I'm going to read this morning
from the book of 1 Peter 2, verses 2 through 4. Now, this is going
to be a message that I think needs to be preached. I believe
that people who are listening to this program today need to
hear this message. 1 Peter 2, verses 2 through 4,
and here's the title. I'm going to speak to you on
this subject, and I believe it with all my heart. I believe
the Word of God teaches this. that true believers never quit
believing. True believers never quit believing. In 1 Peter 2, turn there if you
will, Peter says, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk
of the word that you may grow thereby. If so be that you have
tasted that the Lord is gracious, to whom coming Now, Peter doesn't
say that you came to him one day and that was all. To whom
coming? You came to Christ, you are coming
to Christ, you shall come to Christ. To whom coming? As unto
a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but chosen of God and
precious. Now, preachers who are really
concerned for the glory of God, preachers who know the truth
of the gospel, Preachers who are sent of God and care for
the eternal well-being of their hearers know and preach that
salvation is not an isolated experience. It's not an isolated
experience. That is, repentance that does
not keep on repenting is not repentance at all. It is only
earthly sorrow that brings death. Repentance that does not continue
to repent is not true repentance at all. And faith that does not
keep on believing is a false faith. And grace that does not
grow is not the grace of God. We grow in grace. We grow in
faith. We grow in love. And that grace
and that faith and that love that does not grow is not saving
faith. It is not the Lord's planting.
And then a man who has savingly come to Christ He has savingly
closed with Christ. He has laid hold upon the Redeemer,
will continue to come to Christ until he dies in faith. He begins
in faith, he continues in faith, and the scripture said of Old
Testament believers, these all died in faith. Now, I believe
that, my friend. Preachers who care for the glory
of God, and all do not. and preachers who know the truth
of the gospel, and all do not, and preachers who are not concerned
about payday and possessions and popularity and large programs,
but preachers who care for the eternal well-being of their heroes
and are concerned that men really know God, these preachers know
and preach that salvation, repentance, faith is not an isolated experience
an old experience that stays old, but it is a repentance that
keeps repenting, a faith that keeps believing, and a grace
that continually grows. Now the Bible, the Word of God,
is full of warnings to those who do not continue in the faith.
And we have an abundance of those today. You know it and I know
it. This message is needed for this generation. There are churches
out there with hundreds and hundreds of members. who can't get a corporal's
guard to gather on Sunday evening or Wednesday night. There are
thousands of Church members out there listening to me, probably
right now, who have no thought or intent at all to worship God
this day. The Bible continually warns people,
and yet these people at one time made a profession, united with
the Church, and were to some degree faithful to the gospel
of Jesus Christ. But the Bible It continually
warns that those who profess to enter into the kingdom of
God and quit never did know the Son of God. There's so much of
this today. I used to be a preacher. I used to be a deacon. I used
to be a Sunday school teacher. I used to attend church. I just
got out of the habit. Are you saved? Oh, yes, I'm saved.
Are you a child of God? Oh, yes, I'm a child of God.
I have no interest in the gospel, no love for Christ, no interest
in the fellowship of believers. But I'm all right, and I'll be
in heaven when I die." Listen to the Word of God. Hebrews chapter
3, verse 14. For we are made partakers of
Christ, and that's what? Partakers of Christ. Every spiritual
blessing is in Christ. All of God's mercies are in Christ.
Our relationship with the Heavenly Father is in Christ. And we are
made partakers of Christ, who is our wisdom, our righteousness,
our sanctification, and our redemption. And we are made partakers of
Christ if? That's a big word. That little
two-letter word is a big word. If. If. If what? If we hold the beginning of our
confidence steadfast unto the end. And then he gives this illustration. He says not all that left Egypt
entered Canaan. In other words, not all that
left the slavery and bondage and darkness of Egypt and entered
that course of travel across the wilderness, all of them didn't
enter Canaan. Why didn't they enter? He said
they could not enter in because of unbelief. Unbelief was discovered
in their hearts and they did not enter in. Listen to 2 Timothy
4.10, Demas hath forsaken me, Paul said, having loved this
present world. Demas was an important man in
the church. Demas was a companion of the
Apostle Paul. Demas is mentioned two or three
times in the Bible. And then Paul comes along with
this statement, he left us. He departed from us. He hath
forsaken us. Why? He loved the world more
than he loved Christ. Listen to 1 John 2.19. I'm saying
that the Bible warns us about unbelief. God says, take heed,
brethren, lest there be found in you an evil heart of unbelief. 1 John 2.19. John said, speaking
about some folks that professed to be saved, professed to know
God, and joined the church and went through the motions for
a little while, He said, they went out from us, they left us,
but they were not of us. That's what John says, that's
his conclusion, they were not of us. For, he said, if they
had been of us, they would no doubt, and this is inspiration,
this is the inspired word of God. This is not a preacher just
talking off the top of his head, making accusations against someone.
This is John writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
He said they would no doubt, if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out, that
it might be made manifest that they were not all of us. Listen to Hebrews 10, verse 38.
Now the just shall live by faith. But, but, if any man draw back,
depart from the faith, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
But Paul hastily adds, we are not of them who draw back unto
perdition, but of them that believe, or keep on believing, to the
saving of the soul. My friends, the Scriptures reveal
salvation not as an isolated experience, not as an empty profession
of faith, not just believing some doctrines, but the Bible
reveals salvation as a living personal union with the Lord
Jesus Christ. He says, I am the vine, you're
the branches. He said, I am the head, you're
the body. This is a living union. A living
union with Christ, an inseparable union. I'm the head, you're the
body. He said, I'm the Father. You're
sons of God. That's a relationship that never
ceases. The vine and the branches never
cease to be one. If the branches are severed from
the vine, they no longer have any life. They're only fit for
burning. If the body is severed from the head, it has no life,
no function. And certainly no son can be separated
from his father because it's a living relationship. Then the
scriptures reveal salvation as a continual coming to Christ,
a continual looking to Christ, a continual growing in grace
and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. My friends, true
faith lives. True faith walks with God. True
faith continues to walk with God. True faith continues to
believe on Christ. And true faith groweth exceedingly. Now, it's not an easy thing.
And I want you to listen to this very carefully. I've laid down
two or three things already. I'm saying that a man who knows
the gospel and who loves the souls of men and who cares about
the glory of God, he knows that salvation is not just an isolated
experience. It's a living experience. It's a joint, it's a living union
with Christ. It's a vital union with Christ.
And the Bible continually warns us and warns us and warns us
about departing from the faith. But I want you to listen to this.
It's not an easy thing to discern between saving faith and false
faith. Now, all religionists have a
faith. There are several kinds of faith
mentioned in the Bible. One day there were some people
who came to our Lord, the scripture said, And because of the miracles
which he did, because of the wonders that he performed, that
the blind saw and the deaf heard and the lame walked, they believed
on him because of the miracles which they saw. But the scripture
quickly adds, Christ did not commit himself to them because
he knew what was in their hearts. Now, that's miracle faith. And
then there's a material faith. Our Lord fed 5,000 people one
time with two loaves and five fishes. And those people followed
him. They just kept on following him.
They wouldn't have to work anymore if they could just follow this
fella. They could make mountains of food out of just a small parcel
of food. And so they followed him and
he turned and said to them, I know why you're following me. Because
you ate of the loaves and were filled. That's why you're following
me. So that's what I call material faith. So there's several kinds
of faith, and it's not easy to discern between saving faith,
living faith, Holy Spirit-given faith, and that phony false faith
of modern religionists. Now, it's not easy. It's not
easy at all. If it were easy, we wouldn't
have scriptures like these. Listen to these scriptures, 2
Corinthians 13, 5. Examine yourselves, whether you
be in the faith. Now, if it was easy to discern
between a saving faith and a false faith, why would we be warned
to examine ourselves? And then Peter said, brethren,
give diligence, diligence, to make your calling and election
sure. And then John said, try the spirits. Try the spirits, whether they
be of God. Try the spirit. It's not easy.
And then Matthew 7, our Lord said, not everyone that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, is going to enter the kingdom of heaven.
So it's not easy to discern between saving faith and false faith,
living faith and a phony faith. that personal faith that the
Spirit of God works in the heart by grace, and that false faith
that is not of God. Now, let me help you with that
a little bit. There are a lot of things that false faith can
do. There are a lot of things that are not evidences at all
of faith. You can't depend on these things
as being a mark of saving faith or an evidence of saving faith.
For example, false faith can excite the emotion. We know there's
a lot of emotionalism in religion. And we know a lot of people seem
to want to prove that they're saved by how much noise they
can make, how loud they can shout, or how often they can cry, or
some of these outward emotional demonstrations. That is no proof
of faith. That's no proof of faith. When
our Lord rode the donkey into Jerusalem, the very people who,
a few days later, cried, crucify him, crucify him, were casting
palm branches before him and laying their clothes on the ground
in front of him, cried, Hail! Hail! Blessed is he that cometh
in the name of the Lord! Make him king! Hail, King of
Israel! And so forth. These same people
were just as emotional, crying, Crucify Him! Crucify Him! And
then when our Lord gave the example of the sower going forth to sow,
He said, the seed is the Word of God, the sower is the Son
of Man. Some of it fell on pallor ground, some of it fell among
stony places, on stony ground, and it sprang up quickly. He
said, these are they that hear the Word and with joy receive
it. But when persecution and trial
and testing time come, When the bright sun of trial shines upon
them, they wither away because they have no root, but they receive
the word with joy." We see that happen all the time in what they
call revival meetings or evangelistic campaigns and the preacher preaches
and they put on a special effort and special music and bring everybody
in. packed the pews and all these
things. The fella tells some sad stories and preaches a sermon
and reads a poem and gives three points and tells a joke and somebody
sings and here they come down the aisle and they just with
joy receive the word and they're happy and emotional and everybody
cries and shakes hands. And six months later, you can't
find half of those people, you can't find 10% of them that walk
down that aisle. What happened? Stony ground here. False faith can excite the emotions,
excite the emotions. But salvation is not emotionalism.
It's faith in Christ. It's counting the cost. It's
digging deep and laying a foundation. It's resting in the Son of God.
It's deliberately, willfully, lovingly, livingly, eternally
trusting Him, whatever the cost. False faith can do something
else. It can reform the outward man. Now, this is the way some
people prove they're safe. They quit drinking. They quit
cursing. They quit smoking. They quit
dancing and quit gambling. And therefore, now I'm a Christian.
I've quit these things. Let me tell you something. The
Pharisees lived outwardly moral lives. Not one of you listening
to me could touch their moral lives. One of them stood in the
temple one day, and he said this to God Almighty. He said, I'm
not like other men. And he meant what he said, and
he was telling the truth. He wasn't like other men. He
said, I fast twice a week. I give a tenth of everything
I possess, not just my pay. But everything I possess, even
my possession, one-tenth. He said, I'm not an adulterer,
I'm not an extortioner, I'm not unjust. He said, I give alms
to the poor. I read the scriptures on the
street corners and pray in public. I thank you, God, I'm not even
like that publican. But here was a man, our Lord
said, who had a wicked heart. He was clean on the outside,
just as clean as a grave. But on the inside, he was full
of dead men's bones. And so much religion today is
nothing in the world but an outward reformation, men quitting a few
habits and stopping short of the vital issues, faith in Christ,
love for Christ, repentance toward God. False faith can reform the
outward man. There's nothing to that. Just
pass out some pledge cards and promise people they'll go to
heaven and they'll give up most everything but what they love. False faith can attain high office,
high office in the church. False faith can attain high office.
Judas held the only office among the apostles. There were twelve
apostles, they had one officer, and that was Judas, the treasurer.
Demas was a companion of the apostles. Diostrates loved to
have the preeminence. False faith can be baptized with
salmon. False faith can give gifts with
ananas and sephira. False faith can speak well of
Jesus Christ with Nicodemus. False faith can persevere and
hang on to its false hope, even to the judgment, and then stand
face to face with God Almighty and plead their works. Why, Lord,
you can't send us to eternal condemnation. We preached in
your name, and we did many wonderful works, many wonderful works,
and we cast out devils in your name. Think of what we did. But
there's no word of what Christ did, there's no word of the cross,
of the blood of Christ, of salvation by grace, no word of God's gift,
his unspeakable gift, the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. So false
faith, it's not easy. It's not easy and many people
are deceived by this thing. Salvation and religion is nothing
in the world but an outward performance. and an outward claim, and an
outward profession, and an outward duty of emotionalism, good works,
high office in the Church, and all these other ceremonies and
rituals of religion. But there are four things that
false faith cannot produce. There's no way that these four
things can be produced by anyone but a believer. I'm going to
give them to you. Now, these are marks of salvation. These
are marks of redemption. Here are four things. that false
faith cannot touch, it cannot produce. Number one, first of
all, false faith will never produce a heart that is truly broken
before God over my sin. Now, you think you weigh every
one of those words. False faith can never produce
a heart. Now, this thing of salvation
is a heart business. It's not walking in an aisle. It's not
yakking with your mouth. It is not claiming things that
you don't possess. It is not professing to be what
you're not. It's a heart work. Conviction is of the heart. Repentance
is of the heart. With the heart, man believeth
unto righteousness. It's a heart work. The people
at Pentecost were pricked in their hearts. They believed with
their hearts. The Scripture said, With the
heart, man believeth unto righteousness. My son, God said, give me your
heart. The prophet said, keep your heart
out of it of the issues of life. Our Lord said, those things that
defile a man are not what he puts in his mouth, it's what
comes out of his heart. False faith cannot produce a
heart that's broken, broken, contrite. Now, the Bible says
over and over again in the book of Psalms, God saved us such
as be of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. The sacrifices of God
are a broken heart and a contrite spirit. David said, my sin. This heart is a heart broken
before God now, not before men. Every one of us will cry when
we get caught. Every one of us will repent when
we get caught. Every one of us will make restitution
when we get caught. There's nothing to that. Nothing
to being exposed and repenting, but when we repent before God,
when we weep before God, over what? My sin. Not sin in general
terms, not the world's sin, not even Adam's sin, but my sin.
David said, my sin is ever before me, ever before me. Against thee
and thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when you speak, and cleared when
you condemn. O God, purge me with hyssop,
wash me, and I shall be whiter than the snow. Restore unto me
the joy of thy salvation. You see what I'm saying? Now,
you can go for this emotionalism if you want to, and I'll walk
in all these empty professions, but I'm saying to you that saving
faith produces a heart. It's heart business. That's where
it is. It's heart business that's broken
before God over my sin. I'll tell you the second thing
false faith can never do. It can never receive. It can
never believe. It can never rest in Christ alone
as the only way of salvation. That's right. It can never do
it. False faith just got to add something to Christ. It has to.
It can't resist it. It has to add its confession,
or its baptism, or its good works, or its church membership. False
faith has got to add its beads, or rosaries, or uniforms, or
Mary. It's got to add something. It's
got to add the sacraments, the sprinkling, the confirmation,
the creed, the confession, the doctrines, the godfathers, godmothers. False faith has got to have something
else besides Jesus Christ. That's the truth, and you know
it's the truth. 1 Corinthians 1.30 says, Of God
are you in Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Everything I need Godward is
in Christ. Christ is all. I'm complete in
Him. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and his righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
praise. I wholly lean on Jesus' name. The fact that I'm a preacher
makes no contribution to my salvation. The fact that I'm a church member
makes no contribution to my salvation. The fact that I've repented and
believed makes no contribution to the justification of my soul.
It's God that justifies. It's Christ that guides. That's
our hope in him, and false faith can't do it. It just can't rest
in Christ. It just cannot cease from its
works and enter into his rest. I'm not saying that a believer
does not work. He has works of faith and labors of love, but
not in order to be saved, but because he's saved, because he
knows Christ. The love of Christ constrains
him. But my acceptance before God and justification before
the law and legal standing before God's justice is in and by and
through and by the cause of Jesus Christ. And that's all my hope.
I once was lost, but now I'm found. And by God's grace, I'm
heaven bound. My only hope, my only plea, and
I mean only, only hope, only plea, is that when Christ died,
he died for me. Now, false faith can't do it.
It can't fall with Thomas, say, my Lord and my God. And that
brings me to the third thing. False faith. Now, it can produce
a lot of things. It can excite the emotions, reform
the outward man, attain high office, and do all these other
things, even hang on to the judgment. But false faith will never bow,
bow to the Lordship and sovereignty of Jesus Christ. False faith
may accept Jesus as Savior, but it will never bow to him as Lord.
That's right. False faith is still controlled
by human will. by the natural ego. That's right. Christ is not the Lord. That's
the reason people don't understand that salvation is a commitment
to Christ. Christ is King. He is our family. He is our life. He is our hope. He's everything.
What I have doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Christ. I'm
bought with a price. I'm not my own. I'm a bond slave of Jesus
Christ. But Paul's faith reaches out
and hangs on to Christ as a Savior. And sin is the Lord. Man's wife
is his Lord, or husband is his Lord, or his bigotry is his Lord,
or his pride is his Lord, or his envy is his Lord. That's
his Lord. That's what rules his life. His business is his Lord.
Money is his Lord. Pleasure is his Lord. Everything
under the sun is his Lord. Christ is his Savior. There ain't
no such thing. If Christ's not your Lord, he's
not your Savior. And false faith will never bow.
It'll never bow. It'll never bend. It'll never
submit. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth Jesus to be Lord, and believe in thine heart God hath raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." God's people are conquered
people. That's exactly right. He puts
a yoke on them. His yoke, which is easy. His
burden, which is light. But there's a yoke on them anyway.
And false faith can't do it. Can't bow to Christ. And then
watch this. I close with this. False faith will never continue
in fellowship with believers. It will never continue in fellowship
with the church and in the gospel, but false faith always finds
a reason to quit, a justifying reason to quit, a self-justifying
alibi to leave the fellowship. I've seen it happen too much
in 35 years of preaching. And they always justify it. They
always get mad at the preacher, or the choir leader, or the Sunday
school teacher, or the church, or somebody, somebody, somewhere
hurts their feelings, offends them, but they're going to find
a blessed reason to quit false faith, but not saving faith.
Saving faith continues. He hath delivered us, he doth
deliver us, he will deliver us. We have been saved, we're being
saved, and salvation is nearer than when we believe. And a true
believer never quits. He never quit.