
done as long as that temple stood and that Passover feast and those
sacrifices and the law was in effect, these men ought to have
tithed. But when that Passover quit, Christ fulfilled the Sabbath,
Christ fulfilled all the Old Testament types, pictures and
all, that tithing stopped with that Sabbath day and all the
rest of it. But here's what he's saying to them. You ought to
have done these things, but don't leave this other undone. What
other? Judgment, mercy, faith. You're so busy raising money
and promoting organizations and building buildings and carrying
on the works of religion, you forgot about judgment. It's appalling
to me, and what's to die after that judgment? In this judgment,
how can God be just and justify the ungodly? That's a question
that needs to be dealt with. How does God save sinners? Mercy. What about mercy? Can mercy and
truth meet together? Let's quit preaching on stewardship
of money and talk about stewardship of grace. Depth of mercy, can
there be mercy reserved for me? Can my God, His wrath forbear,
be the chief of sinners spare? Oh my. Lord, be merciful to me,
the sinner." He said, you fellows have been raising money and paying
tithes and keeping days. You've omitted judgment and mercy
and faith. What about faith? When the Son
of God comes again, will He find faith? Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. But you're wrapped up in this
raising money and tithing and organizations and promoting religion,
and you've neglected these weightier matters of the law. And then
number seven, verse 25, Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites! You make clean the outside of
the cup and the platter, but on the inside you're full of
extortion and excess. They put a lot of emphasis on
their uniforms, on their phylacteries, and today on carrying crosses
and wearing pins and campaigns against all forms of worldliness. And they march, get a bunch of
people together and march. Do all these things publicly,
outside, to be seen of men. Verse 26, Thou blind Pharisee,
go to work on the inside. Cleanse first that which is within
the cup and the platter. Work on the inside, the heart,
the spirit, the attitude, principles, that the outside may be taken
care of. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees! Hypocrites, you are like whited
sepulchres! Ye appear beautiful outwardly,
but within are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even
so, ye also outwardly appear righteous unto me, and so religious,
but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." Those are hard
words. Oh, but these, our Lord's speaking
this. That's not my words. Our Lord
who knew the hearts of these men, our Lord who knew their
characteristics, He said, you don't need to tell me what's
inside, I know what's inside. God looks on the heart, not the
outward countenance. And then the eighth characteristic,
and I want you to listen to this now. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! You build the tombs of the prophets,
and you garnish," that word garnish is decorate, you decorate the
tombs and the sepulchres of the righteous. What's he talking
about here? They brag on the prophets, and
the apostles, and the reformers. They build the tombs. Well, a
tomb tells you these men are dead. There's nobody as great
as a dead preacher, a dead prophet. And these fellows, they decorate
the sepulchres and build the tombs, monuments, tombs to these
dead prophets. Bragged on Isaiah. When Isaiah
was here, people didn't brag on him. In fact, they hated Moses
and they bragged on Abraham. Abraham was dead. And then when Moses died, they
bragged on Moses and hated Elijah and Isaiah. And then along came
the apostles, and they killed the apostles and bragged on Isaiah
and Elijah. And then along came the Reformers,
Luther and Calvin and Hus and Knox and all those great Reformers. And they killed them and bragged
on the apostles. They got the great monument over
in Rome to St. Peter. They killed St. Peter
when he was here. They crucified the man upside
down. Now the world builds monuments. And nowadays they brag on the
Reformers. Jonathan Edwards, you young people,
imagine the school that Diven, 60 years ago, was reading Jonathan
Edwards sermons centered in the hands of an angry guy. His church
fired him, did you know that? For preaching the gospel of grace.
And contending for regenerated membership. He contended that
the church, people who belonged to the church, ought to be saved.
And they fired him. Of course, he got a promotion,
he went from there to president of Princeton University, but
nevertheless, church fired him. But now he's the most famous
preacher of New England days, I reckon. John Bunyan. Over there in Bedford, England,
I visited his home church. They kicked him out of there,
put him in jail. But you know, they're bragging
on him now, the church that wouldn't let him worship behind the wicked
gate, the church that wouldn't let him come there because of
what he believed, now they have a stained glass window up in
the front of the building of Bunyan's life. And you go down
the street and there's a cell door that was the cell door of
Bunyan's prison. Now he's famous, but then he
was despised. And this is what our Lord is
saying to these people. You say, verse 30, "...if you
had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers
with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore, you be witnesses
yourselves, that you are the children of them which killed
the prophets." Oh, my! brag on the dead and
kill the living. Charles Spurgeon said when he
was preaching in England, scarcely a preacher of any standing would have anything
to do with him. He withdrew from the Baptist
Union of England, of wouldn't have anything to do with him
because of their compromise. They broke his heart. Today,
Spurgeon is the greatest Baptist preacher who ever stood in the
pulpit. Everybody loves Spurgeon. But
when he was preaching, nobody outside of his church would have
anything to do with him. That's what he said. See, these are marks. Our Lord
knows religion. Religion nailed him to a cross.
Religion rejected him, religion. But now, great John Newton, he
gave seven marks of true faith. And I'll give it to you, and
I'll give it to you briefly. None of these things here, this
seven marks of true faith. Now here they are, number one.
True faith is a right knowledge of God as he's revealed in the
Scripture. and in his son, Jesus Christ.
That's true faith, to know God. God's not who we think he is.
God's not who religious people say he is. God's who he is. He's revealed in his word. God
is spirit, and God is worshipped in spirit and truth. And God
is revealed in creation. The heavens declare the glory
of God. The firmament showeth his handiwork.
God is revealed in creation, his wisdom and power and greatness,
majesty in the things he's made. And God's revealed in the scriptures.
I am the Lord. That is my name. And he's careful
to give us a clear revelation of himself in the scriptures.
And then God is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of
God had come and given us an understanding that we may know
him that is true, and that we're in him that is true. This is
the true God. This is eternal life. Eternal
life, our Lord prayed in John 17, eternalized to know thee,
the only true God. Jesus Christ whom thou sent. Men who have true faith, they
know the true God. God who at sundry times and in
diverse manners spake to our fathers with the prophets, hath
in these last days spoken thus by his Son, whom he hath appointed
heir of all things, by whom he made the world. whose exact image
of his person, the brightness of his glory, who by himself
purged our sins, and is sat down at the right hand of God, expecting
till his enemies become his footstool. That's our God. He's in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he pleased.
That's our God. True faith knows God in Jesus
Christ. I go to the Scriptures to find
out who God is. And then I go to the Scriptures
to find out who I am. And I'll tell you, it's a shocking
thing to find out who I am. Turn to Romans chapter 3. Oh boy. I'll tell you, most of
Adam's sons and daughters entertained the wrong thoughts of God and
the wrong thoughts of themselves too. The sons and daughters of
Adam entertained some mighty, exalted, opinions and thoughts
about themselves, but the scripture deals with us as we are. Oh,
my. Listen. In Romans 3, verse 10,
as it is written, there's none righteous. No, not one. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of
the way. They all together become unprofitable.
There's none that doeth good. No, not one. This is me. This
is you by nature, by birth. identification with Adam, and
Adam all died. Death passed upon all men, from
the sole of the feet to the top of the head, no soundness, nothing
but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, dead and trespasses to
sin. In the flesh we can't please
God. In the flesh dwelleth no good thing. God looked down from
heaven to see if there was any that did do good, any that did
seek God. He found they were altogether
gone out of the way. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. Christ is altogether lovely.
We are altogether vanity. You could take the microscope
of the sovereign eye of God and you couldn't find even an atom
of goodness in our nature anywhere. Verse 12 said, Verse 13 says,
"...their throats an open grave, smells, where their tongues have
used deceit, the poison of snakes is under their lips, their mouths
are full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed
blood, destruction and misery are in their way, the way of
peace they have not known, the way of Christ they have not known."
There's no fear of God before their eyes. And we know what
things soever the law of God saith, that saith to them who
are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world become guilty, guilty, subject to the judgment of God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, and the works of religion, and the duties of the flesh,
shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. For by the laws
and knowledge of sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, Don't you feel dirty after reading
that? In the sight of God, not compared
to one another. You compare one lump of coal
to the other, they look the same to me. But God's holiness, true faith, has a right knowledge
of ourselves, as we're revealed in the Scripture.
Genesis, you know how the book of Genesis starts? Genesis is
called the beginning, but it starts this way, in the beginning
God. In the beginning God. Everything
holy, lovely, beautiful. God made everything, said it's
good. It's good. You know how the book of Genesis
ends? The last words in the book of Genesis. They put him in a
coffin in Egypt. God created him in his image
and put him in a garden. When it was all said and done
and he got through with it, they put him in a coffin in Egypt. That's just our shape. Now, the
third thing that Newton said, true faith is an understanding
and appreciation of the great things that God does for us poor
sinners in Christ. True faith, let me say it again,
is an understanding and an appreciation of the great things that God
has done for us poor sinners in Christ. Now, I left off with
Romans 3, verse 20, by the laws and knowledge of sin. Now, here's
the good news. But, but, but, that's the shape
we're in. Now the holiness, the purity,
the righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed
by the law and the prophets. It's even the righteousness of
God which is by faith. by the faithfulness of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all that believe. There is no difference
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but
we're justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that's in Christ. That's what a true believer clings
to, holds to, trusts in, hopes in, rests in Christ, my righteousness. my justifier, oh my, my, my,
my. That's the good news. Look at
these next verses over here in verse 25. Whom God has set forth, I know
whom I have believed. True faith knows whom we have
believed. Because God set him forth to
be a propitiation a mercy seat, a covering, a sacrifice, through
faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission
of sins that have passed through the forbearance of God, even
those Old Testament saints' sins. To declare, I say, God sent Him
forth at this time to declare, I say, His righteousness that
He might be a just God and justify Him that believeth in Jesus.
True faith knows who God is. True faith knows what we are.
And true faith knows what God has done for us by His grace
in Christ. God set him forth. He set him
forth in the covenant. Way back yonder. He set him forth
in the promises. He promised the seed of woman,
the seed of Abraham, the seed of Jesse, He set him forth in
the Old Testament pictures. He set him forth in human flesh.
He said, this is my son. Hung a star over his birthplace.
Sent the Holy Spirit down without measure. This is my son. God set him forth as a sacrifice
on the cross. God set him on a throne. And
God set him forth in the gospel, which I'm preaching tonight.
True faith knows that. And true faith will cling to
Christ, and look to Christ, and rest in Christ, and preach Christ,
whatever the consequences, whatever the cost. That's the key of knowledge. And I'll pass it on to you. It's
Christ. Fourthly, true faith produces
a well-grounded hope of life in Christ. I know whom I have believed and
I'm persuaded he's able to keep that which I've committed unto
him against that day. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and his righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, I wholly lean on Jesus' name. Christ will do to live
by and Christ will do to die by. Look at Romans 5, you've
got your Bible open there, Romans 5. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. It's a peace. Christ is our peace. Christ has reconciled us to God.
God's not angry with us in Christ. We have peace with God. We have
the peace of God, which passes understanding in our hearts.
We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and by
Him we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and
rejoice in hope of the glory of God. His oath, His covenant,
His blood support me in this overwhelming flood. When all
around my soul gives way, He is my only hope and stay. I'm
on the rock, and He'll never move. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. And true faith gives you a well-grounded hope of life
in Christ Jesus. Well-grounded. I've come, he
said, that you might have life and have it more abundantly.
No life in the church. Life's in Christ. He that believeth
on the Son hath life. Here's the fifth mark of saving
faith. True faith produces a principle
of love, love to Christ, which makes his yoke easy in his burdened
life. Religion is really an unhappy experience. It's a duty. It calls on us to
read things we're not interested in. It calls on us, religion,
it calls on us to do things that are contrary to what we really
want to do. It calls on us to do all these
things and believe all these things that really are distasteful
to many people. But true faith gives a man or
woman or young person a principle of love for Christ. that makes
his word precious, his worship delightful, his service
a joy. Let me illustrate that. I spent
two days last week with my son, Paul, and Mindy, and Hannah. And as most of you all know,
Paul, he's never still. He's a worker. But he was building
a patio on the back of his house. I got there on Monday night,
now, and Tuesday morning, bright and early, I had work clothes
on. What are we going to do today? We're going to work, he said,
on this patio. Well, I worked all day Tuesday with him on that
patio. I worked, I lifted, I perspired. We worked all day Tuesday and
most of Wednesday. I received no wages. I didn't get any certificate
of appreciation. I didn't get any reward, and
there's no one who looks at that patio will ever know I've been
there. They won't know that I did one
thing on that patio, but I flat enjoyed it. Why? I loved that boy. He won the
job, he won the duty, he won them pleasant. It was a joy all
day long to work with my son. on something that he wanted to
do. You know what, you've done that. You know what I'm talking
about. Religion is when you have to
do something you don't want to do. You have to go somewhere
you don't want to go, be with people you don't enjoy, and listen
to sermons that you get nothing out of. But salvation and faith
is a joy. It's a joy. It's a joy. It's
not a job. It's not a duty. It's not a trial.
It's a joy. And every labor is a labor of
love, and every work is a work of faith. And that, my friend,
is the motive and joy of those who serve the Master. Because
they love Him, love Him. And I'll tell you this, I'd go
back right over there Monday, tomorrow, and do it again. Never
get tired. It's not law, it's love. You
see what I'm trying to say? And that's what true faith gives
you, a principle of love to Christ. He said, my burden is light and
my yoke is easy. And it is. It's a joy. All right. Number six. True faith makes the goodness
and grace of God to me. the model of my conduct and treatment
of others. The goodness and grace of God
to me is the model of my conduct and treatment of others. I'm
going to treat others as he treated me. He said, Be ye merciful as
your Heavenly Father is merciful. We looked at it and said, They
don't deserve it. I didn't either. I don't deserve a thing I have.
I do what I deserve, the wrath of God, wages of sin. I've earned
those. But everything else, everything
this side of hell is mercy. And he said, you be merciful
to them as he is to you. Forgive, forget. Ephesians 4
says, Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted. Forgiving one
another as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Love one another as I loved you,
he said. The Lord's grace, mercy, and goodness to me ought to inspire
me to go and do likewise, shouldn't it? Turn to Colossians 3. I want
to read this one. I marked this down. And my time's gone, but I do
want to read this, Colossians 3, verse 12 and 13. Put on, therefore, as the elect
of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercy, kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, forgiving
one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also That's true, true faith, true
religion. Seventh, true faith presses upon
us three goals. Three goals. You know what our
goals are? Three goals. And you know the religious world
talks about going to heaven. That will be our joy and happiness. But here's the believer's three
goals. Number one is commitment to Christ. I want faith. Don't you? I want God to increase
my faith. I want saving faith. I want a commitment, a personal
commitment to Christ. My beloved is mine and I'm his.
I want a personal commitment to Christ. Secondly, I want communion
with Christ. I want to walk with him, fellowship
with him. That's what John talked about
in 1 John, that your fellowship might be with the Father and
with the Son. I want fellowship with God, communion with God.
And thirdly, I want conformity to Christ. One day I want to
be made like Christ. I don't have any place in heaven
if those three things aren't true. Commitment to Christ, communion
with Christ, and a conformity to Christ. Isn't that true? And that's what you want. And
heaven will be ours, because if we are committed to Christ
and have communion with Christ, a relationship with Christ and
conformity, if God makes us like Christ, we're going to always
be with Christ. That's the reason Paul said to depart and be with
Christ. That's far better. This is our
hope. Beloved, behold what love God
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of
God. We shall one day see him and be made just like him. And
David said, I'll be satisfied then when I wake with his likeness.
I hope that's been a blessing to you.