Now, you can open your Bibles
with me, if you will, to the Book of Romans, Chapter 10. Tuesday morning, I received a
letter in the mail from a man and his wife who live in Charleston,
West Virginia. I was opening the mail, the television
mail, other mail, and this letter I opened and I read it and re-read
it. Dear Brother Mahan, we really
enjoyed your television gospel message this morning. We wish that you preached at
a time other than the time that we're in We would like to send
your organization an offering, so please send the name of your
church. I prefer the offering to go on
your TV or radio broadcast." Now here's the question that
she asked, or he, whoever wrote the letter. And since I read
this question, this has been on my mind since Tuesday morning,
all day Tuesday, Tuesday night I went home, worked on it a little
while, and then today. Would you please explain in detail
what it means to believe with your heart in Christ? Would you please explain in detail
what it means to believe on Christ with your heart? Now let's look
at our text, and I plan to do that tonight. I wrote her a letter
this morning, and I said, this evening in prayer meeting, I
feel like for the benefit of our congregation and you and
your husband, And all who may hear this tape, that we'll just
deal with this question, what does it mean to believe in your
heart on the Lord Jesus Christ? I've chosen as a text Romans
10, 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord,
and shalt believe, watch it now, in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the
heart, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Now I know sometimes preachers
are guilty of making so many distinctions about faith that
people, probably like this dear couple here, become confused. I've done it myself. I'm guilty.
I've heard other preachers do it. We talk about head faith
as opposed to heart faith. We talk about temporary faith
as opposed to saving faith. We talk about natural faith as
opposed to spiritual faith. And I think in doing this, I
think we know what we're doing. I think we know what we're trying
to do. I think we have a purpose in
what we're trying to do, as I'll point out in a few moments. But
I think it's possible that the more we try to define faith,
And the finer line that we try to draw, the more trouble we
cause our heroes. Our Lord simply said to his disciples,
go into all the world and preach the gospel and preach it to every
creature. And he that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved. It was just that simple. He didn't
define it. He didn't say, he that believeth
spiritually or continually, he just said, he that believeth.
When the Philippian jailer came to the Apostle Paul and said,
what must I do to be saved? He said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. The Ethiopian eunuch said,
here is water, what doth hinder me from being baptized? And Paul
or Philip said, well, if you believe, If you believe that
Jesus is the Son of God, you may. And the Scripture says,
Abraham believed God. Just like that, Abraham believed
God. But our text does distinctly
say, in the heart. Now let's look at it again. Look
at verse 8. Let's look at it again. So we
have, this question is valid. And my topic is valid. And this
is a valid subject that we're dealing with tonight. It's important.
For listen to the text, verse 8. What does it say? The word
is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and where? In your heart. And
in your heart. And verse 9 says, if you shall
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll
be saved. And verse 10 says, with the heart, with the heart,
with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. It's there.
If you have the time sometime this evening or tomorrow, you
get your complete concordance down, as I did last night, and
you look up with the heart, I'm telling you, there's hundreds
and hundreds of scriptures that speak like this. I just picked
out a few, just a few. In Psalm 34, 18, the Lord is
known to them that are of a broken heart. Psalm 51, the sacrifices
of God are a broken spirit and a broken heart. That's what it
says. Jeremiah 29, 13 says, You shall
seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. Proverbs 4, 23 says, Keep your
heart out of it of the issues of life. Proverbs 23, 26 says,
My son, Give me your heart. I want you
to turn with me to the book of Acts, chapter 8. Now, this is
very significant right here. Very significant. Now, get what
I'm saying. I want us to be careful. Like
Roth said one time, talking about repentance and faith, he said
define it and kill it. Love, define it and kill it.
Maybe so. And I think sometimes we confuse
people when we try to cut too fine a line on this subject of
faith, because the Scripture simply says, he that believeth
on the Son hath life. But this text clearly says, if
you believe with your heart, for with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. And I've read you so many scriptures.
Now look at this, in Acts chapter 8, verse 18. And when Simon saw
that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost
was given, he offered the apostles money, saying, Give me also this
power that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy
Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Your
money perish with you, because you have thought that the gift
of God may be purchased with money. You have neither part
nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight
of God." Your what? Your heart. Your heart. He said, Simon, your whole trouble
is your heart's not right in the sight of God. And as I said,
if I wanted to take the time, we could be here till midnight
just talking about scriptures like that that have reference
to the heart, the heart, the heart, the heart. Another one
says, God looks on the heart and not the outward countenance.
It's not what a man that puts in his mouth that defiles him,
what comes out of the heart. Out of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
The mouth speaketh out of the abundance of the heart. You know,
I thought about this, this subject of faith. We generally think
of faith or an act of faith to have to do with the mind and
the understanding. In other words, the mind receives
certain facts. God doesn't work apart from the
mind, I know that. How shall they call on him in
whom they've not believed? How shall they believe in him
of whom they've not heard? How shall they hear without a
preacher? And men hear with the mind, there's no question about
that. The mind takes in certain facts and the understanding receives
it. The understanding works it out
and we say that's faith. The mind takes in the fact The
understanding works it out, if they're worthy of consideration.
The understanding regards it to be true, and we say that that's
faith. But our text, and these other
texts that I've referred to, insist, insist, insist that saving
faith is a work of the heart. Saving faith is a work of the
heart, not just the mind, not just the understanding, but a
work of the heart and the affections. And also John talks about this. If any man loves not our Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, let him be accursed if he loves
not Christ. I believe a man can believe things
that he doesn't love. He can believe things he doesn't
love. He can accept certain facts which he does not love. He can
give mental assent to things he does not affectionately hold
to his heart. Not so. So I'll give you three
reasons. Now, we haven't gotten yet to
what it means by believing with the heart. I'm laying a foundation.
But I'll give you three reasons why I believe that the Scripture
distinguishes between what we call mental agreement or mental
assent of facts and a heart faith. Now, here are three reasons.
First of all, the word heart, the word heart, wherever it's
used in reference to faith, indicates sincerity. That's the first thing. The word heart indicates sincerity. And I think of one text, immediately
when I wrote that down, I thought of one text. Our Lord said, you
call me Lord with your lips, but your hearts are far from
me. Huh? See what he's saying? There's
a difference. Hypocrisy and sincerity. We can
sing, oh, how I love Jesus. Our mouths can say those words.
But Christ said, you say those words, but you don't really love
me. We can say with our mouths, I love Christ, I love the brethren,
and our hearts not really love the brethren. So that's when
the scripture talks about believing with the heart. It's indicating
that this is a sincere faith, a genuine faith. Let me show
you another scripture over here in Matthew 23. You call me Lord
with your lips. You say things with your lips
that your hearts do not say. You claim things with your lips
that your hearts do not embrace. That's insincerity, that's hypocrisy,
that's feigning faith, and that's damning faith, that's condemning
faith. In Matthew chapter 23, let's
look at beginning with verse 25. Woe unto you, woe, this is
eternal woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You may clean the outside of
the cup and the platter, but within you're full of extortion
and excess. Verse 27, woe, eternal woe unto
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. insincere. You are like unto
whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but
are within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear
holy and righteous unto men, but within you're full of hypocrisy
and iniquity. That's insincerity. And when
the Scripture talks about a heart faith, it's talking about a sincere
faith. It indicates sincerity, all right? Here's the second reason why
I believe that heart faith is distinguished as opposed to other
kinds. The word heart, the word heart
distinguishes between traditional faith, traditional faith and
personal genuine faith. What I mean by traditional, all
right, you were born in America, you're a Protestant. What if
you'd been born in Japan, what would you be? Why, you'd be a
Buddhist, more than likely. The traditional religionist adopts
the religion of his home country. If you were born in China, what
would you have been? A Confucius. All right, Becky was born in
my family, I'm a Baptist. What if you'd been born in Mr. Mancini's family, Catholic. That's what Saul of Tarsus turned
to Philippians 3. This is the kind of religion
I'm talking about. This is the kind of religion
I'm speaking of, Philippians chapter 3. The Apostle Paul,
before he met Christ, before he came to a personal, individual,
heartfelt, For himself, in Christ alone, he was what his daddy
was. He was what his mama was. He
was what he was taught. He was a Jew. There are women
probably in this congregation that are here because their husbands
are here. If their husband was somewhere, I'll send you somewhere.
Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us a three-word sermon one time.
He said, Remember Lot's wife. Remember Lot's wife. So many
things indicated there. Remember that she was the wife
of a righteous man, but she was unrighteous. She was the wife
of a saved man, but she was unsaved. She was the wife of a man whom
God delivered, but he damned her. You see, this traditional
religion is not worth that. This adopted religion is not
worth that. It's got to be a heart. You've
just got one heart, and you're going to believe with that heart.
Not with someone else's heart. Listen here to Philippians 3.
Paul said, in verse 5, I will circumcise the eighth day of
the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews,
as touching the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, touching the righteousness which is of the law, blameless.
That was his country's religion, his race's religion, and his
home religion. And that, consequently, was his
religion. And so when the Scripture talks about In our text, if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth, you know what I'm saying, and
believe with your heart, not daddy and mama's, not our country
or race, not our tradition, your heart. It clearly distinguishes
that. Your heart. Thou shalt be saved. David read it in a study a while
ago. They said we'd be Abraham's seed. Abraham's our father. All right, here's the third thing.
Now, what I'm saying is this. I'm trying to distinguish why
the Scripture uses heart, heart, heart, heart, when it talks about
faith. It indicates sincerity. Secondly, it distinguishes between
a traditional inherited faith and a genuine personal experience. And then thirdly, The word heart
distinguishes between material, carnal, covetous desire, material,
carnal, covetous desire, and genuine affection for Christ. What do you think of the first
verse you think of? The first one I think of is this,
old Job sitting there scraping his balls with a piece of glass.
Everything had gone wrong. He had money, now he was broke.
He had a family, now he was without a family. Even his wife said,
curse God and die. He had friends, now he had no
friends. He said, people laugh at me on the street. And then
he said, though he slay me, I'll trust him. Though he slay me,
I'll trust him." You see, when Satan came to appear before the
Lord with the sons of men, that was the very charge he brought
against Job. He said, I'll tell you why Job
loves you. I'll tell you why Job believes
in you. You've hedged him about. You won't let anybody touch him.
You protect him. You provide for him. You've prospered
him. You've made him wealthy. You've
given him everything he could want. Take it away from him,
and he'll curse you. God said, take it away from him.
And Satan took it away from him. Did he curse God? No, sir. He
praised God. He said, naked I came out of
my mother's womb and naked I'll leave this earth. God gave and
God hath taken away. Praise God from whom all blessings
flow. That's faith. Heart faith. Got
nothing to do with your clothes, got nothing to do with your friends,
got nothing to do with your environment, got nothing to do with your surroundings,
got nothing to do with your home, got nothing to do with your job,
got nothing to do with this world's popularity, got nothing to do
with this world's religion. Heart failure. Everything he
had was gone, except one thing. He could still breathe with difficulty. That's heart failure. That's
what we're talking about. That's exactly what we're talking
about. Now that's the reason the Scripture uses this thing
of heart in our text. Let's look at it again. And this
is shooting straight. The arrow's aimed at you and
me. It's not aimed at the general universal congregation. It's aimed at individuals because
he says in verse 9 that if thou shall confess with thy mouth,
Jesus to be Lord, and shall believe in your heart, God raised him
from the dead, you'll be saved. All right, let me try if I can,
for this dear lady who will be listening to this tape and her
husband, and for this preacher, and for you out there, and for
others who may hear it, let me define what I think believing
with the heart is. And I'll give you seven things
that I believe, and I'll try to be brief. Seven things. What does it mean to believe
with the heart? First of all, heart faith has
one Undisputed object, the Lord Jesus Christ. Heart faith has
one object, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at the text again. That
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Jesus to be Lord. Jesus to be Lord. That's the
object of faith, Christ Jesus. And believe in your heart, God
raised him from the dead. What are we talking about here?
We're talking about his deity. Heart faith believes in the deity
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is indisputable, absolute,
immutable, unchangeable deity. He is God. And he lived on this
earth. One doesn't die who doesn't live.
And one's not resurrected who doesn't die. So this faith, this
heart faith, has one object Christ in his deity, in his life, in
his death, in his resurrection. If you believe that he lived,
if you believe that he's Lord, if you believe God raised him
from the dead, you'll be saved. According to a thousand places
in this Bible, soul-saving faith rests upon Jesus Christ in all
his character, in all his works, in all his offices, in all of
his glory. Saving faith rests totally not
upon experience, not upon prayers, not upon merit, not upon works,
not upon deeds, not upon decisions, or any other foundation, but
upon Christ alone. Christ alone. That's heart faith. That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth, Jesus, to be Lord, to be Lord, and believe in your
heart, God, sincerely, Sincerely, genuinely, as opposed to doctrinally. If you believe it, thou shalt
be saved. Secondly, and this is so important,
listen carefully to it. Heart faith is always born of
need, always without question. It cannot be present if it's
not born of need. I've said so many times, if you
ain't never been lost, you ain't never been found. If you've never
been stripped, you've never been clothed. You can't love Christ
until you need him. Now this is so. You listen carefully
to me. The first work of the Holy Spirit
in a man is not to teach him doctrine. It's to convince him
of sin. And when he has come, he will
convince the world of what? Of sin. That's the first work
of the Holy Spirit. And he or she who has not been
convinced of sin has never been the object of the Holy Spirit's
work. He may have been the object of some soul winner's zeal. He
may have been the object of some sweet mama's prayer. He may have
been the object of some Sunday school teacher's zeal. But he
ain't never been the object of the Holy Spirit's work. Never,
never, never. The Holy Spirit makes a man feel
a great emptiness within himself. And in the light of God's holiness,
in the light of God's justice, in the light of God's perfect
law, he cries with the public and in the temple, God, teach
me doctrine. God, teach me theology. God,
help me find the right church. No, sir, God, be merciful to
me, the sinner. That's where it starts. Or with
the thief on the cross who said, Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. Or blind Bartimaeus sitting in
his dust and beggarly rags and emptiness and hunger and filth
and pain. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. Jesus becomes precious where
the need is the greatest. If a man's thirsty, he believes
in water. Huh? He believes in water. A man who's not thirsty could
care less. And the thirstier he is, the
more precious it is. Huh? Here's a man that's been
sitting out here in a deserted coal mine, caved in. He's been
there for two weeks. No food or water if he could
survive that long. raise up or drill a hole through
to him and slip some thousand dollar bills in there. Why, he'll look upon them with
disdain. Why don't you try this? Why don't
you slip a little water and a little bread in there and two, three
thousand dollar bills beside it and see which one he grabs
hold of and clutches to his heart. If a man's hungry, bread, he
believes in bread. If a man's lost, he believes
in Christ. And the more lost he is, the
more he believes in Christ. And the farther away from God
he is, the more he loves Christ. That gospel that suits my case
and meets my need is the gospel that my heart pants for, reaches
for, and clings to, and will not let it go. That's right. what is believing
with the heart. Heart faith is always born of
need, and the greater the need, the stronger the faith. The greater
the need, the greater the emptiness, the more glorious the feeling. The darker the night, the more
precious the light. Thirdly, well, our Lord turned
his disciples and said, will you go away? They said, to whom
shall we go? We got nowhere to go. We got
nowhere to turn. You have the words of life. And
we believe and are sure that you're the Christ. To whom shall
we go? Thirdly, heart faith. Watch it now. Heart faith genuinely
agrees with the justice of God. What was the next thing David
said after he acknowledged his sin? Turn to Psalm 51. Joe, I believe, preached from
this last Wednesday night, ably, capably, in a blessed way. Let me read something from it
again. Psalm 51. First thing David said is what
I said a moment ago. Holy Spirit begins by convincing
of sin. And he said in verse 2, wash
me throughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. You got
it? Psalm 51. Verse 3, I acknowledge my transgression,
my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when you speak. And that your name and your fairness
That's not fair. Oh, yes, it is, too. I don't
think it's right. Oh, yes, it is. The judge of
the earth will do right. What you've had, my friend, you
ain't never been convinced of sin. When David, when God whittled
him down, the first thing he said after he found out what
he was, he said, when you speak, you're clear. You're clear. You're just. And when you judge,
God, I clear your name. I clear your name. The man who
is convinced of his sins and believes in his heart is a man
that agrees with the justice of God. He agrees with the justice
of God. God is just when he speaks and
he's righteous when he condemns. In other words, if God is pleased
to pass me by, am I going to blame God? No, sir, I'm going
to clear him in his judgment. You mean to tell me the lady
said that God might pass my middle girl by and not save her? You
mean God might not save my child? That's exactly what I mean. Well, God would be just if he
didn't save your child. God would be clear if he didn't
save you or anybody else associated with you. God doesn't owe you
anything but wrath, that's all. Heart faith agrees with the justice
of God. Heart faith speaks with David.
You're clear when you speak and just when you judge. Fourthly,
consequently heart faith implies a love for God's way of salvation. I'm sick and tired of people
bucking the doctrine of election and bucking the doctrine of predestination
and bucking the doctrine of God's sovereignty. Let me tell you
something. Heart, faith, love is God's way of salvation. I'll
tell you why. Now you listen to me a minute. And I've looked this thing over.
I believe it's right. When a man clearly lays hold
by the grace of God, of the holiness of God, of the
righteousness of God, And I don't think we've laid hold of it like
we shall someday. We see through a glass dimly.
We prophesy knowing part. But to some degree, by the grace
of God, if we can get some kind of conception of God's holiness,
who he is, almighty, majestic, eternal, pure and holy, When
a man in truth understands just somewhat of the unworthiness
and the wretchedness and corruption and inability of this F-L-E-S-H
flesh, this flesh, and how far apart that holiness of God and
that corruption of our flesh is, and how absolutely, absolutely
beyond any possibility of being united He'll go home and sit
down. He'll sit down and three thoughts
will prevail in his heart. I guarantee you. I guarantee
you. Three thoughts will prevail in
his heart. Number one is this, if the Holy
Ghost teaches him those two facts, he'll go home and these three
things will prevail. Number one, he'll say, well,
let God be God. Let God be God. Let God be holy
and righteous. He must and will be glorified.
I got no arguments against His right to reign. I got no arguments
against His right to judge. I got no arguments against His
holiness. Let God be God. Let all the earth
proclaim and praise His name and bow before His holiness.
God is holy. But the second thing that'll
beat with every beat of his heart, he'll long and desire for mercy,
forgiveness, and a place with the redeemed. I want to be redeemed
by that God. I want to know that God. The
distance between me and that God does not lessen my desire
to be with him. I want to be like him. I want
to be conformed to his image, I want to have his fellowship,
I want his approval, I want his acceptance, I want his mercy. And I'll tell you the third thing
that will prevail in his heart is this, he will love and embrace
that way of salvation which God lays down in his word that is
in keeping with his attributes. He'll grab hold of it, He'll
embrace it, He'll fall before it, and He'll say, so be it.
I see how God must choose a people because of that mighty guff that
God did span. We couldn't span it. We couldn't
choose Him, didn't want to choose Him, had no desire to choose
Him. We were darkness and loved our darkness. He must choose.
I can see how Christ would must enter into the covenant as our
surety to lift the wrath of God from a condemned race. I see
how that Christ must come down here for the sake of God's law
and perfectly obey it in every jot and tittle. I see how it
must be so for God to be reconciled. for God's holiness to be honored,
for God's law to be satisfied. I see how that ought not the
Son of Man, ought not the Christ to have suffered these things?
Sure he must! That God's justice may be satisfied. I see why that Christ must daily
intercede because even now there's nothing in us that God can accept
or God can receive. God must glorify every attribute. This message is a stumbling block
to the religious, it's nonsense and foolishness to the rebel,
but to those who are being saved, this gospel is the power and
wisdom of God. And they love it. They love it. Now I know before a man's saved,
before a man meets Christ, before a woman meets Christ, They'll
book against election and book against sovereignty and book
against what's called predestination, book against God's choice of
some and passing by others. But once a man has been made
an object or a woman, an object of the Holy Spirit's work, when
he breaks down that pride and breaks down that haughty spirit
and breaks down that arrogance and elevates God in his majesty
and holiness and puts man in the dust where he was born and
where he lives and and enjoys by choice and will and practice,
when he ever sees that, he lays hold on this gospel of God's
free grace and God's sovereignty, and he says, that's the way it
has to be. And not only that, but that's
the way it must be. And that's the way, John, I want
it to be. That's the difference. You say
in a person that God's sovereignty is unsaved? Exactly. That's what I'm saying. Why? Because he doesn't know God.
Anybody who knows God knows he's sovereign. The word God means
sovereign. Are you saying that a person
who doesn't know that man's inability and lost condition doesn't realize
it's unsaved? Exactly. Exactly. That's exactly what I'm saying.
He may be being saved, but he ain't saved yet. Because a man
who's saved has been saved from S-I-N, sin. That's what Christ
said he came to save folks from sin. All right, fifthly, I know
my heart faith. I'm talking about heart faith.
I'm not talking about playing religion like most folks have
done for all these years and are so deceived and so deluded. God sends them strong delusions.
They believe the lie so long that they'll believe it and be
damned for it. They rest the scriptures to their own destruction. This is heart faith. Heart faith. Heart faith. Living faith. Saving
faith. Heart faith in the fifth place
will persevere. No question about it. Now listen
to me. Men who believe certain facts
in their minds because of logic and arguments can be argued into
another position. In other words, Tom, if you sat
and listened to a fellow and he said, now see what that says?
Yeah. See what that says? Yeah. Well, now that's logical. Well, you believe you're right.
I believe that. The fellow comes along a little
smarter and a little sharper. And he says, now that doesn't
mean that. See, coupled with this, well, I believe maybe you're
right. You see, every wind of doctrine, unstable, unstable,
unstable. Everything sounds good. Everything's
logical. So the more they come along with
their logic and argument, they can be shifted and blown about
like the wind. But the believer's like a what?
Not a leaf carried by the wind. He's planted. a tree planted. And there's a place where he's
planted, by the river. And there's someone who planted
him, my heavenly father planted him. And he'll never be moved. Never. A man who believes something
because of an emotional experience can be changed by a stronger
emotional experience. Well, certainly. That's how folks
get baptized with the Holy Ghost. And it's better than salvation.
They had an experience. They had an emotional experience.
They accepted Jesus. And they went to a meeting. They
got on their knees. And the choir was singing. People were making
hup-de-doo and speaking in tongues. Somebody put their hands on them.
They felt an electric shock. And they had a greater emotional
experience. And they'll have another one down the road. And
they'll just keep hopping. Just keep hopping. A man who
follows men will always follow a stronger man. But those who've seen God for
themselves, in His holiness, in themselves in their sin, and
they've seen Christ in His obedience and righteousness as a full and
complete representative And they've seen Christ on the cross as their
surety, in the manger as their incarnate Lord, bone of their
bone and flesh of their flesh, on the cross as their sin offering
and atonement, in the Holy of Holies as their sin offering
and perfect righteousness, interceding, reigning at the right hand of
God. They can never be drawn away by the strongest arguments
even hell can produce. They cannot be persuaded by any
man's emotional experience. They cannot be persuaded away
from Christ. He that seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, sees him. I've never seen the Lord. Oh,
I have. Oh, yes, I have. I've seen the
Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ. How did
you see Him? Saw Him in His Word. Saw Him
in His Word. So am I with a heart of faith.
So am I with a mind of faith. And I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. In the sixth place, heart faith,
watch it now, heart faith regards and receives trials, all trials
as from the Lord. Turn to Psalm 119. All man may
be second, third, or fourth cause, but God's the first cause. Heart,
faith. Shall tribulation, what's going
to separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation?
In Psalm 119, verse 71, it's good for me, David said, it's
good for me. Psalm 119, 71, it's good for
me that I've been afflicted, that I might learn, that I might
learn thy statutes. Verse 75, I know, O Lord, that
Thou judgments are right, and that Thou in faithfulness hast
afflicted me. I know that. That's heart faith.
That's heart faith. Now the little fellow that's
grabbed hold while down the aisle when everybody else went, he
got religion one night in the revival meeting during the whoopee
service. Well, he has a little ill wind
that blows some floods from beneath or some rains from above or some
disturbances like the wind from within, and he throws down his
sword, drops the banner, and runs for shelter. But that man
that knows, like David, that though I walk through a valley
of the shatter of death, I'll fear no evil, God's with me.
God's with me. He knows in faithfulness God
afflicts. In faithfulness. And didn't our
Lord promise in Matthew 5, listen to this, Matthew 5 verse 4, blessed. Blessed are the poor, theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn,
they shall be comforted. Verse 6, blessed are they that
hunger and thirst, they shall be filled. Blessed, verse 10,
are they that are persecuted, For theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Turn to 2 Corinthians 4 and listen to Paul on this
subject here. 2 Corinthians 4. I'm talking
about heart faith now, heart faith. Heart faith will persevere. Heart faith perseveres because
it recognizes that not only the blessings, but the afflictions
are from God's hand. And the afflictions sometimes
are greater blessings than what we call blessings. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 8, we're
troubled, Paul said, on every side. Yet we're not distressed.
We're perplexed, but we're not in despair. We're not altogether
without help. We're persecuted, but we're not
forsaken. We're cast down, but we're not
destroyed. We're not destroyed. Want to
look at the same chapter, verse 16. 2 Corinthians 4, for which
cause we faint not, though our outward man perish? Yet our inward
man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which
are seen, but at the things which are not seen." How can you look
at something that's not seen? Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. That evidence is his
word, his spirit within. We look not at things which are
temporal, and what is temporal? Every blessed thing you can smell,
touch, taste, or feel, or hear, or see with these eyes. But we,
we, we look on those things which are eternal. Now, in the last
place, heart faith will prevail in the day of death. This heart faith in Christ is
our foundation in life. It's our foundation in death.
I know we don't like to talk about death, but let's be realistic,
congregation. Let's be realistic. We sit here and we look round
about us and there's some folks gone that used to sit here on
a regular basis and people are gone. You could stand here and
name them one at a time. They got old and they died and
then others died suddenly. And someday where we're sitting
is going to be vacant. Someday this place will be occupied
by somebody else. No question about that. I'm a
fool not to recognize that. The scripture says, teach us
to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Most
not thyself of tomorrow. You don't know what a day is
going to bring forth. But I tell you this about heart faith, and
this outward playtime and showmanship religion, it won't do in life,
let alone in death. But I'll tell you this, this
foundation, this heart faith, this obsession with Christ, this
dependence upon Christ, this love for Christ, brethren, it'll
do to live by whether it's daylight or dark. Whether we're in the
valley or on the mountain, whether we're young or old, whether we're
rich or poor, it'll do. Whether we're persecuted or praised,
it will do. It'll do whether we're in the
pulpit or on the shelf, it'll do. But I'll tell you this, it'll
do to die by, David. It'll do to die by. Sure will. I don't know how I'm going to
die. I'm not going to make any predictions, but I believe this,
I'm going to die in Christ. I'll make that prediction. These
all died in faith. There ain't nowhere else to go,
as far as I'm concerned. I read a few days ago about a
fellow that was a believer. He was a strong believer, loved
the gospel, loved Christ. But there wasn't anybody in his
family that was saved. There wasn't anybody in his family
that gave a hoot for the gospel, his wife nor his children. And
he told his pastor one day, he said, well, he said, I'm getting
old and I'm going to die. And he said, I'll tell you, I
plan when I die. I plan. I'm going to die praising
the Lord. I'm going to die quoting scripture.
I'm going to die singing hymns of praise. And that'll impress
my wife. And that'll impress my children.
And maybe God will use it to bring them to faith. They'll
watch how a Christian dies. Well, Spurgeon told this. He
said, well, the best laid plans of men, you know, don't always
work out that way. He died screaming in agony. He didn't sing a song and he
didn't quote a scripture. He died begging for death. He
was in such pain, begging for death. Well, we don't know. I don't know. God is, our Lord
does what he will, when he will. And men aren't going to be convinced
by my activities. They're going to be convinced
by the Word of God. But I'm saying this, my hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood is righteous. That's heart faith. And when
I come to die, if I don't sing you a hymn and I don't quote
you any scripture, you just say this, well, he died looking to
Christ. He died looking to Christ inside.