The Difference Between Religion and Life

Q: What does the Bible say about true faith and knowledge of God?

The Bible teaches that true faith arises from a right knowledge of God, acknowledging Him as sovereign and holy. True faith is rooted in a correct understanding of who God is and who we are as His creation. The proclamation from Isaiah 40:6 reminds us that all flesh is grass, and our righteousness is fleeting. It asserts that we must learn from Scripture about the nature of God, revealing His absolute sovereignty and holiness. This contrast between divine holiness and human frailty emphasizes the necessity of knowing God correctly to foster genuine faith. Our understanding must come not from our own thoughts but from the revealed Word of God, which discloses His character and His covenant relationship with humanity.

Q: How do we know that salvation is of the Lord?

Salvation is of the Lord, as it is initiated, executed, and applied solely by God’s sovereign will. The concept that 'salvation is of the Lord' underscores the complete work of God in the process of salvation. As Jonah recognized, salvation comes from God alone, highlighting that it is not based on human effort or decision but on God's mercy and sovereign choice. This truth is woven throughout Scripture, where God is seen as the author and finisher of our faith. The Apostle Paul affirms that we are chosen, not by our will, but by His grace, which eliminates any ground for boasting and points solely to God's redemptive work. Hence, understanding salvation's intricacies reinforces the glory of God as the sole source of our hope and assurance.

Q: Why is knowing Christ important for Christians?

Knowing Christ is essential for Christians as it establishes their faith, hope, and relationship with God. The pursuit of knowing Christ sits at the heart of the Christian faith, as evidenced by Philippians 3:10-11. Paul expressed his longing to know Christ intimately, to experience the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. This connection influences a believer's spiritual life significantly; it is not merely about knowledge but a transformative relationship that shapes all aspects of life. Knowing Christ also assures believers of their ultimate hope of eternal life, based not on their achievements but on His righteousness. Thus, a deep relationship with Christ is foundational for spiritual growth and the assurance of salvation.

A few months ago, I went back to preach for a group of people in a church
in a certain city. And I got to the building early
that night, and one of the members of the
church, an older man, was there. He had unlocked the
building. As far as I remember, there's only
two of us there, he and I. He said, could I talk to you
a few minutes? He's a very quiet man. I've never
heard him say over four or five words at a time. He said, could
I talk to you? I said, yes, sir. So we went
in the little fellowship hall and sat down, and he said, I
owe you an apology. Oh, I said, I don't know whether
you owe me an apology or not. I can't recall any problem we've
ever had. I never talked to him before. Yeah, he said, I owe you an apology.
I owe God an apology, too. He said, you see, you came here
for the first time several years ago. Our pastor heard you preach
and invited you to come and preach for us, and we were getting along
fine before you came. We had our program, and we had
our music, and we had our fellowship. Of course, he said it didn't
amount to nothing, but we were getting along fine. And he said,
you came. and preached what you preach.
And he said, tore our church up. And he said, after you left,
I made the statement to everybody that would listen to me, that
I wish that man had never come to our church. I wish you had never come to
our church. That's what I said. He said,
and I apologize now. This was five years, six years
later. And he said, I'm sorry, because he said, you see, if
you hadn't have come, I wouldn't have heard the gospel, neither
would many of our people. Now, one thing is certain, my
friends, the gospel that I preach and
the gospel that you believe, the gospel that Brother Cecil
talked about it in his prayer, which is preached in other places
by other men, faithful men, bold men. And the things we believe
are different. Now, they're just different.
They're different from the gospel preached and the things believed
by the majority of religious people. Now, face it, they're
different. The Apostle Paul was so bold. Oh, for some of his
boldness. He talked about the Pharisees
and the Sadducees and the Sanhedrin and all these religious leaders,
and he said, after the way that they call heresy, that's the
way I worship God. That's the way what this religious
generation calls heresy, Paul said, that's the way I worship
God. And then boldly he said, if any
man preach any other gospel than the gospel that I preach, let
him be accursed. Are you that confident of your
gospel? Are you? Are you that confident
in what you believe? Or are you like the Athenians,
out of your uncertainty and fear and doubt, tolerating another
gospel and another God. I don't want to major on the
negative. I want today to declare what
I am saying, not what I'm not saying, but let me briefly, briefly,
very briefly if I can, tell you what we're not saying. Sometimes
we get more recognition for what we don't say than what we do
say. My friends, I'm not saying that people today do not believe
in God. That's not what I'm saying. They
do believe in God. They do believe in God. Most
everybody believes in God. Only the fool says no, God. A
man is a woman is a religious creature. They've got to have
a God. Even if they're many. But everybody's
got to have a God. But what I'm saying is this,
I'm asking, do they believe in the living God? That's the question. David said, as the deer panteth
for the water brook, so panteth my soul after thee, the living
God. It's not enough to have a God. And our Lord Jesus Christ said,
this is eternal life, that they might know thee, the only true
God. There's just one God. I am God,
beside thee there's none else. Beside me there's none else.
If I have the none else, I don't have God. So that's what I'm saying. I'm
not saying people don't believe in God. These Pharisees said,
hear our Lord, we have one Father, even God. to which the Lord Jesus
replied, if God were your father, you'd love me. You'd do the deeds
of Abraham. Why do you not understand what
I'm saying? Even because you can't hear me,
because you're of your father the devil. God's not your father. My master said that. That's not
a ranting, fanatical, radical evangelist. That's Christ speaking. I'm not saying that men and women
today are not religious. Quite the contrary, they're very
religious. This whole world is religious.
Religion is everywhere. Like Paul said in Athens, I perceive
that you're very religious. Well, that's evident. But remember,
those who crucified Jesus Christ were religious. And they did
what they did calling on God. And remember this, that the persecution
in the Middle Ages, when the so-called crusaders went forth
to destroy everybody who disagreed with them theologically, they
held up banners with crosses on it, and counted beads and
waved crucifixes, and murdered people in the name of God. Isn't that right? They were religious. And Jim Jones waved a Bible while
he talked 900 people into suicide. What was that he has in his hand?
It's a Bible. What's he preaching? Jesus. Jim Baker robbed the whole United
States in the name of Jesus. Isn't that right? The man's religious. Everybody's religious. I'm not
saying people don't believe in God. Sure they do. I'm not saying
they're not religious. They are religious. They're religious. And I'm not saying that they're
not sincere. You say, you believe these people
are sincere? Yes, I do. Oh, yes, I do. Was Saul of Tarsus right when
he killed believers? No, sir. Did he know God? while he vented his wrath out
on those who loved Christ. No sir. Was he sincere? As sincere as a heart attack. While he said, I thought I was
doing God a favor. Isn't that right? Down in Chattanooga, Tennessee,
a group of my friends And only by the grace of God I wasn't
suckered in with them. Went into the charismatic movement. You remember this back years
ago? Some of you remember. Were they sincere? Oh yeah. Very
sincere. Got to having all night meetings
and speaking in tongues and laying hands on people and just became
enamored with the gifts. And you know what they stress?
The literal interpretation of Scripture. What they stress? The literal translation. If it says it, it means it. If
it says it's a gift of language, if it says it's a gift of healing,
if it says it's a gift, if it says do these things, do them.
One lady, the preacher preached on, if you're right, I offend
you, pluck it out. If your right hand offends you,
cut it off. She went home, took a hatchet,
and cut her right arm off. I knew her. Was she sincere? Was she right? No, sir. But dead sincere. I'm not saying they're not sincere.
I know people who have given their entire states to religious
causes. I'm not saying that all religious
people are immoral. Oh, no, they have a righteousness.
Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. The Pharisee in the temple was
telling the truth. He was not like other men. That man was a moral man. That
man was a, of course he was proud of it, and bragging on it, and
resting in it, and in his heart he was wicked, but outside, he's
telling the truth, he was not like other men. And today's religionists,
I know a lot of them, hypocrites, I know that, a lot of them are
phony as a three dollar confederate bill, but a lot of them are righteous
people. And they're going about to establish
an even stronger righteousness. Of course, it's not the righteousness
of God. They're summed up like this, they have a form of godliness,
but deny the power. They're ever learning, ever learning.
To the writing of books, there's no end. Study, study, study,
learning, but never coming to a knowledge of truth. Truth is
a person. You can learn a lot of truths
and not know truth. You can preach a lot of truths
and not preach the truth. Christ is the truth. Christ is
the truth. Till you learn how that everything
is related to him, held together by him, has its very being in
him, you can't preach truth. They teach for commandments,
doctrines of commandments of men. Christ said, you call me
Lord with your lips. That's not too hard to do. But
your hearts are far from me. That's pretty hard to bring the
heart to know Him. God has to do that. Anybody can
call Him Lord with their lips, but only regenerated people have
Christ in their heart. Paul said they'll come preaching
another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel, and one can know
tradition, custom, doctrines, and even quote scripture. I hear
people say, well, he knows his Bible. Isn't it a shame he doesn't know
God? Isn't it a shame he doesn't know
God? You can know the Bible and not know God. I'm not content with the form
of religion. It hasn't been for a long time.
I'm not satisfied with the religious talk. It turns me off. I don't
like all this justifying of ourselves before
men and trying to impress somebody with how good I am, religious
I am. That doesn't impress me at all. I'm turned off by all that tradition
and talk and owl walking and hand waving professions and just
don't want anything to do with it anymore. I'm not happy with
what they claim is peace. I know it's not peace. I know
peace is a heart condition. I know peace is a relationship
with Christ. And I know if you have peace,
you don't have to tell anybody you got it. Isn't that right? The more you have
to tell people you've got something, the less you've got. If it's
there, it'll stick out. Like that little boy said, does
Jesus live inside me? And Daddy said, yes, if you're
a believer. He said, well, he's so big now,
it looks like he'd stick out somewhere. But he will. In spite
of all you can do. I'm tired of empty claims. Oh, I'm going to preach on this
tonight, three goals of the believer, that I may win Christ, that I
may know Christ, that I may attain to the resurrection. The rest
of it, you can have it. The rest of the regimentation
and organizations and denominations and games, you can just have
it. If I can win Christ, if I can know Christ and the power of
his resurrected life, day by day, and if I can attain on that
great day to the resurrection of the dead, that's all I need,
and all really that I'm interested in for me and for you. Well,
that's what I'm not saying briefly. Now, what am I saying? I'll give
you, you may want to write them down because I think they're
worthwhile. I'll give you some things to consider concerning
this thing of the difference between religion and life. And this is for ordinary folks. It seems the characteristic of
religious people today, the fellow that is the most outgoing, he's the quartet singer and the
microphone and the big dresser, He's, you know, religion, that's
down his line, or the preacher, or the deacon, or the extrovert
or something. But this business of life is
God-given, it's a heart-gift. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. And this flesh contributes absolutely
nothing to it. It doesn't enrich it. That's
right, it doesn't contribute anything to them, it's all of
God. And you can find this, what I'm talking about now, in the
most unexpected places. You can find this, what I'm saying,
this life, in the most unexpected places, in the most unexpected
people, without all the hypocrisy and fanfare and whoop-de-doo
that you see in all these religious folks, you know, they've always
got something to say. In fact, you may find this in a man or
woman who has nothing to say. All right, number one, true faith
arises out of a right knowledge of God and ourselves. This true
faith, this true life arises out of a right knowledge of God
and ourselves. Now, I've said this so often,
I'll say it again, and I found this out when I heard the gospel,
that God is not who I think he is. I don't know why we brainwashed
ourselves into believing that God's who we think. Well, I tell
you what I think about God. Well, it's certain that what
you think is not true. That's what he said, your thoughts
are not my thoughts. There's a way that seems right
to you, and the end is death. God's not who I think he is.
God's not who I want him to be. God's who he is. And we're going
to have to go to the Word of God and find out who he is. Let's
turn to Isaiah 40. And I'll tell you, if you want
to read about the Lord God, read all those chapters in Isaiah
from 40 to 46 to 47. But here in Isaiah 40, Isaiah
40, verse 6, Old Barnard showed this to me 30 years ago. In Isaiah
40, verse 6, the boy said, cry to your generation, cry to
the people. And I said, well, what shall
I cry? What's the message? What shall I say? Well, here's
what you say, all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness, the righteousness
of the flesh is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon
it. People, the people is grass. The grass withereth and the flower
fadeth. This is what we are. We're nothing.
Of what use is the clippings and cuttings that fly forth from
your lawnmower blades? Worthless. In fact so worthless
you buy an extra bag to put on the mower to keep from scattering
them over the yard. Worthless, withered, dry. You
remember I told you last week these flyers, now these are artificial,
but those that were here for four or five weeks, they're gone.
They're gone. You didn't miss them, did you?
Where are they put you? In the garbage. See, they're
not worth anything. They're withered and gone. And
that, let me tell you now, that's us. And the Lord is saying that
to us here. All flesh is grace. And their
glory and goodliness and righteousness is like the flower. It fades
and it withers. But today's religion appeals
to man's dignity. We first of all appeal to his
eyes because we put on robes and crosses and burn candles
and lay Bibles open, put glasses on top of them and have velvet
and stained glass. We appeal to his eyes. And then
we get to find his music and cantatas and these things appeal
to his ears. And then when he sits down in
our congregation, we appeal to his pride because then we brag
on him. Put his name in the bulletin and thank him for what he did
and what he gave and all these things. And next we appeal to
his righteousness by telling him if he'll just keep on doing
what he's doing, God will reward him someday in glory. He goes
out feeling so good. But we hadn't cried when he said
cry. He said when they get within
earshot, tell them, all flesh is grass. They're not going to
like it. Well, who said they would? But it's the truth. And then
what else shall I cry? Verse 9, O Zion that bringeth
good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain, get up there
on the topmost point, O Jerusalem that bringeth good tidings, lift
up your voice, holler it loud and clear with strength, lift
it up, don't be afraid now, but say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God. That's our message, Cry! What shall I cry? Tell them they're no good! Tell them they're no good. Some
won't believe you. Some will. And then you get up
high as you can, on a high pinnacle as you can reach, and you shout
it with a voice that can be heard everywhere. Don't be afraid.
Don't be afraid. Behold your God in His majesty
and sovereignty and glory. See Him as Isaiah saw Him, see
Him as Job saw Him. Huh? Behold your God. Well, I ask you now, who's
preaching that? Come on. Who's preaching that? Billy Graham preaching that,
people criticize me for saying Billy Graham's not preaching
the gospel. He ain't. He's not preaching this. Name another one. Who's telling
men how low down and corrupt and depraved and dead and vile
and worthless they are? Worthless as a piece of mown
grass, as a dead flower. Who's getting up with boldness,
unafraid, and saying, I'm going to tell you now who He is? He's
Almighty, Sovereign, Eternal, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and
He's not trying to do anything. He's an eternal God. Fear the
Lord. I told my class this morning,
when today's preacher preaches, he has to manipulate people to
come forward. When old Peter preached at Pentecost
and shut them up to the fact with their bloody, filthy hands
that crucified the Lord of Glory, they like to storm him, crying,
What are we going to do? We killed God! What are we going
to do? We're not going to hear what
are we going to do until we tell them what they've done and to whom they did it. Right,
John? That's the reason. You say, where's
the power today? Well, they're trying to whip
it up with manipulation instead of with the message. The power
goes with the message. It goes with the message. All right, two. True faith arises
out of an understanding of the great things God has done for
us. True faith arises out of an understanding
of the great things God's done for us, not the things we've
done for God. That little old silly cliche,
only one life will soon be passed, only what's done for Jesus will
last, you don't have one of those in your home, do you? You would. Surely you would. What you've done is going to
last. You better hope it doesn't. You better hope God killed it
at Calvary. It's not what we've done for
him at all, it's what he's done for us. True faith arises out
of salvations of the Lord. Old Jonah went through what he
went through and wound up where he wound up. With the bars closed
around him, seaweeds dripping over his head, he's dead. Jonah wasn't cooking fish in
the belly of the whale, he was dead. The Son of Man was dead
in the grave. He said, as Jonah was in the
belly of the fish, so was the Son of God. Three days he arrived. And as he sunk beneath the waves
in the belly of the fish, he said, I'll look one more time,
salvations of the Lord. And I'll tell you, he's in no
worse shape than you are without Christ. You're dead, you're doomed,
You're in bondage, you're in prison, and there ain't no way
out except the hand of God. That's right. That's right. And that's what I preach. I don't
preach salvation as a decision, because it's not. Not on your
part. It's a decision on His part.
The Son will quicken whom He will. We're born not of the will
of the flesh, not of the will of God. We're born not of the
will of man, we're born of the will of God. That's true. Salvation
is of the Lord in its origination. He said, I'll make a covenant
with him. He didn't take on himself the nature of angels. He took
on himself the seed of Abraham. That was his decision. Salvation
is of the Lord in its execution. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Oh, we with wicked hands nailed him to the cross, but
we did what God determined before to be done. Is that correct?
That's what this book says. of the Lord in its application.
He said, you didn't choose me, I chose you. It pleased God who
separated me from my mother's womb to call me by the grace.
That's right. God applied it. I'm telling you,
this is where we're different. You know anybody preaching this
in our area? Come on. Somebody says, you think
you're the only preacher in this area? I'd sure like to meet another
one. that's saying this, you say,
well, they believe it. They believe it, they preach
it. Well, I heard one, now, he said, God's sovereign. Ask him
how far. Ask him how far. Ask him in what
areas. Say, Cecil, you've been around
here a long time, you know about preaching this? My friend, that's the reason
people drive all the way from Grayson, Huntington, Milton, people asked
him, why do you go to that part of church? Well, I'll tell you,
if you're hungry and that's the only place you can find food,
you drive a long ways. I'm not being boastful, I'm just
saying, salvation is of the Lord in its sustaining power. We're
kept by the power of God through faith. He that hath begun a good
work in you, he'll finish it. Is that not true? salvations
of the Lord in his ultimate perfection, now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling, now unto him that is able to present you
faultless before his throne of grace and glory, with exceeding
glory unto him, the only wise God our Savior, be glory and
majesty both now and forever." Come on, preacher, don't be afraid. Tell it like it is. Thirdly, true faith produces
a genuine hope of mercy and eternal life in Christ. Yes, this life
is not wavering and doubting, it's resting in Christ. And true
faith produces a genuine hope and confidence of mercy and life
in Christ. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. And I'm persuaded he's able to
keep that which I've committed to him. Other foundation can
no man lay than that which is laid, Christ the Lord. My hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and His righteousness. Old John said, we know that the
Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may
know Him that is true. This is the true life. This is
eternal life. This is the true God, Jesus Christ. That's my hope. You see, this
confidence and assurance is not based on my love for him, but
his love for me. It's not based, Tom, on my loyalty
and faithfulness, but on his. My confidence, you say, why don't
I have any confidence? Well, in whom are you resting? Your confidence will only be
as strong as the foundation on which you're standing. I've been
in precarious places where I was uncertain because I was uncertain
of what was under me. You know what I'm saying? I walked
across a swinging bridge one time. I mean, it'd been there
a while. And some of the boards were rotten. They said, were
you a little bit afraid? Yeah, I'll be honest, I was just a little
bit afraid because the bridge wasn't in too good a shape. But
I'd whistle across this one down here. Not afraid. So your confidence
in this truth depends on your foundation and the confidence
you have in the foundation. Now if you rested in Christ plus
some of these other things, I don't blame you, I'd be afraid to.
You see, it's not our works, it's His. It's not my righteousness,
it's His. It's not even my feeling. Don't
you ever, now come on, be honest. Don't you ever feel plumb snotty? I mean, you don't feel like quoting no
scripture. I mean, plumb ornery. Huh? Don't you? Well, are you
saved? Well, you're not if it's resting
on you. But I tell you, if on the mountain
or in the valley, You're resting in Him. He never
changes. He never changes. That's the
truth. And I don't need a cheerleader
to pep me up this much. The Birdman people come here
to hear you. Why don't you pep them up? Why don't you praise
the Lord? Why don't you give them some zip and zoom and all
that? They don't need that. Some of
them's heart is as heavy as a stone. Some of them got some decisions
to make that don't require hoop to do. It requires wisdom. And I'm preaching Him who is
our wisdom and our righteousness and our sanctification and our
redemption. No true faith or peace can derive
any support from the flesh, either religious or otherwise, for in
the flesh dwelleth no good thing. Fifth, fourthly, and I've got
to hurry. consist of a total commitment of ourselves to Christ.
True faith consists of a total commitment of ourselves to Christ
Jesus. That's the reason I read Romans 12 a while ago. I beseech
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, by what God's
done for you, present your body, your home, your family, your
life, your everything, a living sacrifice to God. That's a reasonable
thing. And I know men, I think we do
men an injustice. Listen to me, we do men an injustice
when we talk of salvation apart from discipleship. I don't believe
a word of it. I hear people say, well, Christians
ought to pray. They do. I hear people say, well, Christians
ought to worship God. They do. Well, I tell you, Christians
ought to love each other. They do. And John said, they don't, they're
not Christians. Christ said, my sheep, hear my voice, they
follow me. There's no room for difference. He said, if any man
be in Christ, he ought to be a new creature. Uh-uh. He is. Isn't that right? That's what
it says. He is. He, if any man have not,
you say, well, man ought to have the Spirit of Christ. Well, if
any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of his. Isn't
that what it says? Jim, is that what that says? That's what it
says. Our Lord says, he that taketh
not up his cross and follows after me just, well he just can't
be my disciple. He doesn't even have an application,
much less a job. No! I don't know where or when
this so-called carnal Christian theory got started, but it's
not according to the scriptures. Oh, I know believers aren't perfect,
and they slip and fall and fumble and fail and everything else,
but they love God, and they love each other, and they love His
Word, and they walk in holiness before the Lord, and they're
committed. They're committed. That's right. There He is, 100%. And what they
have is He is too. True faith produces a principle
of love. Now get what I'm saying. True
faith, like, produces a principle of love. Now some religionists put great
emphasis on emotion. That's what we're in today. Oh,
it's so emotional. You know, it's like a pep rally
at the high school before the big game. Whoop them up. Get
them going. Start with the music, you know.
You know, not a blue note, not a sad heart, not a downcast eye,
let's come on now, you see all that. And then the message goes
right along the same way, you know. And I know the grace of
God's real and I know happiness is real and I know we rejoice
in Christ, but I think most of that's unreal, that stuff. And
then some religionists put great emphasis on laws and rules and
morality and discipline and duty. And they just look at everybody
through the microscope of the law, you know. They're hard to
be around, those folks are. You know, you can't be yourself.
You've got to impress them, some way impress them that you did
pray this morning. I like to hear those preachers
preach. They say, now, in my devotions
before the Lord this morning at 4 o'clock, he showed me something.
Well, he's not trying to tell you what God showed him. He's
trying to tell you he was praying at 4 o'clock this morning. He
wants that guy to cross real good. Well, I know we're to adorn the
doctrine of God our Savior, and some religion has emphasized
theology, correct theology, right form, right organization. But
do you know what the Master said? He said, by this shall all men
know you're my disciples if you love one another. And that's where most of them
are missing the whole thing. The very thing he designated
as an evidence of the new birth is love. And he took Paul in 1 Corinthians
13 and says, I may have all this hope to do, and faith, and doctrine,
and martyrdom, and tongues and gifts, and I have not Christ
and love for Christ, why, you might as well sound a gong or
a cymbal or nothing. Now you think about that. Now
about his faith, hope, love, the greatest of these, our Lord's
question to Peter. Three times around that fire
and the quietness of that personal contact. Boy, here hangs eternal
matters. Here's the whole thing. Peter,
do you love me? John Elshab, the whole thing.
That's right, both Johns there. They will. Do you love me? If you love me, you'll feed my
sheep." Oh, I tell you. And I tell you
this, we love Him, who He is. Don't compromise who my Lord
is. I love Him like He is, for who He is, for what He did. And
I love the purpose for which He did it, that God may be just
and justified. I'm glad God's holy. I couldn't
worship Him if He wasn't. I'm glad for where he is. In
the sixth place, true faith. Now watch this. True faith makes
the goodness of God to me to be the motive for my goodness
to you. That's right. True faith makes
the goodness of God to me to be the motive and model, I might
add, of my attitude and conduct toward you. Try it. Listen to Ephesians 4, just listen
to it, don't turn, you know. And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake has forgiven you. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved the church, as your motive, and gave himself part. How am I to love my wife as Christ
loved the church? And then he said down here, he
said, the servants, be obedient to them that are your masters, in singleness of heart as unto
Christ. And masters, whoa, do the same
thing unto your servants, forbearing threatening, knowing that you've
got a master in heaven. That's the basis. My relationship
with him determines my relationship with him. I know a lot of churches and
preachers that just stand up and tell people, you've got to
give, give, give. If you love God, you give. If
you don't give, God will whip you. If you do give, God will
reward you. Let me tell you something. If God's given to you, you'll
give. Isn't that right? If he's been merciful to you,
you can't help but be merciful. That's just the basis of the
whole thing. How can he forgive you such an enormous debt? And
then you go out and get a gob of his neck because he owes you
a quarter. Uh-uh. No, no, no, no, no, no. And all the preachers in the
world are not going to change that man's attitude. He's going to
keep getting people by the neck until he realizes what God, if
anything, has done for him. I tell pastors, I say, you're
over, pastor. Leave people alone. Preach to
them. Preach the gospel. If Almighty
God ever meets that soul of Parshas on the road to Damascus, you'll
have a buddy. You'll have a supporter. You'll
have a man who prays. You'll have a friend. And y'all
will walk the road arm in arm together. But till God does,
you know, you needn't get the whip of the law out. You needn't
to smack the crowns around and invite him to look at them and
gaze on them and wish he had one like it. Forget it. Just preach to him. Christ, when
he meets him, he'll tell you some things. 7. True faith. True faith has
three goals. And I gave them to you a while
ago, Philippians 3. Oh, that I may win Christ. and be found
in him, that I may know him and the power
of his resurrected life, the power of it, the peace of it,
the joy of it, the rest of it, and that some day I may attain
to the resurrection of the dead. David said, I will be satisfied
when I wake with his likeness. Now you think about that a little
bit, you think about those things I gave you, and this is what
I want you... God said, come, let's reason together, let's
do some thinking. Before you go to build a house,
see if you've got the material. Before you go to do war with
an enemy that's stronger than you,
see if you've got the manpower. That's what our Lord said. So,
I'm saying, don't rush down here and say, I see it! Shut the door in the closet.
See if you're safe. See if you're safe. And if God
saves you, nobody has to keep you safe. If God revealed this
gospel, this different gospel, it's different. It doesn't depend
on psychology. I don't know. Marty doesn't have
to go over there and start softly toiling across the organ notes
now to keep you in the smooth spirit, in the mood. No. Oh, isn't it awful? It's awful. It's awful. They do these things. You say, well, why do they start
that art? They know what they're doing.

The Difference Between Religion and Life

What does the Bible say about true faith and knowledge of God?

How do we know that salvation is of the Lord?

Why is knowing Christ important for Christians?

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The Difference Between Religion and Life

What does the Bible say about true faith and knowledge of God?

How do we know that salvation is of the Lord?

Why is knowing Christ important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

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