1 John chapter 5, these are some
verses from the scripture reading which Tom shared with us a little
while ago. I'll tell you why I'm reading
these verses. When we flew down to Ball, Louisiana
last Friday, got in there and had supper and
I was supposed to preach that night. Had a pretty good crowd
of folks there. I came in the door of the church
and one of my old friends, way up in years, 78 I believe he
is now, 77 or 78, I've known him a long time, came up to me
and he took me by the hand. We shook hands and he held on
to my hand a moment. and looked up over his glasses
like old folks do sometimes, you know, and looked at me and
he said, you going to preach us into hell
tonight or you going to give us a little hope of heaven? And I stood there and held his
hand a minute and I thought about that. Are we guilty of preaching
folks into hell too much? I just wonder if we You say, well, he's just making
comment. I don't think so. I really don't. You know, old
folks have a way of making comment but meaning what they're saying.
And I said, no. I said, I don't believe so, Carol. I said, I sure want to give some
confidence and assurance to God's people because it's hearing the
word. There's a warning ministry. Brother Barnard used to say we
ought to preach once in a while like everybody's going to hell
and that right soon, preacher included, because there's a warning
ministry to every man out of Christ. We've got to warn. Our Lord tells us to warn, rebuke,
reprove, so forth, warn men. The book of Ezekiel talks about
warning them, warning them. There's a warning ministry, no
doubt, to those out of Christ. And not only that, but there's
a warning ministry to false religionists. Our Lord certainly warned the
Pharisees. And he warned his disciples to
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. He warned his disciples about
Phariseeism. False hope. False refuge. He did this warning for false
religionists. And there's a warning to the
very elect. We're told in 2 Corinthians to
examine ourselves whether we be in the faith. We're told in
Hebrews chapter 3 to take heed lest there be found in us a heart
of unbelief. And we're told in 2 Peter 1 to
give diligence to make our calling and election sure. So there is
a warning ministry, and we must not neglect it. But I believe
we are to be engaged more than we are possibly. And that shook
me up a little bit. This man's close to me. I appreciate
him, and I treasure his fellowship, and I pay attention to what he
says. And I believe maybe we are a little bit harsh sometimes. Maybe we preachers, I listen
during the conference to the preachers, and I listen for a
note of comfort. I listened for a note of encouragement.
And I didn't get as much encouragement as I did the other. I really
didn't. And I'll be listening for that
in my own ministry. We're told, hold that place there
and turn to Isaiah 40. We're told in Isaiah 40 to comfort
the people of God. To comfort the people of God.
It says in Isaiah 40 verse 1, comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and crown to her her warfare's accomplished, her iniquities
pardoned. Tell them, announce the good
news, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all
her sins." There's good possibility we preachers scold and warn so
much that people have connected preaching with rebuke. Isn't
this the common comment after a sermon, you sure stepped on
my toes. Isn't that the common, that's
it right there. What do you mean? In other words,
preaching is supposed to be unpleasant or it's not preaching. It's supposed
to be unpleasant. It's supposed to make us feel
bad. Well, if I can speak a word of
comfort in due season and a word of encouragement, I need it.
I need it. I want to do so. However, I do
know this, and I'm going to get into this in a moment, any word
of encouragement or comfort or assurance must come from this
book. And let me read these two verses now in 1 John 5, verse
13. And this gives us a starting
place. In 1 John 5, 13, these things have I written unto you
that believe. That's where the whole thing
starts. Faith is the parent grace. Faith is the source. of all other graces unto you
that believe. He that cometh to God must believe.
What shall I do to inherit eternal life? Believe, believe. All things
are possible to them that believe. So these things have a written
unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you
may know that you have eternal life. This assurance and confidence
is not to be addressed to anybody but those who believe. Nobody
else has a claim on assurance or confidence or comfort with
those who believe. Now verse 20, look at this, and
we know, and we know that the Son of God is come and hath given
unto us an understanding that we may know him that is true
and we're in him. Now which is first? You don't
know you're in him till you know him who is true. You see where
it starts? Don't try to get the cart before the horse. You've
got to believe before you can have assurance. You've got to
receive Christ before you can have confidence. You've got to
lay hold of and embrace the Redeemer before you can be identified
with the Redeemer in any kind of assurance or comfort. There's
no comfort anywhere but in Christ, and that by faith. And here it
says, we that we may know him that is true and we're in him
that is true. Even, yeah, even in his Son,
Jesus Christ. And this is the true God and
this only is eternal life. Now, somebody asked John Owen
one time, and I'm not a reader of John Owen all the time, but
I did find this. Somebody asked John Owen, what
is saving faith? What is saving faith? What is
this justifying faith? Now here, I have to start here
before I come to assurance, before I come to what we call confidence
and assurance, I start with faith. Let's start with faith. So John
Owen replied in this way, very briefly, briefly for him. Justifying
saving faith is a full and complete trust and resting on the free
promises of God in the Lord Jesus Christ for all things pertaining
to life. With a firm persuasion of heart
that God in Christ is fully reconciled to us. That's a very simple definition,
but yet it's so rich. Let me give it again. What is
justifying saving faith? First, it is a full and complete
trust, trust, and resting on the free promises of God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. for all things pertaining to
life, all of them, all of them, with a firm persuasion of heart
that God in Christ is fully reconciled to us. I think that's beautiful.
And this is what Paul is saying in 2 Timothy 1. This is exactly what Paul is
saying in 2 Timothy 1.12, the latter part, when he says, I
know whom I have believed. And I am fully persuaded that
he is able to keep that which I committed, that's that trust
and resting unto him against that day. And then another definition,
if you turn to Hebrews 11, now let's look over here, Hebrews
11. And this is not a whoop-de-doo experience, and this is not some
outward motions of the body. This is heart, saving faith is
a heart work. This is a personal, individual,
genuine heart relationship with the Lord God, based on His Word. I believe God. I believe God. Now listen to Hebrews 11, 13.
Talking about all these fellas he'd mentioned, Abel and Enoch
and Abraham and Noah. He says in verse 13, these all
died in faith. In faith. not having received
the promises, that is, the fulfillment of the promises. They had the
promises, but not the fulfillment of the promises, that is, not
having seen Christ, who is the fulfillment of every promise.
But having seen these promises afar off, they were persuaded
of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers
and pilgrims on the earth. You see that definition first?
They saw the promises. Abraham saw my day. They saw
Christ in word, in type, in picture, in promise, in prophecy. They
saw Christ. Abraham saw my day. Moses wrote
of me. They saw the coming of the Lord
Jesus. They saw these promises. Saw
the fulfilled. Secondly, they not only saw it,
but they were persuaded and convinced that these promises were true.
They were convinced. And thirdly, they embraced them. They appropriated them by faith.
They laid hope. They just embraced them. And
fourthly, they confessed that they were pilgrims and had no
further interest in the things of this world. Just no further
interest. Their interest now was in that
promise in Christ. And that's faith. That's faith. Now the Holy Spirit is the efficient
cause of it. It's not born in us by nature. It's not a flower that grows
in the soil of human depravity. The Holy Spirit is the efficient
cause of this faith, this life, which produces faith. And the Word of God is the instrumental
cause, because the Word of God reveals the character of God,
the promises of God, and the sin of men, and the person and
work of Christ. But it's a faith work. Turn to
Romans. Let me show you now, Romans chapter
10. Romans chapter 10. It's a heart work. It's a hard
work, it's a personal hard work. It's like, you know, when Paul
was on that ship. And the ship, they'd thrown everything
over the side that they could spare. And the ship was being
tossed with the waves, but finally, after all hope of being, of the
ship enduring the storm, or successfully going through the storm, Paul
stood in the midst of those men and said, Sir, now be of good
cheer. He said, there stood by me this
night the angel of the Lord, whose I am and whom I serve.
And he said unto me, Paul, the ship will be lost, but not one
life will be lost. Wonder what he said. But tell
these men to stay on board the ship, and not one life will be
lost. And this is what he said. Wherefore,
sirs, I believe God, that it shall be exactly as he told me. I believe. Now, that's faith.
Just do what you will, but that's faith. And it's a heart faith,
it's a personal heart faith. And this is what it says in Romans
10, 9, that if thou, if you, shall confess with your mouth
the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him
from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. Abraham's faith was a heart faith.
I'll give you another illustration of faith. When Israel was in
Egypt, and God sent the plagues, and there was going to be a plague
of grievous hail. You remember the plague of hail
was coming. And the Lord said that the cattle
on the hill was going to die. That hail was huge, and it'll
kill the cattle. So God said, Moses, tell Israel,
it's going to hail tonight. Better bring the cattle in. Now,
I'll tell you the difference in faith and unbelief. Everybody
who believed God brought his cattle in. That's just all there
is to it. He brought his cattle in. Those
that didn't, left them out. And the same thing's true of
the blood on the door. You see, the ones that put the
blood on the door, God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass
over you, and they put it on the door. That's faith. And there's
no need of us making it any more complicated than God makes it.
Spurgeon used to say that so many of what he called English
divines took a week to describe the way of salvation, and God
used one word and four letters, and two of them are just alike.
He said, look. Look. Look unto me, and be ye saved.
And that's what I'm saying here. I'm saying that this thing of
faith, faith, that salvation is by faith. And I want to give
us some assurance of faith. Turn back to our text in 1 John
5. In verse 13, these things I have
written unto you that believe. Do you believe? That's the first
thing to be said. Brethren, I believe that God,
in His eternal purpose and eternal counsel, in His eternal wisdom,
has decreed to save sinners. I believe He loves sinners. I
believe that God made Christ the surety and sent Him into
the world having promised and prophesied and typified His coming
in so many ways throughout the Old Testament Scripture. And
in the fullness of time, God sent His Son into the world,
made of a woman, made under His law, to redeem them that were
born under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Christ effectually and sufficiently
met the law and fulfilled it and died on the cross as our
Savior was buried rose again and ascended to glory where he
is our advocate high priest intercessor and Mediator I believe you believe
that and I believe he's the way the truth and the life no man
cometh to the father but by him I Believe that and I've committed
my soul to him and my hope of eternal life is in the hands
of Christ Jesus Now then, I want to give you six differences in
that kind of faith and what we call a presumption of faith.
Now I think it'll help us because what you can do, I think you
can look at these six things I'm going to give and I think
you can do some measuring of your own faith and if these six
things are applicable to you and to your faith, I believe
you can say with David of old, the Lord is my shepherd. Or with
Job, I know my Redeemer liveth. Or with John, we know we've passed
from death unto life. Or with Paul, I know whom I have
believed. Believe you can. Now, you check
these six things, and I've looked at them carefully, and they give
me some help and hope. Number one, I know this, true
faith, true faith draws its hope, its hope, and that's what we
have, a good hope. True faith draws its hope and confidence
from the Word of God alone. from the Word of God alone. Now,
other kinds of faith, what we call presumption, do not lean
upon the Word, they lean upon the senses. They lean upon feeling. You know this is true. You know
this. Charlie, you were ministered in this, and I did too. I know
I'm saved because, Lord, here's my prayer. Now, that's senses. Well, I know I'm saved because
I was there when it happened. That's senses. I know I'm saved
because one woman told me, she said, when I was baptized and
came up out of the water, even my fingernails turned green.
Everything was green. I couldn't figure out how she
got any confidence from that, but she did. I know I'm saved
because of the signs the Lord has given me, just providentially.
I've seen that. That census, true faith never
proves anything but census. I know this is so because I had
an old grandpa or grandma, you know, that senses. True faith
always looks to one place for its confidence and hope and assurance.
It's right here. I guarantee you that. I just
guarantee you that. That's so. That's so. That's so. Let's turn to John
20. Let me just read two or three verses and In John 20, turn over
here, but you remember Paul said there in Romans 10, he said don't,
John 20, he said don't say, who shall ascend into heaven to bring
Christ down? He's come. Or who shall descend into the
deep to bring Christ up? He's risen. But the word of faith
is nigh thee, it's even in your mouth, this word of faith. It's
even in your mouth. That's this word right here.
And look at John 20, verse 31. These are written These are written
that you might believe that Jesus Christ, Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God. That's why this is written, and
that believing you might have life through his name. This is
the record God has given us eternal life, this life in his Son. This
is our hope, the Word of God. And I'll tell you this, just
as that tabernacle in the wilderness, with its altar and mercy seat,
We're the dwelling place of God. Well, I'll tell you this. This
is our dwelling place right here. This tabernacle and the altar
and the mercy seat and all. Our Lord dwells, Charlie, in
His Word. You want to hear from God? Read
the Word. You want faith? Read the Word.
You want grace? Read the Word. That's where it
is. God's going to bless His Word. That's just so. Turn to
Psalm 119. David caught this, and if you'd
like some encouragement, This entire 119th Psalm, practically
the whole thing has to do with the Word of God, the Word of
God, the Word of God, the Word of God. If I could leave one
thing with you, if I could encourage you to do one thing tonight,
you know what it would be? If I could give you a gift tonight,
a treasure that would benefit you till you stood before God's
throne, if I could get you more interested in the Book, it would
be the greatest thing I could do for you. There's nothing I
could do for you in this world, nothing anybody could do for
you that would be of greater benefit to you than to encourage
you to read this book. This is where it all is. In Psalm
119, look at verse 9. Wherewithal shall a young man
cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according
to thy word. Verse 11. Thy word have I hid
in my heart that I might sin, not sin against thee. Verse 12. Blessed art thou, O Lord, teach
me thy statutes. Verse 16, I will delight myself
in thy statutes. I will not forget thy word. Verse
18, open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things
out of thy law. The law, there's the word. Verse
49, look over there across the page. Remember thy word unto
thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This
is my comfort in my affliction, for thy word hath quickened me.
Or I could just keep going. Look at verse 81. My soul waiteth
or fainteth for thy salvation, but I hope in thy word. I hope
in thy word. Verse 98. Thou through thy commandments
hast made me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. That
is, your word is ever with me. You want wisdom? In the word.
It's all here. Oh, how sinful we are, neglecting
the book. But that's my first point, is
that true faith always bases its assurance and confidence
and hope on the Word. And a presumption leans upon
the senses, feeling, experience, works, and deeds, and all these. Secondly, now this is important,
true faith embraces every promise Every promise. I'm talking about
every promise of God pertaining to life. And every blessing. And every guilt. As it is in
Christ. And as Christ is in it. That's
so. Now let me read that again. True
faith embraces every promise. I don't care what the promise
pertains to. Whether it's the promise of health, or the promise
of resurrection, or the promise of sanctification, or the promise
of justification, or the promise of forgiveness, or the promise
of eternal glory, or every promise is embraced in Christ. It's in
Him. God's love, mercy, it's all in
Christ. In Christ. It embraces every
promise, every benefit, every blessing, every gift as it is
in Christ, and as Christ is in it. Now, presumptuous faith,
Now here's what I'm saying, presumptuous faith, false faith, religion,
reaches for the promise, but not the person. He doesn't view
forgiveness only in Christ. He doesn't view heaven only.
He's going to heaven to be with mother, not with Christ. Paul
said, I have a desire to depart and be with Christ. Christ said
to the thief, today thou shall be with me in paradise. And the presumptuous man wants
the blessing but not the blessor. You see what I'm saying? It's
not Christ, it's heaven. I just wanted to say it. This
is what gave birth to other ways of salvation, is men not finding
it in Christ, finding it in their works, in their baptism, in their
church membership, in the ministry, in morality, in the law, and
so on, because the blessing and the benefit and the gift and
the promise was separated from the person. But, Tom, all of
these things are in the person, because of the person, through
the person. You see, The covenant and all
the promises are made with Christ, not with you. He's the firstborn
of every creature. He's the chief elect. We're elected
in Him. He's the heir. You're not the
heir, Christ is. You're a joint heir with Him.
You're split in with Him. That's the thing. And the covenant,
all the promises of the covenant are made to Christ. This is my
beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. He's the heir by purpose,
promise, and purchase. He bought that right. You didn't
buy it. He bought it. It's His. Eternal
life's His. Eternal glory's His. Eternal
heaven's His. It ain't yours. It's His. And you will have it in Him or
you won't have it. And what you want to do is not
aim for the blessing. You want to aim for the blesser.
You don't want to aim for the promise, you want to aim for
the person. If you have Him, you have everything
else. That's so. All the promises are in Christ,
and Christ is in all the promises. Turn to Colossians, let me show
you that. Colossians. And this, I never heard this
when I was growing up in church. In fact, when I started preaching,
I didn't preach it. I didn't know it. But Colossians 2, 9,
it says, "...in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily." That's where it is. You want to know where it is?
It's in Christ. And you're complete in Him. And when it says we're
heirs of God, we're joint heirs with Christ. It's all in Christ. Turn to Ephesians 1. Let me show
you something here. This reads so clear, so clear. Ephesians 1, listen to this.
Ephesians 1.3. Now what's in Christ and by Christ
and through Christ? Let me just read. It's Ephesians
1.3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenless.
Where? In Christ. According as he chose us in Christ. before the foundation of the
world, that we should behold Him without blame before Him
in love, having predestinated us to the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein
He made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through
His blood, verse 11, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance
in Christ. being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. Now look at verse 10, back up
one. That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he
might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which
are in heaven, which are on the earth, even in him. Is that clear? That's what I'm saying about
saving faith. That's the reason saving faith is taken up with
Christ. All right, thirdly, true faith
looks to Christ as prophet, priest, and king. Presumption dares to
divide these offices, dares to divide them, and make Christ
only one or two, the priest to save me, but not my Lord to reign
over me. saving faith, bows to Christ
as prophet, the one who enlightens the mind with the knowledge of
God. He said, he that has seen me has seen my Father, enlightens
us in regard to our sins, enlightens us in regard to his redemptive
work. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. He's my prophet. I know nothing except in Christ.
I know nothing of God except in Christ. I can have no relationship
with God except in Christ. He reveals God. And He is my
priest, my great high priest. All that that implies, Christ
is my offering, my sacrifice, my priest, my sin offering, my
atonement, my intercessor. Even my prayers have to go through
Christ to get to God and be cleansed and washed and made whole. And
then He's my King. He's King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. He's sovereign. He'll be merciful
to whom He will. I bow to Him as Lord, not only
of creation and providence, but of salvation. He's Lord. And
saving faith does not want to rob Christ of any of His glory,
either as our great prophet, our great priest, or our great
king. He can have it all. And now fourthly. In other words,
the third thing is true faith bows to Christ. And then fourthly,
true faith. Now watch this carefully. True
faith will maintain its claim on the mercy of God through Christ.
It'll maintain its claim to the mercy of God through Christ,
even in trial, disappointment, and personal failure. It'll maintain. In other words, true faith will
persevere. John said this, he said, if they
had been of us, If they'd had true faith, if they'd been redeemed,
been one of God's elect, they would have no doubt continued
with us. Paul said that if any man draw back, my soul hath no
pleasure in it. None at all. He proves he's reprobate. But now presumption, this is
the way presumption is. When you test presumption too
strongly, it'll quit. This little so-called religious
profession, if it's tested too strongly, It'll quit. It'll surrender. It'll give up. Not true faith.
True faith grows stronger under trial. I believe that. I certainly
do. I believe the ship that God builds
is seaworthy. I believe it's seaworthy. I believe
the ship that God builds is seaworthy. Now here's the reason why faith
stands regardless of the circumstances or the situation. is because,
you see, that faith rests in His righteousness, not mine.
That's the reason. It rests in His sacrifice, not
ours. It rests in His works and not
ours. Let me show you two illustrations
of that in Psalm 65. This is worth turning to and
marking in your Bible. Psalm 65. David always, when
we talk about assurance and faith and love and these matters, David's
a good place to go. In Psalm 65 verse 3, David said,
Iniquities prevail against me. As for our transgressions, thou
shalt purge them away. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and caused us to approach unto thee. that he may dwell
in thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple." He'd given
God the glory there. It's not his salvation or his
righteousness or his sanctification. It's God's gift. Blessed is a
man whom God chooses and causes to approach. Let me show you
another one. Psalm 130. This one is another good one
too. Psalm 130 in regard to this thing. The reason faith stands, regardless
of Even when we find sin in our own hearts, it still stands because
we're not depending on our righteousness but His. We just don't quit. Psalm 130 verse 3, listen, Lord,
if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, Lord, who shall stand?
Nobody. But there's forgiveness with
these. that thou mayest be feared. I
wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait in His word,
do I hope." There, that's the difference there. But you see,
reason presumptuous quit, presumption quits. The reason presumptuous
faith fails is that the man's confidence is in himself, and
when he fails, he quits. His confidence is in, say, you,
and when you fail, he quits. His confidence is in his feelings
and his social circle and his happiness and hope to do religion. And when it all caves in, he
quits. He has nothing to hold to. But we have no confidence
in the flesh. And when all around my soul gives
way, he then is all my hope and stay. If you're building on the
foundation of your own morality and works and confidence in other
people and all these other things, when those things go, you're
gone. But when you're building on the rock Christ Jesus, and
all these things begin to slip away, that rock still stands.
And you watch them fall, and you're troubled by their fall.
But you're standing on the rock. Rock of ages cleft for me. That's
the reason, you see. It's going to stand. I'm telling
you that. If you quit the gospel and the fellowship of God's people,
you can mark it down. You never did have faith. You
never did, because faith's going to be tried. It's going to be
tried with fiery trial. It's going to be tried with the
trial that it needs. That's the way God's going to
determine it, whatever it needs. I don't know how much trial you'll
need or how much I need, but He knows. And He's not going
to suffer us to be tried any greater way than we can, by His
grace, come out on the good part. That's right. All right. Fifthly,
and I know this is so. from the Word and a lot of other
reasons, the higher true faith is exalted. Now it's just so
as we go through the years, we're going to learn more about the
Lord, about His Word, and we're going to be used of God in different
ways. In different ways we're going
to have some recognition, there's going to be some a knowledge of the fact that
we're walking with God, we're his people. And the higher true
faith is exalted in Christ and by Christ, I'm telling you, the
lower it sinks in its own eyes. I guarantee you that. You want
to find the person who thinks less of himself is the one who
is thought more of through Christ by the Father. That's right. But this is not true of false
faith. The more you promote religious people, the prouder they get.
They can't help it. The more position you give them,
the more gifts they have, the more progress they make, the
more pride and self-conceit and self-righteousness, till finally
it's, I thank you, Lord, I'm not like other men. I tithe and
I fast and I give alms. I do all these things. Have you
read my book? Have you seen my program? Have you heard me preach? From prison to pulpit, all this
sort of thing. I did this, I did that. I won
so many souls. The higher he goes, the prouder
he gets. That's so Jim, the higher he
goes. But I guarantee you, I just guarantee
you, when God... Listen, I read this yesterday.
When God promised David a sure house, he said, your throne will
be forever, you remember? And the Messiah will spring from
your loins. What did David do? First thing
he did, he got on his face before God, and this is what he said,
O Lord God, who am I, and what is my house that thou hast brought
me hither to? The believer sees himself such
a miracle of grace that he stands in silent wonder the more mercy
God gives him. Like a man said to me not long
ago, he said, God's blessed me for 50 some odd years. If he
never gives me another blessing, I've had enough. It is enough. It is enough. Remember the sermon?
It is enough. It is enough. And that's, I just
know that's so. I know there's no such thing
as proud faith. Can't be. Can't be, because the
closer we come to his celestial, brilliant, and holy person, the
more infirmities we see in ourselves, and the more awed we are that
God should take notice of us and give us the gift of his son.
In the sixth place, the faith of God's elect is always accompanied
with much and more love for the person of Christ. And he's less
taken up with the fashion of this world. I believe that. I
know that I've seen a lot of false faith is married to the
law, becomes more enamored with it. False faith is married to
tradition, and ceremony, and ritualism, and denominationalism,
and schools, and credentials, and programs, and all these things.
And the man with presumptuous faith delights in those things,
and he's more taken up with them all the time. They become more
important to him. But I really believe that true
faith, as it grows in the knowledge of Christ, becomes more taken
up with and more in love with the Son of God. And can sing
with the hymn writer of old, My Jesus, I love Thee. I know
Thou art mine. For Thee all the follies of sin
I resign. My gracious Redeemer, My Savior
art Thou, if ever I love Thee, my Jesus is now. I love Thee
in life, I love Thee in death, and I'll praise Thee as long
as You give me breath. And I'll say when the death dew
lies cold on my brow, if ever I love Thee, my Jesus is now. I love thee because thou hast
first loved me and purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree.
I love thee for wearing the crown on thy brow, my Jesus, I love
thee. If ever I loved thee, I love
thee now." Now you check those six things. I think I've given
us something we can hang on to, and I just believe that a lot
of you here tonight can say that's the way I feel. That's the way
I'm going. And by God's grace, that's my
bent of will and tenor of life. And you see, it starts with a
word and ends up with Christ. It starts with a word and ends
up with Christ. You look here and you see Him.