Now last Sunday night, I brought a rather candid and plain message on the subject
of prayer. And then Friday night down in
Wortland, Kentucky, I spoke on the subject of repentance. And
like the subject of prayer, I dealt with it quite open and plain
and candidly. And somebody made the statement,
it was conveyed to me, and I appreciate it, that Brother Mahan's either
preaching in a plainer, more understandable fashion, or else
I'm growing in grace and understanding it a little more. Well, I hope
both are true. I hope I'm preaching with a little
more clarity and understanding and plainness. And I sure hope you're growing
in grace and understanding. But I'm going to speak on faith
this morning. I've tackled me some big subjects, last week
prayer and Friday night repentance and this morning faith. I was
by the house of Bill Parker on Friday night and we were talking.
Bill doesn't mind me quoting him, I'm sure. But he said that years ago that
I made a statement that he'd never heard a preacher make before
and he rather liked it. He said, I made the statement,
don't believe anything because I say it. I'm not asking you
to accept what I'm saying at all. I'm asking you to search
the scriptures and see if these things are so. I'm not your representative
and I'm not Christ's vicar. I'm just an ambassador of Christ,
a frail human being who's subject to faults and errors and mistakes
and sins just like you are. If you could cut into my heart
this morning, I'll shock you with another statement. I think
this congregation's past shocking by now. But if you could cut
into my heart this morning, you would find some things. Number
one, you'd find a confidence. I have some confidence. I have
confidence in my leadership. If I didn't, I wouldn't be up
here. I have confidence that God has
called me to preach His gospel. I have a confidence that I know
something about the gospel. I've been in it a long time.
I've been in it more than most men. I preach more than most
men my age living today. But if you could cut into my
heart, you'd find this, you would find a genuine humility and seeking
of the Lord. Now I think I can say with the
Apostle Paul, I believe I can say this, that I want to know
Christ and the power of His resurrection. I don't want to miss Christ.
I don't want to preach to others and then become a castaway. And
I can truthfully say, if you could know the thoughts of my
heart, I haven't attained, and I'm not
perfect, I haven't arrived, I haven't laid hold upon that for which
I trust He has laid hold of me. With you, I'm seeking to know
the gospel. I want to learn the gospel. And
I want to know that gospel and preach that gospel. I'm not taking
anything for granted. I'm not looking back to an experience
or looking to an office or a position or to a way of life. In my heart,
I'm looking to a person, Jesus Christ. And I want to know Him. I want you to know Him. I can't
bear the thought of hearing Him say to me in the day of judgment,
I never knew you. That troubles me. And I can't
bear the thought of knowing that some of you to whom I've preached
all these years will one day stand in the judgment without
a righteousness, without a knowledge of Christ, without a relationship
to Christ and hear him say, bind him hand and foot and cast him
into hell. So I'm going to continue to try
to speak candidly and openly and honestly from my heart in
these messages that I'm bringing to you. As I sit in there and
prepare these messages and search the Scriptures, brother, I'm
not preparing them as a preacher. I'm preparing them as a man who
believes on Christ and seeking the Lord. I'm not a professional
preacher. I hope I never become one. I'm a sinner saved by the grace
of God who's trying to tell somebody else what God's done for me and
what He says in His Word. Somebody said the best witnessing
in the world is one beggar telling another beggar where he found
some bread. And that's what this case is here. I'm not a professional
preacher. I'm not a fellow that's got all
the answers. I'm a person that's trying to open this word and
search the scriptures and seek the Lord and try to learn the
gospel and present the gospel and preach the gospel. We're
not trying to build a kingdom here and build a following and
see how many people we can get and how big a building we can
have and how big a program we can have and most of our numbers. I'm not interested. I told somebody
after the service last night down in Workman, we had about
45 or 50 people down there and we sang and prayed and read the
scripture and I preached and on the way out I said sometimes
I wish I had and was pastor of a little group of folks of 25
or 30 or 40 people and you could have that informality and openness
and just seek the Lord together and praise his name and rest
the rest of the time. We've got a job to do, and we'll
try to do it. But let me make some statements
here now by way of introducing this message on faith. First
of all, let me say this. Now, this is so. Saving faith
in Christ may be known. A man can know he's saved. A
man can know he has saving faith. Now, that is so. It's not true. It's just not true that a person
must wait to the judgment to find out if he saved or lost.
It's just not true. Our Lord commands us to settle
the matter of faith right now. He commands us. He said, now
is the accepted time. Today is the day of salvation.
A man can know he's saved. I can know that I know Christ.
You can know that you know Christ. I'm not saying it's required
that you have assurance. I'm not saying it's required
that you have no doubts. But I'm saying it can be known.
If we don't have any assurance, if we don't have any confidence
of our relationship with Christ and of our salvation, it's not
the fault of the word. It's not the fault of the spirit.
It's our fault. Now listen to these scriptures.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 11. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul is
talking about the Lord's table. And he said, now when you come
to the table of the Lord, the first thing you do, Of course,
you realize what it is. It is the table of the Lord.
The bread represents his broken body and the wine represents
his shed blood. And we do this in remembrance
of Christ. But he said the first thing you
do in verse 28, he said, let a man examine himself. Now, the
preacher's not to examine you, and you're not to examine one
another. We're not to sit around and say, well, he ought not be
here, she ought not be here, there are things in his life,
things in her life, so forth and so on. Let a man examine
himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that
cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh
destruction or judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
What is this discerning is judging, understanding. In other words,
here's what I'm to do is I come to this table and this is what
I do. You say, no, you just serve it. You're the pastor, you're
the preacher, you're God's child, you're saved. Oh, you hold on
now. Now you wait just a minute. I have no automatic deliverance
anymore and you do. I'm just a human being like you.
I sit right here and I look at that bread and I say, do I understand
in my heart that that represents the broken body of my Lord? His
body was broken for me on that tree. And that blood, that wine
represents my Lord's blood that was shed for me. Do I believe
that? Do I trust Him? Do I understand that He as my
substitute died in my place under the condemnation of my sin and
bore my guilt under the wrath of God and put away my condemnation? Lord, I do believe. Help my unbelief. But I take this bread, not as
salvation. It's not a sacrament. I don't
take that bread. It doesn't become the body of
Christ and put salvation. You can't get salvation that
way. Salvation is not in an unleavened bread and in a glass of wine.
It's in the broken body and shed blood of Christ. But these elements
represent what he did. And that's, I examined myself
and that's what the Lord is saying. You can know you're a believer.
You can know this. I don't have much faith, but
all the faith I have is in Christ. I don't have super faith or strong
faith, but all the faith I have is in Christ. He's my hope. He's
my hope. Now turn, if you will, to 2 Corinthians,
and what I'm saying here is that Paul is commanding us to examine
ourselves, seeking what? Seeking faith. Examine ourselves,
whether you can find any faith, whether you can find any understanding,
whether you can find any judgment of the Lord's body and blood.
Can you find it? Is it there? If it is, thank
God. Thank God it's there. Now watch this verse, 2 Corinthians
chapter 13. Chapter 13 verse 5. Examine yourselves,
examine yourself, whether you be in the faith. That's what
you examine yourself for some faith. Prove yourself. Know you're
not your own self. Don't you know your own thoughts,
your own heart? Are you a hypocrite? Well, you
know if you are. Are you a reprobate? You know
if you are. Know you're not your own selves? How that Jesus Christ
is in you by faith. He's your foundation. He's your
refuge. He's your Lord. He's your love.
He's your life. He's your all. Except you be
a reprobate. Now turn to 2 Peter. And Peter
says the same thing. These disciples are commanding
us to do what can be done. And that is to examine ourselves
and determine whether or not we're resting in Christ. 2 Peter
1, verse 10. Here Peter says, Brethren, wherefore
the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election. Now notice he didn't put election
before calling. Election is before calling for
God. For God it is. God elected us
before he called us. You see what I'm saying? But
for God it's first, but not for you. You don't try to find out
if you want to elect. You have to pry around into God's
counsel, into God's secret mysteries, and you can't do that. How do
you determine your election? By your calling. Have I been
called by the Word? Have I been called by the Gospel?
Have I been called by the Spirit? Has God made known to me His
Word? Have I trusted Christ? Have I
rested in Christ? Have I come to Christ? Then I've
been elected. because everybody who's elected
is called. That's what he said. Whom he
foreknew, he predestinated to be conformed to the image of
his son. Whom he predestinated, he called. Whom he called, he
justified. Whom he justified, he glorified.
But he tells me to give diligence, concern, dedication, undivided
attention. Now, I want you to give some
attention to your job and do a good job. I want you ladies
to give attention to your children and raise them, keep them clean
and well clothed and well fed and all those things. Be a good
mother, be a good wife, be a good husband, be a good worker. Go
out there and give that man that hired you eight hours work for
eight hours salary. Be honest. Do that business like
it was your own business. But I'm telling you this, that
which ought to be uppermost of greatest concern for mothers
and fathers and little children is my relationship with Christ.
Now, you give diligence to make your calling and election sure.
If you do this, you'll never fail. So this is what I'm saying,
that our faith may be known. God intends for us to have a
solid resting place for our feet and for our faith, and that is
in Christ. All right? Here's the second
statement. Those in the Old Testament and the New Testament who are
our examples, And he said, these were given to you for examples.
Paul called himself a pattern of those that believed. So these
men are examples. David, Abraham, Isaiah, Matthew,
Mark, Luke, John, Peter, James. These men are examples. We're
to follow them as they follow Christ. And our examples, some
of them were sure of their saving interest in Christ. Listen to
Job. Let's turn and let's read it, Job 19. Job had some confidence
of his relationship with God, of his knowledge of Christ. In
Job chapter 19, listen to what Job says, I believe it's in verse
25. Yeah, he said this, listen, I
know, for I know that my Redeemer lives. I know that my only hope,
my savior, my substitute, my redeemer, I know he lives. He's
not a statue. He's not a picture. He's a living
person. I know he lives. He don't. And
that he shall stand, and this was written before Christ came,
that he shall stand at the latter day on this earth. My redeemer's
gonna stand on this earth. He believed in incarnation. He
believed in the appearance of Christ on this earth. He's going
to stand on this earth. And he says, I believe, I know
that though after my skin worms destroy this body, in other words,
the undertaker buries me and I rot and go back to the dust,
yet I'm going to rise. In my flesh I'll see God. This
man is writing hundreds of years before the New Testament, hundreds
of years before Christ came. Taught of God. And I'm going
to see my Redeemer, whom I shall see for myself in my own eyes,
not another. Somebody always says, we're going
to know each other in heaven. Sure we are. We're going to be
ourselves. We're going to retain our names and our personalities. We're going to be much better,
infinitely better. We're going to be incorrupt,
immortal. We're going to be without shame
and sin. We're going to be glorified and
holy. But he said, Old Job's going to see the Lord. And I'm
going to be buried and put in the tomb, and I'm coming out
of that tomb, and in my flesh, I'm going to see the Lord. I'm
going to see him for myself, and my eyes will behold him,
not another, though my reins be consumed within me. Well,
David said, the Lord is my shepherd. He had confidence. Turn to 2
Timothy. Let's see what Paul says about
himself and his confidence, his faith in 2 Timothy 1. Listen
to this. He says in 2 Timothy 1, 12. He
said, I suffer some things, but I'm not ashamed. Now watch this.
I know whom I have believed. That's Paul. I know whom I have
believed. John said, we know we've passed from death unto
life. We love the brethren. I know whom I have believed.
I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed
to him against that day. I put it in the hands of Christ. You see what I'm saying? All
right, here's the third statement, if you're with me so far. I'm
saying that a man doesn't have to wait till the judgment to
find out if he's a believer. A man doesn't have to wait till the
judgment to find out if he's safe. A man doesn't have to wait till
the smoke dies down and the dust clears away and God's pronouncing
judgment and casting some into darkness and taking some into
glory to find out whether his name's in the book of life or
hidden. He can know. We're commanded to settle this
issue now. And men who've gone before us
have settled it. They said, the Lord is my shepherd.
I know my redeemer liveth. I know whom I have believed.
We know we've passed from death unto life. We know these things.
And then thirdly, this is the knowledge, this knowledge of
our interest in Christ. This is the knowledge that encourages
a man to leave everything to follow Christ. This is what motivates
a man to follow Christ, to put his hopes in one person. As the
old preacher used to say, put all his eggs in one basket. This
knowledge of Christ leads a man and encourages a man to give
up everything for Christ. Now, uncertainty will lead to
indifference. Uncertainty will lead to carelessness. That's the reason so many folks
shift from here to there and go from here to there. Uncertainty.
It leads to indifference. But when a man has confidence
in the gospel, he's going to preach it. He's going to stand
by it. He's going to support it. And
he's not going to listen to anything else. When a man has confidence
in Christ, I don't have any confidence in the law. I have no confidence
in my flesh. I have no confidence in anybody's
flesh. I have no confidence in morality. I have no confidence
in church denominations. They've risen and fallen, or
even individual churches. All the great churches of the
past are now nothing in the world but roosting places for pigeons.
You can't name a one, can you, Jack? Spurgeon's Church? Why,
it's nothing but a shell. Folks meeting in there denying
everything, he preached. Calvin's Church? There's nothing
there. Whitfield's Church? Westley's Church? I walked in
it, but nobody else been there in a long time. There's nothing
there. Used to be, used to be the gospel
echoed from wall to wall and ceiling and back to the back.
Great men of God like Whitefield and Knox and Spurgeon and all
these men and Edwards stood and preached. But nothing but the
pigeons coo now. It's gone. The glory's gone. Ichabod's on
the door. That's the same thing that'll
be here someday. I guarantee you. Right here in this place.
where right now the name of Christ, the blood of Christ, the glory
of God, the sovereignty of God is preached. His honor is upheld. His glory is lifted up. That's
right. If this building still stands
and there's a preacher here one of these days, he'll be saying,
now you can't be sure about this, what the Bible says. Because
they were just men that wrote it and Paul was prejudiced and
all this sort of thing, you know, they'll explain it away. They'll
explain it away. They'll explain it away. But
I'm telling you right now, this confidence in Christ leads a
man to declare His Word, and stand by it, and preach it, and
put all his eggs in one basket, and have even a willingness to
die for Jesus Christ. Turn to the book of Acts. Let
me show you something. Acts chapter 21. The Apostle Paul was leaving
his friends, the elders from Ephesus, he was leaving them.
And over here in chapter 20, they told him he was going to
be put in prison, they were going to put him in bonds and they
were going to kill him. And he said in Acts 20 verse 24, these
things don't move me. No, you're not moving me, you're
not disturbing me. I don't count my life dear unto
myself. My life is not dear to me. Christ
is dear to me. And I lay down my life for his
sake. Look at chapter 21. Listen to verse 13. Paul answered,
and they were weeping. They knew he was going to Jerusalem.
He was going to die. And they were weeping, and they
were telling him not to go. And Paul said in verse 13, chapter
21, what mean ye? He answered and said, what mean
ye to weep and break my heart? I'm ready not only to be bound,
I'm ready to die for the name of Jesus Christ. That's how much
I believe it. That's how much I believe it.
And over here in our text, I read to you in Matthew 10, you want
to look at this again? I'll tell you, our parents and
our children and our relatives are dear to us, but Christ is
dearer. And when it talks here in verse
34 of Matthew 10, our Lord said, don't you think that I've come
to send peace on this earth? I didn't come to bring peace,
not to this earth. There can't be any peace where
sin reigns. There can't be any peace where
sin reigns. Christ came to bring peace to
the hearts of individuals. That's where peace reigns. Peace
is in the heart. He came to make peace between
God and His people. See, God was at war with us.
Our sins had separated us from God, and God in His holiness
could not look with favor or in peace upon us, and Christ
came and reconciled us to God, and the war is over, and there's
peace between the sinner and God. And then in time, by the
Holy Spirit, He brings peace to our hearts. He knows that
He brings us to know that that peace is established by Christ's
blood and righteousness between us and God, and that gives us
a peace with God. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the peace on earth goodwill toward men. That's what he's
talking about. You see, when Christ, the natural
mind is enmity against God. And God's angry with the wicked.
And God hateth the workers of iniquity. That's what scripture
said. God can't look with favor upon evil and sin. That's the
reason he turned his back on his own son when Christ died
on the cross. God cannot walk with sin or look
upon sin or have any communion with sin. And that's what separated
our sins between us and God. There was no peace. And when
Christ came, he removed that wall. He removed that barrier.
He removed that, he honored the law and he satisfied justice.
And God's able to look with favor upon us in Christ. He's able
to love us in Christ. He's able to bless us in Christ. The war is over. Christ brought
peace between God and the sinner. But now, wait a minute. I'm still
at war with God. God's at peace in Christ. 2,000
years ago, that peace was settled. God's at peace with me. Let's
take Saul of Tarsus, for example. Was he at peace with God? When God made him on the road
to Damascus, he was going down there to put some folks in prison
that called on the name of Christ. He's gonna kill them. herd them
together like sheep and drive them in jails. Oh, he hated Christ. He hated Christ. Christ loved
him. You see, God was at peace with
him. God loved him. He said, Jeremiah, I've separated
you from your mother's womb. Before you was born, before I
formed you in the belly, I knew you, I loved you. That word,
I knew them, I loved them. But Jeremiah didn't love him.
Paul didn't love him. I didn't love him. And one day
the Holy Spirit came and broke Paul's heart and stripped him
and put him in the dust and made him look up into heaven. He cried,
Lord, what will you have me do? And you see, peace made by Christ
with God toward us, reconciled us. And the Holy Spirit comes
in time and Paul said, be ye reconciled to God. Be at peace
with God. That's what I'm preaching here
for. I'm not preaching to get Christ to come down. He's come.
I'm not preaching to get Christ to die. He's died for somebody.
I'm not preaching to bring Christ up from the dead. He's risen.
I'm just declaring some facts. He's risen. He's not here. He's
risen, the angel said. Why do you seek the living among
the dead? I'm not proving anything. But I'm an ambassador of Jesus
Christ and I'm telling sinners, be reconciled to God. That enmity
has got to come out of your heart. It's got to be rooted out of
your soul. That love for self, that dedication to self, that
motivation of self has got to be rooted out. And the only one
who can do it is the Spirit of God and the Word of God. That's our purpose for preaching.
We're not trying to prove to you there's a God. He lives whether
you believe it or not. Not trying to prove the worth.
These people are always digging up Dead Sea Scrolls, digging
up something else, saying, that proves the Bible's God's Word.
You can't prove to a rebel the Bible's God's Word. You're wasting
your time. Not trying to prove anything.
It's so whether we believe it or not. But what I'm trying to
say as an ambassador of Jesus Christ is be reconciled to God. And when you are, and that faith
may be known. And other men have known that
faith and relationship. And when that faith and relationship
is established by the Spirit of God, a man will give his life
for Christ. He won't just join a church and
stay there six months and when he gets mad at somebody walk
off. He won't just believe the gospel for a year, or 10 years,
or 15 years, and then when it gets upset, walk off. When he
sees something he likes better, pick it up, tear up his home,
and walk off and leave everybody. No, sir. A man who comes to know
Christ will give himself, his life, his ambitions, he tears
up his blueprints. I belong to Christ! I belong
to Christ. I don't belong to myself. You're
not your own. You're bought with a price. And
everything I've got is his, my children are his. They came to
Job and they said, well, your cattle are all dead, and your
sheep are all dead, and your oxen are all dead, now your children
are all dead. But he said, the Lord gave and
the Lord took it away. Praise God, from whom all blessings
flow. He is his. He is his. When his wife said, why don't
you, old man, why don't you just curse God and die? He said, no,
he slayed me, I'll trust him. That's what I'm talking about.
That kind of faith brings a man on the mountain to thank God
for his blessing and in the valley to thank God for his afflictions. And in success to thank God for
his prosperity and in failure to thank God for his abasement. But let me tell you this, that
faith's one foundation is the scripture. I want you to turn
to Hebrews 13. You say, how can you have that kind of faith?
Turn to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews 13. Now, if you build
this faith on feeling, you're in trouble. If you build this
faith on experience, you're in trouble. I know a lot of folks
do. I know a lot of folks, they bless their hearts, I feel for
them, but they try to build their faith on how they feel at a given
time. I just don't feel very safe today
or I feel real safe tomorrow. And if you build faith on feeling,
you're in trouble. If you build faith on experience,
You want to be careful about telling your experiences. Salvation
is an experience, but it's not an isolated experience. It's
not an I repented and I believed and I accepted Jesus, therefore
I'm saved. Faith is a living principle. Repentance is a living principle.
I am believing Christ today. I am repenting today. I am looking
to Christ today. And if you build your hope on
morality, on your goodness, on your character, God may have
to prove to you someday in an open fashion that you're not
good as you thought you were. So you don't want to do that.
And you don't want to build it on ceremonialism. You say, well,
I'm a Christian. I go to church every Sunday.
Well, the Mohammedans go to church every Sunday. The Buddhists,
I was over there in Japan, and they go more faithfully than
we do. But that doesn't prove anything. It's chapter 13. Let
me give you something to hold to here. In Hebrews 13, verse
5. You with me? Hebrews 13, 5. Let
your conversation, your behavior, be without covetousness. Be content
with such things as you have. For God hath said, God said this,
I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you, so that we may boldly
say, the Lord is my helper. How can I say the Lord is my
helper? Clarence, he said it first. He said this, he said,
I won't leave you, I won't forsake you. Okay, well I can say the
Lord then is my helper. I can't say anything till he
says it. Turn to Acts chapter 27. That's the reason I'm saying
that the foundation of faith, Acts 27 verse 25, the foundation
of faith. Now, my friends, the object of
faith is Christ. Are you with me? The object of
our faith is not a sacrament or an ordinance. The object of
our faith is not a law. The object of our faith is not
even a system or a denomination or a way of life. Are you with
me? It's not an experience or a feeling. The object of our
faith is a person. Christ, our eternal surety, Christ,
our incarnate representative, Christ, our righteousness, Christ,
our sin-bearer and substitute, Christ, our scapegoat-bearer,
Christ, our risen and ascended mediator, Christ our great high
priest, Christ our reigning king, Christ our coming redeemer. He's
the object of faith. But the foundation of faith is
the Word. There's no way to know God apart
from His Word. Now you can look at the sun,
the moon, and the stars, and you can see the glory of God.
The heavens declare the glory of God. And you can look at the
things that are made, and you can tell there is a God. It's
the most amazing thing to me to find a physician, a doctor,
who does not believe in God. I can't comprehend. You know,
David said how wonderfully I'm made. The human eye is such a
tremendous camera. It's just made so perfectly and
delicately and it hasn't been used one ten millionth of what
it will be in glory. The human ear, the human brain,
we only use, somebody said we only use a part of the capacity
of our brain. Some of us use less than others,
you know, but the brain, the capacity of it, we are realizing
glory. The heart, the human body is
just amazing. These things all declare there's
a God, but now the only way that you can know that heaven's declared
the glory of God, but his word and his word alone declares the
grace of God. You can't know that that God
in his, who he is, except from the word. The word declares he's
holy, he's immutable, he's eternal, that he is righteous, that he
is just, that he's love. You know, a lot of people say
this, they say, well, how could a God of love let a child be
born like that in such affliction and retardation and all? And
if you look at some of these things, you just, human nature
questioned the love of God. But I'll tell you this, when
I look into his word, I see his love declared. When I look into
the giving of his son, for God so loved the world he gave his
son. When I look into his death for sinners. Actually, all of
this, this retardation and sin, that's our fault. We brought
that into this world. Man demanded a free will. He
demanded, he demanded, he demanded to have the right to be what
he wanted to be and God gave it to him. Adam said, I'll be
like God. God said, now don't eat that
fruit. He said, eat anything else in the tree, it's all yours,
but now I'm God and you're subject to my will. And Adam says, oh
no, I'm gonna have my will. And he took it. And that brought
the disease and the death. You want free will? There it
is. That's the results of it. That's the results of it. Have
your way. Now if you want God's way and God's will, the results
of that's eternal glory. Let God have his way. That's
what I'm saying. His will is eternal. Acts 27, let me show you something
here. Acts 27, verse 25. Paul said, sirs, be of good cheer. I believe God. It shall be even
as it was told me. And that's what I'm saying. If
you want to know something about the love of God, the grace of
God, the salvation of God, the redemption of God, you got to
go to the word of God. That's the only foundation of faith.
on the foundation of faith. Let me read you something Mr.
Spurgeon said. Some people think it does not
matter what a man believes as long as he's sincere in his faith. The average person in his so-called
generosity thinks that all religions are right. He says, you go to
your church, And I'll go to mine, you believe what you think is
right, and I'll believe what I think is right, and we'll all
meet in heaven someday. My friends, we can't all be right
when we contradict each other so. There's no way we can all
be right. No way. It's wise for a man to
do what? To search the scriptures. A doctrine
is not correct because I teach it or I believe it. It's correct
if God says it. That's the key. The scripture's
the foundation of it. It may seem logical to me. It
may seem reasonable to me. And large crowds may follow it.
Somebody said, well, it must be true. Look how many people
believe it. Well, let me ask you this. During the days of
the flood, how many people believed there'd be a flood? One fella,
but there was a flood. When Christ came to this earth,
how many people were looking for the Messiah? A man named
Simeon. You see, the majority is not
always right because large crowds believe a thing. And I'll say
this to you. I'm not ashamed or afraid. I'm
not afraid. As a pastor of this church and
as a believer in the word of God, I'm not afraid to submit
my belief in God's absolute, immutable, infinite sovereignty
to this book. I'm not afraid. You may not believe
it. Scads of people out in Chanda
may not believe it. But I'm not afraid to submit
my belief in God's sovereignty in creation, in providence and
salvation to this book. Richard, I'll submit it to the
book. And secondly, I'm not afraid to submit my belief in original
sin to this book. I'm not going to submit it to
the councils of Baptist ecclesiastical leaders in Nashville, they'll
turn it down. And I'm not going to submit it to Rome, and I'm
not going to submit it to the Presbyterian Senate, but I'm
not afraid to submit my belief in what happened in the garden
and the consequence of it to this book. It's going to come
out right. I'm not afraid to submit my belief
in God's eternal election and God's eternal covenant and predestination
and justification by faith alone to this book. Now I might submit
those beliefs to some group of ecclesiastical leaders sitting
around a table arguing doctrine and they'll say it's not so,
but the word of God says it is so. And the Word of God is our only
rule of faith and practice. I thought this morning when I
came preaching this sermon on faith that I'd recommend a book
to you. I think one of the best books written on faith is Guthrie's
Saving Interest. But I hesitate to recommend Guthrie
to you. I don't know whether he's saved
or lost. I hope he's saved. But what if I recommend a book
to you to read and that man didn't know the Lord and you follow
his suggestion And you're not able, like even a donkey, to
leave the briars alone and eat the hay, and some of you eat
the briars too and get messed up, you know. So I recommend
a book to you, this book right here. You can't go wrong. I'm
not gonna recommend Guthrie to you or anybody else. I recommend
God's Word to you. And I submit my belief in the
fall, in God's eternal grace. I submit my belief in the person
and work of Jesus Christ, who he is, what he did, why he did
it, where he is now, to this book right here. One mediator. I asked a Catholic a few nights
ago, show me purgatory in the word of God. He says, it's not
there. Then I said, I won't have it. I'm not going to have it. And for me to stand up and say
that a man's going to meet me in heaven who believes what God
does not put in his word is for me to be a fool. Show me Hail
Mary, mother of God, full of grace and truth. Pray for us
sinners in the word of God. Well, it's not there. Then I'm
not going to believe it. And he was a fool that does. Show
me bowing before statues and bowing before that imposter in
Rome wearing his silly looking crown. You say you shouldn't
talk like that. He is a phony. We need to tell our children
that so they'll quit standing before the television wondering
why we don't act a fool like that. Why doesn't my pastor wear
a hat like that? Or a gown? Why don't I kiss his
ring or bow and kiss his toe? It's time some of our great evangelists
said that on their television program. And if they weren't
cowards, they'd say it. That's right. You say that's
uncouth. Well, it is. It is. But that's the reason
we're in the mess we're in right now. That's the reason nobody
can tell black from white anymore. Everything's off gray. I'm not
afraid to submit my belief in one mediator to the Word of God,
in one great high priest to the Word of God. And I'm not afraid
to submit my belief in believers' baptism to the Word of God. They
both went down in the water. They came up out of the water.
They baptized because there was much water. You cannot demonstrate
a death, burial, and resurrection with a glass of water to save
your life. Anytime you bring a baby up in front of the church
and throw water in its face, you might as well throw sawdust
in its face. You can't find that in God's
Word. It's just not there. And I'm sick and tired of people
trying to pong off things on congregations in order to hold
a bunch of unbelievers together and for other reasons when it's
not in the book. There's only one foundation for
faith and that is the Word of God alone. And we need to take
all of our books and put them over on yonder and put a question
mark over and say, read this with caution. Tread softly, you
could get hurt. but hold up this word right here
to people and say, believe it in its entirety and follow it
and find you a preacher that preaches it and follow it. That's
exactly so. I'm amazed. I'm amazed that God
Almighty should condescend to come into this world, that He
should love us and give Himself for us. Solomon was amazed. He said, the heaven of heavens
won't contain God, how much less this house. David was amazed.
He said, Lord, who am I and what is my house? I'm amazed. I don't
have cockiness and cocksure-ness and these things about God's
mercy and visitation and grace. Paul was amazed. He called it
a mystery. But I tell you, it's in the book.
Let me read you something else Spurgeon says here, and I'll
let you go. And this is interesting. Spurgeon,
I think he's one of the greatest preachers that ever lived. And
I like to read what men said when they were off guard, when
they were not just trying to establish some kind of doctrine. He said, when I came to Christ,
I had no knowledge of any personal or saving interest in the death
of Jesus Christ." Now I hear preachers say, you've got to
believe that Christ died for you, Christ died for you. Spurgeon
said he didn't know that. He said, I had no knowledge of
any personal, individual, or saving interest in the death
of Jesus Christ. I just knew. I was a great sinner. I knew that. And I knew it was
written in the word of God that Christ came into the world to
save sinners. I knew that's what God said.
And I knew it was written in God's Word that He made Him to
be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. And I knew that it said in His
Word, look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth,
for I am God and there's none else. So I looked, I trusted
Him on the strength of His Word. I took God at His Word. Sink
or swim, I cast myself on him. And I said, great son of God,
you lived, you died, you made atonement for those who trust
you. I trust you. Here am I. Huh? Is that all right with you?
Boy, that's all right with me. God doesn't require me to produce
a righteousness. He requires me to receive one.
God doesn't require me to create life or sustain it, but receive
it in Christ. God doesn't require me to understand
all the mysteries of His Word. He requires me to believe them.
And I say this to you, and I sum up this message, and I declare
it as my own testimony. I say this. There are two sides,
the side of evil and the side of Christ. You ask me which side
I take, I say unto you, I'm in with Jesus Christ. There are
two kingdoms, the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of God's
dear son. You ask me where I stand, I'm
with Jesus Christ. There are two righteousness,
one depending on man's obedience, the other solely, completely,
totally on the obedience of Christ. You ask me which is mine, the
righteousness of Christ. I stand with Jesus Christ, wholeheartedly
and completely. There are two families, sir.
There's a family of flesh, and every one of us has got one.
And there's a family of God. You ask me whose side I'm on,
I tell you, I'm with Jesus Christ. He's my mother, brother, husband,
wife, and friend. He's all in and of. And if the
other cannot fit in with Him, they'll have to go, because He's
my family. There are two hopes, sir, the hope of works and the
hope of grace. You ask me where I stand, I'm
with Christ. And his is the hope of grace.
There are two ways, sir. There are the ways of religion
and the way of God. You ask me where I stand? I stand
with Jesus Christ. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and his righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. And if you'll stay with
me in the days to come, we're going to look into this book.
And we're not going to follow the guidelines of tradition or
denominationalism or the chains of denominationalism. We're going
to be open and candid and personal and honest, and we're going to
seek the Lord together. And by His grace, through His
blood, we're going to enter into the kingdom of God. This family
of God, this body of Christ, this assembly of believers, sink
or swim, is going to Him. And trust Him. And that can't
fail because he's already entered in. The gates of heaven have
opened wide. Open wide ye gates. Lift up your
heads, O ye doors, and be them lifted up, ye everlasting doors.
The King of glory has gone in and sat down. And that's where
I am in him. He's my hope. Our Father, honor
your word tonight. Honor your word in this place.
for the glory of Jesus Christ. Not our words and not our arguments
and our reasoning, but your word. Turn the hearts of the people
to the word of God and to the person of Christ. This is our
foundation of faith. We believe it because you said
it. But the object of our faith is Christ alone. Christ alone. Now bless here this evening,
down in Bud, other places where your words preach. We need your
journeying mercies. And we need your hand of rest
and peace and your inspiration of your spirit to declare the
truth as it is in Jesus Christ. Honor your word, for Christ's
sake we pray. Amen.