Now, here's the sermon today.
The faith that saves. There is a saving faith. The
Scripture says in Romans 5, verse 1, Therefore, being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I wish that I could impress
upon all of my hearers the importance of faith. The scriptures continually
emphasize the fact that salvation is by the grace of God through
faith. Now this is emphasized again
and again and again, that salvation is by grace. It's the gift of
God. But it's through faith. We're
kept by the power of God through faith. It says in Hebrews 11
chapter verse 1, without faith it's impossible to please God. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is, and must believe that he's the rewarder of them
that diligently seek him. Paul said in Ephesians 2, 8 and
9, and we are so familiar with this scripture, maybe we're too
familiar with some scriptures. Maybe we just read over them
carelessly, and we're not paying any attention to what God's saying.
For by grace, by grace, and grace is unmerited favor, undeserved
favor, for by grace are you saved through faith, not without faith,
but through faith. And that not of yourselves, that
faith is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should
boast. And four times in Habakkuk, the
book of Romans, in Galatians, Four times in the Scriptures,
this is stated, the just shall live by faith. The justified
shall live by faith. In Mark 16, verse 16, when our
Lord sent His disciples out to preach the gospel, He said, All
power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and
preach the gospel to every creature. And he that believeth He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved. And he that believeth
not shall be damned." Peter, when he was talking to our Lord
before the Master went to the cross, he said, Lord, I'll go
to the death with you. I'll never deny you. Christ said,
well, you're going to deny me three times before the cock crows.
But Peter, I prayed for you that your faith fail not. This is where it is now. Faith.
By faith, Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.
By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death,
for he had this testimony that he pleased God. How did he please
God? By faith. Without faith, it's
impossible to please God. By faith, Abraham offered Isaac. By faith, Noah prepared an ark,
being warned of God of things not seen. By faith, Moses refused
to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Our Lord said this
to a centurion who had a son that was possessed of evil spirits. He said, if you can believe,
can you believe? If you can believe, all things
are possible to them that believe. And then the Philippian jailer,
he asked the Apostle Paul, said, what serves, what must I do to
be saved? And Paul said, believe. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house.
Now, I have this question. Since faith is emphasized so
frequently in the scripture, since we see from so many passages,
and I just gave you a few, Since we see from so many scriptures
the importance of faith, the necessity of faith, what is faith? What is faith? What's involved
in this matter of believing God? Well, let me give you two scriptural
illustrations. Over in the book of 2 Timothy,
chapter 1, verse 12, Paul was in prison, and he was writing
to young Timothy. And he said to him, he said,
Timothy, don't be ashamed of the gospel of Christ, of the
testimony of Christ. That's the gospel of Christ.
Don't be ashamed of it. And he says, Timothy, also, don't
be ashamed of me, the Lord's prisoner. Paul was in prison
in Rome when he wrote this particular epistle. And then he said, Timothy,
don't be ashamed to be a partaker yourself of the sufferings that
are caused by the preaching of the gospel. And then in verse
12 he said, and I suffer these things myself. I've gone to prison,
I've been stoned, I've been shipwrecked, I've been, had false witnesses,
bear witness against me both in the church and out of the
church. But he said, I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed. For
I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I committed to him against that day. And
when Paul said these words, he gave us the best scriptural definition
of faith to be found in the Word of God. For faith is made up
of three things. And Paul deals with all three
of them right here. First of all, faith, faith is
born of knowledge. Knowledge. You can't trust an
unrevealed Christ. You can't believe what you haven't
heard. You can't call on Him in whom you haven't believed,
and you can't believe in Him of whom you haven't heard. Paul
said, I know whom I have believed. I know who He is. I know who
the God-man is. I know who Jesus Christ is. I know what people say about
Him, but I know who He is. I know He came from heaven. I
know why He came to this earth. He came down here to die on a
cross and to perfectly fulfill the law, to give to us a righteousness
which God requires and which we absolutely must have, which
we can't produce. He died for our sins. I know
why he came to this earth. I know what he did. I know where
he is now. Having purged our sins, he's seated at the right
hand of the majesty on high. Paul says, I know whom I have
believed. Now note this. He didn't say,
in this definition of faith, I know when I believed. That's
not really important. He didn't say, I know what a
system of doctrine or a creed. He said, I know whom. Christ
is our creed. You see, you don't arrive at
Christ through doctrine. You arrive at doctrine through
Christ. You find out who the teacher is, and then you learn
what he has to say. So I know whom I have believed.
That's the first thing that must be settled in this matter of
faith. The object of faith. And that's Christ. And then secondly,
he said, the second word is persuaded or confidence. I am confident,
I am persuaded that he's able to keep. He is able. He is able. You see, if I were greatly in
debt, say I owed a million dollars, And a man came to me and he said,
brother man, he said, I know you owe all this money and I'm
going to pay off every bill you have. Well now, whether or not
I rejoice and whether or not I believe that depends on two
things, totally on two things. Number one, the man's willingness
to do it. Secondly, his ability to do it. Now, if some of you would come
to me and say, how much do you owe? Oh, half a million dollars. Well, I'll pay it off. I just
laugh at it. Because you don't, you might be willing, but you're
not able. But now if a man is both willing and able, now I
can take some, I can find some joy in that. And Christ is able. He's the only one, He's the only
one who's able to do all that He promised. The Bible says that. He's able to present us faultless. before His presence with exceeding
joy, He's able to keep that which I've committed unto Him. He's
able to raise our vile bodies. He's able, Christ is able because
of who He is, because of what He did, and where He is now.
He's in the throne room. He's at the right hand of the
majesty on high. That's what Paul's saying. Here's
my definition of faith. I know whom I have believed.
I don't believe in a church, I believe in Christ. I don't
believe in myself, I believe in Christ. I don't believe in
a preacher or a priest, I believe in Christ. I don't believe in
a system, I believe in Christ. He is my advocate. And I know
Him, and I know He's able. Now watch it. Faith, thirdly,
is committal. I know, I'm confident, persuaded,
He's able to keep that which I've thought about, No, which
I've committed to Him. I've committed it to Christ.
I've cast it all on Him. I've submitted to Him. I've received
Him as my Lord and Savior. I've cast myself, soul and body,
on Jesus Christ the Lord. I know whom I have to lead. And I am persuaded He's able
to keep that which I've committed to Him against that day, that
day of judgment. That day of restitution of all
things, that day when God will judge the world by that man,
Jesus Christ, whom you crucify. Here's another definition of
faith. This is found over in Hebrews 11.1. This is one that
about everybody quotes, but not too many folks understand it.
It says in Hebrews 11.1, now listen, now faith is, that ought
to get our attention, faith is, Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. What are we hoping for? Well,
justification, forgiveness of sin, acceptance with God. That's
what I'm hoping for. Eternal life. I hope for the
resurrection. I hope to be like Christ. Well,
our faith is the substance. What does the word substance
mean? The word substance means ground, basis. It means the ground. The word substance means the
support. So faith is the support and the ground of things hoped
for. And that's the Word of God. The Word of God. The Word of
God is our substance and our ground and our support for faith.
David said, I believe, therefore have I spoken. That's why I speak,
because I believe the Word of God. You see, a promise of God
is as good as an act of God. If God promises something in
His Word, it's good as done. That's our support, that's our
ground, that's our basis. We hope for justification. Why?
Because God said that we're justified by faith. We hope for the forgiveness
of sins. Why? Because God says, in whom
we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins through His blood.
What God promises, He'll do. And faith is the ground support
of those things hoped for. Faith in the Word of God. Faith
believes the Word of God. Not just some preacher believes
the Word of God. Let me give you an illustration.
I read this not long ago, and I listened to it. Faith is not
in a preacher. It's not in a system. It's not
in a feeling. It's in Christ and the Word of
God, what God says in His Word. There's a couple by the name
of Parker. I know their first name. I'll
not bother to give it. But this couple, Mr. and Ms. Parker, went to church to a revival
meeting with their 11-year-old son, Wesley, 11 years old. Now, Wesley was a diabetic. And
Wesley was kept alive by, like thousands of other people, by
insulin. And they went to a revival meeting,
big-time Holy Ghost meeting, it was advertised. And at the
climax of the service, the visiting evangelist invited people to
come down to the front to be healed. This is a true story.
Well, the Parkers went forward and took their 11-year-old diabetic
son, Wesley, for the preacher to lay hands on him and heal
him. And the visiting evangelist laid hands on Wesley and pronounced
him healed. The preacher said he's healed.
Well, Mr. and Mrs. Wesley went home rejoicing. See, the Parkers were sincere
people. They were not hypocrites. They believed the preacher. The
preacher said Wesley was healed, so they didn't give Wesley any
insulin anymore. But in three days he died. Maybe his parents were simple
folks, but they listened to the wrong voice. They listened to
a preacher instead of listening to God. Instead of listening
to the Word of God. The Word of God doesn't promise
that everybody I lay hands on is going to be healed. The Word
of God doesn't promise that God's going to heal everybody. Somebody's
got to die. God does heal. All healing is
of God. And you know how the pastor summed
this thing up, the pastor of that church? He said this, he
said, well, he said, I never meant to encourage people to
gamble that much on faith. Rather than true faith, not a
gamble. True faith in the Word of God is a sure thing, in the
Word of God. You've got to believe what God
says, though. Let the Word of God be your testimony,
not what some man says. If you follow men, yes, it's
a gamble. It's worse than a gamble if you
follow men. It's fatal. But not if you follow
God's Word. You see, faith is the substance. You ask me to give you an answer
for the reason of the hope that's in me. And I'll tell you that
reason is God's Word. He has said that mercy and grace
and love and forgiveness is in Christ, and I believe that. I
believe God's Word. Whatever my lot, whatever my
circumstances, whatever my environment, whatever God calls me to endure
or to go through or to do, that's all right. That's all in His
good pleasure and His good purpose and will. I submit to Him. I
don't have to be rich. It would be better if I wasn't.
I don't have to be the strongest and the best dressed. I need Christ. That's what I
need. Whether I'm working in a field or whether I work in
an office building, whether I'm an educated person or not educated,
to know Christ is the greatest knowledge. It's the greatest
wisdom. Let us learn to accept our lot, to be content with what
we have, what God's given us, with thanksgiving. Don't be anxious
for tomorrow, what you shall eat, drink, what you shall wear,
what you shall put on. God knows you have need of these
things. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and God will add these things to you as you need them. I wish
we were as concerned about our souls as we are these bodies. And then faith, not only is the
substance of things hoped for, it's the evidence. What's the
word evidence? It's proof. Evidence is proof.
Present your evidence. That's the proof. Faith is the
evidence or proof of things not seen. I've never seen the Holy
Spirit. I've never seen God. Not with
these natural eyes. I've never seen a vision. I don't
want to. God is revealed in His Word. God is revealed in His Word.
You come up to, you walk up to old Noah while he builds that
ark. You say, what are you doing, Noah, building an ark? What are
you building an ark for? I believe God. That's evidence. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. Nor being warned of things not
seen. Moved with fear and built in
art. Abraham, why are you leaving
your father's house? I believe God. That's evidence. Moses, why are you putting the
blood on the door? Why are you putting blood on
the door? I believe God. God said at midnight
he'd pass over. I believe God. Faith is the evidence
of things not seen. I've never seen God pass through
in judgment at midnight upon a whole nation. Moses hadn't
either, but he believed Him. I've never seen the world melt
with fervent heat and the skies melt with fervent heat either.
I've never seen the wrath of God fall upon a rebellious world,
but I believe God. Noah did. Abraham did. Moses
did. Sinner, why are you being baptized?
I believe God. You see, faith stands in the
place of things not seen till those things become a reality.
Noah's flood became a reality. Moses' judgment became a reality. The poet wrote these words, faith,
it's a precious grace wherever it's bestowed. It rests in Jesus
Christ alone, and it's the gift of God. Faith owns Jesus Christ
to be king, our all-atoning priest. Faith claims no merit of its
own, but it looks for all to Christ. To Him, faith leads the
soul when filled with deep distress. It flies to that precious fountain
of blood and trusts His righteousness. That's what faith is. Faith in
a person. And that faith is confident that
that person is able to do all that he said and is able to keep
that which we commit to him. Now, your church is not going
to last. They never have. They've all fallen into shambles
sooner or later. And no man is going to last.
And no creed or nation is going to last. But Christ is. He's eternal. He's the Alpha
and Omega. He's Emmanuel, God with us. You
can trust Him. You can commit everything to
Him. He's unchanging and unmovable. And He's exalted. Where does
faith come from? Where does faith come from? Well,
it's not a product of human nature. Somebody said, faith's not a
flower that blooms in the garden of the human heart. All men have
not faith. Israel could not enter in because
of unbelief. When the Son of Man cometh, will
he find faith on the earth? Where does faith come from? Whence
cometh faith? Well, let me give you that briefly.
First of all, true saving faith is the gift of God. It's the
gift of God. I read that to you a moment ago.
For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Philippians 1.29 says, Under
you is given. Under you is given in the behalf
of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but to suffer for Him. The goodness of God leads us
to repentance. God hath granted repentance to
Israel. My friend, where you find faith,
you find God at work. Listen to John 6.44. No man can
come to me, except my Father which sent me draw him. It's
written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God.
He that hath learned of the Father, and been taught of God, cometh
to me." So this thing of faith is the gift of God. I assure
you of that. I assure you of that. Faith is
not something produced out of natural wisdom. It's the gift
of God. And then secondly, true saving
faith is born of the Word of God. Romans 10, 17 says, Faith
cometh by hearing. Not seeing miracles and signs,
it's hearing. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. There are plenty of people who
saw our Lord raise Lazarus from the dead, but who didn't believe
on him. There are plenty of people who saw Him heal the man by the
pool of Bethesda who was lame for 38 years but didn't believe
on Him. There were plenty of people who saw Him give sight
to the blind man and did not believe on Him. See, faith doesn't
come by sight, by miracles, by astounding supernatural work.
It comes by hearing, hearing the Word of God. Of His own will
begat He us with the Word of truth. being born again, not
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed, the Word of God, which
liveth and abideth forever." Now, I want you to listen very
carefully. Faith is a heart work. It's the gift of God. It's born
of the Word of God. And it's a heart work. Now, listen
to me. We're not talking about an organ here. Will you listen? When they had this heart transplant,
Not many years ago, and now this artificial heart. A lot of religious
people got upset. Oh, we couldn't put another heart
in there? That's where people love. No,
no, no. That organ is no more than a
kidney or a lung or any other organ in the human body. When
the Bible talks about the heart, it's not talking about this organ
here. It's talking about the seed of affections. It's talking
about the real you, the person you are, the soul. Now listen
to this. So this thing of faith is a work
in the seat of affections. It's a work in the soul. It's
a work where you live and where you love. Now, you believe in
one God? You do well. The devil believes
this one God. You see, people believe in their
heads what they do not believe in their hearts. People believe
in their heads, with their minds, what they do not love. in their
affections. You with me? This is where most
people miss the subject of faith. Right here. This is where they
miss. Well, I've always believed the Bible. I've always believed
Jesus Christ born, lived, died on the cross, was buried and
rose again. I've always believed in one God. The devil believes
everything you say. Everything you say. But he doesn't
love it. He doesn't approve of it. Now
listen to me. I believe some things that I
do not love. I accept some things mentally
that I do not accept affectionately. I know there's a devil. I don't
love him, but I believe he's there. I believe Russia is a
communist state. I don't love it. I don't accept
it. I don't approve of it. I believe
cancer kills people. Do you believe that? I believe
that. I've watched them die. I don't
love it. I don't approve of it. But mentally,
I know it exists. And the same way you can believe
God exists, and the Bible's the Word of God, and Jesus Christ
lived and died on a cross, was buried and rose again, and still
not be saved, because you don't love Him, approve of Him, submit
to Him in the seat of affections, with a heart man believeth unto
righteousness. That's right. If thou shalt confess
with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord, and believe in thine heart, not
in some organ, in you, in your seat of affections, in your soul,
in the real you. For with a heart man believeth
unto righteousness. I believe Jesus Christ is very
God of very God. I love it. I approve of it. I
submit to I believe Jesus Christ lived on this earth and died
for sinners, do you? I believe He reigns in glory,
and that's where I want Him to be, reigning on the throne. I believe He will return, I believe
He has all preeminence, and this I approve of. This I receive,
this I delight in, and like Paul said, God forbid that I should
glory in anything else. And I'm ringing your bell this
morning, and you know it, and I know it, because I've been
right there. I was in religion for years before I ever knew
what saving faith was, and who Christ is, and what the gospel
is. And these things I learned from
a child in my head. And I knew there was a God, and
I knew the Bible was the Word of God, and I believed in my
head that Jesus died on the cross, but I never did in my seat of
affections and heart love Him, embrace Him, approve of Him,
and submit to Him. And that's saving faith. Now,
if you want this tape on saving faith, what is true faith, the
faith that saves, and the one I brought last week on the offense
of the cross, you write to me, they'll give you the address,
send two dollars, that's what it cost us to prepare these tapes
and mail them to you, and we'll get it out as quickly as possible. Just let me know you want the
tape message preached this morning on faith. So until next week,
God bless you, everyone.