I have a subject today that I
think is going to interest most of you. I'm going to speak on
the subject, the necessity of faith in Jesus Christ. I'm going
to be reading from Hebrews 11. If you'll turn to Hebrews, the
11th chapter in your Bibles, we're going to read verse 6 for
a text. I'm always interested in any message that I can read
or hear on the subject of faith, faith, the important grace, the
foundation grace. And I want you to listen to this
subject today, the necessity of faith in Jesus Christ. Now
listen to Paul as he writes in Hebrews 11, 6, the apostle says,
but without faith it is impossible. Now notice his choice of words,
the Holy Spirit is giving him the word, all scriptures God
breathed, given by inspiration of the Spirit of God. Without
faith, it is impossible to please God. He didn't say it's difficult
or it's hard to do. He said it's impossible to please
God. For he that cometh to God, whether
for mercy, whether for comfort, whether for salvation, whether
for healing, whether in prayer, he that cometh to God, that approaches
God in any way, must believe, must believe, it's essential,
he must believe that God is, and that God is the rewarder
of them that diligently, diligently, not half-heartedly, not in a
different careless fashion, but to them who diligently seek him. Now did you get those words?
For it is impossible, without faith it is impossible to please
God. For he that cometh to Must believe
that he is and that he's the rewarder of them that diligently
seek him now our Lord said this if you can believe All things
are possible to them that believe you see the Word of God has a
lot to say about faith we're on a subject today that that
we can just go from Genesis to Revelation and Find scripture
after scripture at the scripture. Our Lord said thy faith hath
made thee whole thy faith hath made thee whole. With a heart,
man believeth unto righteousness." Paul said, therefore, being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul wrote again in Ephesians
2, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of
yourself. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should vote. And Peter said, we're kept by
the power of God through faith. So here we go on the necessity
of saving faith, the necessity of faith in Christ. Now, I don't
claim to know a lot about faith. I feel like the centurion. I
want to feel like the centurion. I do it by choice, because it's
a reality. I feel like the centurion who
said, Lord, I believe, and I do believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Don't you? I'll tell you this.
Any man who claims to be an authority on faith is most likely a stranger
to faith. That's right. Any man who claims
to be an authority on saving faith is most likely a stranger
to true saving faith. When our Lord was going to the
cross, he said to his disciples, one of you will betray me. And
you know what they all said? Every one of them. Lord, is it
I? Is it I? There wasn't one of them that
said, I know I won't do it. Peter later said, though all men forsake
you, I won't. But every one of them said, is
it I? And we're not authorities on faith. Paul said, I'm not
perfect. I've not arrived. But my friends, there's some
things I do know about faith. I do know these things by the
word of God. I do know them by the spirit of God's revelation.
I do know them from experience. But mainly, I know these things
from the scriptures. I'm going to give you some marks
or evidences of saving faith. I know something about faith.
And I'll give you these things. First of all, I know this. Faith
is the foundation grace. It's the foundation grace now
love according to 1st Corinthians 13 is the greatest of these and
Hope is the comforting grace love is the greatest and Hope
is the comforting grace, but faith is still the foundation
grace all other graces come from faith He said whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, but how they
gonna call on him in whom does not believe There's no way to
call on him if he's not believed on him So faith is the foundation
grace. Listen to this. He that believeth
on the Son of God hath life. He that believeth not the Son
of God shall never see life. He's got to believe on Christ
even to have life, even to have love, even to have hope. He's
got to believe on Christ. That's the foundation grace.
Our Lord sent his disciples forth and he said, go ye into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. So I know this about faith. I
know first of all, it is the foundation grace. All other grace
springs from faith. All other grace is built on faith.
That is the foundation. That's the footer. That's what
the whole building rests on. When our Lord Jesus Christ said
to Peter, you'll deny me, Satan hath desired thee that he may
sift thee as wheat, but I prayed for you that your faith fail
not. His love got kind of shaky. His
hope got a little shaky. His boldness got a little shaky,
but Christ said, I pray that your faith does not fail. So
I know faith is the foundation grace. Now, the second thing
I know about faith is this. I know this. I know this from
the word of God. Faith is the gift of God. True
saving faith is not the product of the human heart. A man may
have all types of faith in many things, but I'm talking about
saving faith. Listen to the word of God, for
by grace Are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves? It's the gift of God. What's
the gift of God? Faith's the gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should boast. Listen to Philippians
1, 29. It is given unto you to believe on Christ and to suffer
for his sake. Faith is not the product of the
human heart. It's impossible for any man apart
from the aid and power of the Holy Spirit to believe anything
about the Bible. Galatians 1 15 Paul said it pleased God Who
separated me from my mother's womb to reveal his son in me? How did Paul get a knowledge
of Christ Christ was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit? How
did Paul come to faith in one whom he hated before the Holy
Spirit gave him faith to believe? So I know this faith is the gift
of God It's not produced out of the natural though. It's a
flower that is not produced from the heart from the natural heart,
it just does not produce. It grows only in the garden of
God. Faith is the gift of God. Thirdly, I know this, I know
that we're justified by faith alone. Four times in the word
of God, it says the just shall live by faith. Four times, the
just shall live by faith. We're justified by faith, therefore
being justified by faith We have peace with God, knowing that
a man is not justified by works in the sight of God or by the
deeds of the law in the sight of God, but by faith. Martin
Luther, the great German leader, reformer, Martin Luther in his
early days was studying in a monastery. Martin Luther was trying to gain
acceptance with God by his own work. He was trying to gain favor
with God by his own self-righteousness. He found sin in himself, and
he would lie, he would fast for days, and he'd lie on the stone
floor, the cold stone floor, in his little cell. That's what
it was, a cell in a monastery. And they'd find him almost unconscious
and nurse him back to life. And he would beat his body with
all kind of thorns. When he had thoughts of lust
and thoughts of sin, he'd get thorns and beat his body till
it bled. because he was trying to appease
a holy God. He was trying to make himself
without sin and righteous in the eyes of a holy God. And one
day he was sitting in the library, this is 400 years ago, and he
was studying the Bible. The common people didn't have
the Bible. The only people that had Bibles were the priests in
the monasteries and the nuns in the convent. And those Bibles
were chained to a post. And he was reading the Bible
that was chained to the post. And he came on this scripture,
the just shall live by faith. Not by work, not by repentance,
not by body beating, not by fasting, not by penance, but just shall
live by faith. And he read that four times,
but he just pushed it away from him because that wasn't his system
of religion. That wasn't his system of doctrine.
That wasn't what the natural man thought. Do this and do that
and do the other and God will bless you. Give this, give that,
give the other and God will reward you. Go here, go there and go
yonder and God will reward you. But just shall live by faith.
It just kept piercing his mind. While he went on about trying
to make himself holy by his own efforts, not knowing that the
root of sin was in him, the principle of sin was in him, the nature
of sin was in him. Finally, he went to Rome. And
while in Rome, he was climbing some stairs in St. Peter's Basilica. And those stairs were said to
be, by an old tradition, to have been the stairs up which Jesus
Christ walked in Pilate's hall. That's what they said. That's
one of their traditions. And he was climbing up those
stairs on his knees. And there was some glass covering
on the stairs. They may still be there, I don't know, probably
are. The glass covering on the stairs, under that glass covering
was some red spots. They said that was Jesus' blood.
This is all tradition. This is all heresy. But Martin
Luther was on his knees. You're supposed to climb up those
stairs on your knees counting your beads And you're supposed
to kiss each one of those red spots under that glass covering
and say so many funny silly cliches, you know And he was on his way
up those stairs kissing those spots and God spoke to him Just
like a bolt of lightning and this scripture came to his mind.
This is Martin Luther I'm talking about verify this story. It's
easy to find anywhere Martin Luther, the just shall live by
faith. The just shall live by faith, not by works, not by these
deeds of the law, not by these fastings and beating your body
and mistreating yourself and living alone like a hermit as
a monk separated from the people. The just shall live by faith,
faith in Christ, faith in his blood, faith in his merit, faith
in his righteousness. And Martin Luther jumped off
those stairs and ran out of that place. God Almighty made him
one of the greatest preachers of his gospel that ever lived
on this earth. He became the author of hymns. A mighty fortress is our God.
He set the church to singing. Up until the time of Martin Luther,
the church didn't sing, just some choir chanted in some foreign
language. But he set the church to singing.
He published the first hymn book ever published on the face of
this earth with seven hymns in it and set the church to singing. But what set him free? One verse
of scripture, justified by faith. Justified by faith. You better
learn that. You better learn that. Our Lord will not share
his glory with a man. He'll not share his glory with
a system. He'll not share his glory with
a doctrine. He'll not share his glory with anything. He's the
Savior. We're justified by faith. I know
that. I know that. I know if we're
justified by works, nobody's going to be saved. You're not,
and I'm not, because if I If I make myself clean, if I claim
I have no sin, my own mouth will prove me a liar. If any man says
he has no sin, he's a liar, and the truth's not in him. That's
what God said. If any man say he hath not sin, he makes God
a liar, too, and that's pretty dangerous. That's blasphemy.
And no sin, no sin can come before God unless it's paid for, unless
it's cleansed, unless it's atoned for in the blood of Christ. I
know we're justified by faith. And I'm going to preach that
as long as God gives me a breath. It's not by works of righteousness
which we've done, but according to His mercy, His mercy. And it's not mercy if it's bought.
It's not mercy if it's earned. It's not mercy if it's paid for.
It's not mercy unless it's prayed to the guilty. Now, there is
something else I know. I know saving faith is a growing
grace. It's a growing grace. I hear
people walking down an aisle, shaking the preacher's hand,
making a decision, and that's the last you see of them. But
they're saved. That's what they say. I see folks joining the
church and getting baptized and getting their names on the roll,
and that's the last you see of them. They don't pray. They don't
witness. They don't rejoice in God. They
don't worship. They don't praise his name. They
don't love Christ. They don't love one another.
They're full of bigotry and hatred and malice and envy and jealousy.
And they don't grow. They just stay little old dried
up withered church members all their lives. I tell you that's
not so. Faith is a growing grace. Anything that grows not, knows
not. Now this pulpit before me doesn't
grow because it's got no life. But anything that's got life
grows. And faith is life. And life is faith. And Paul said
in 2 Thessalonians 1-3, Your faith groweth exceedingly. Again,
he said, grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ. As your faith grows, your assurance will grow. That's
right. How do you grow in faith? Faith
comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Desire the
sincere milk of the word that you may grow. Grow in love and
grow in joy and grow in peace and grow in faith. As your faith
grows, your love for Christ will grow. Your love for one another
will grow. As your faith grows, your peace will grow. And your
rest will go. The more faith you have in Christ,
the less concern you'll have for the world and for the flesh
and for the luxuries of the world and all of these things. The
more faith in Christ, the less concern you'll have for these
things. It seems to me that the more some so-called Christian
leaders, the more they claim to believe, the bigger house
they have to have, the finer wardrobe they have to have, the
more luxury they have to have. I don't understand that. I always
thought as you grew in faith, as your faith grows, that your
concern for the flesh, and your concern for the world, and your
interest in the things of the world, and the fretting under
trials, and all these things, I always thought they grew less
and less as Christ grew greater and greater to you. Faith is
growing great, and I know this. I know this about faith. I know,
my friends, there are many imitations of faith. Now, you stay with
me, and you listen to me. I want to tell you the truth.
I have nothing to profit to tell you a lie. Like a preacher said
recently, in order to tell you the truth, I'm going to have
to tell you the truth. And that's what I'm going to do. There are
plenty of imitations of faith that cannot save you. There are
plenty of imitations, for example, of false faith. Now, people have
faith. They have faith in this, faith
in the bank, and they have faith in the doctor, and faith in the
druggist, and faith in this, and faith in that, and faith
in the other, faith in their baptism, faith in their prayers.
They have some kind of faith. But a false faith can excite
the emotions. It said in John chapter 2 verse
23, now when he was in Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover,
many believed in his name. When they saw the miracles which
he did, they were fascinated, they were amazed. Our Lord healed
a blind man and a deaf man and a lame man and they were amazed
and they were fascinated. And it says they believed on
him. But read the next verse. Lord Jesus Christ did not commit
himself to them. He knew them. He knew their emotions
were excited. He knew their emotion that was
stirred and he knew they were covetous people and he knew this
interested them what they saw. I tell you another crowd that
believed on him were those that he fed the 5,000 the two loaves
and five fish when Christ fed five six thousand people and
they followed him. He went on across the lake there
and they showed up on the other side and he turned he said I
know why you follow me You follow me not because of the miracles.
Do you follow me because of the loaves and fishes you did eat
and were full That's why you're following me. See what you can
get out of me now false faith and excite the emotion and it'll
wet the appetite It sure will you can make a man follow Christ
to see what he can get out of him He can get a new car, you
know, or if he can get a new house if he can get his Broken
bones healed if he can get his cancer taken out of taken out
of your father Christ He didn't get him a yo-yo to play with
in heaven, you know a mansion or a cabin or what? He wants
to call it here father Christ for what he can get out of it.
That's false faith false faith can reform the outward man Christ
said to the Pharisees you make clean the outside of the cup
You're like a grave on the outside. You appear beautiful to me and
on the inside you're full of extortion and excess and lies
and corruption You've done nothing but clean up the outward flesh
and God doesn't look on the outward man He looks on the heart and
false faith can speak well of Christ Nicodemus did he came
in said good master the rich young ruler did he said good
master These fellas called him good master. They spoke highly
of him. They didn't have saving faith We know the rich young
ruler walked off. He didn't have saving faith,
but he spoke well of Christ He said some good things about Christ
and then false faith can feel sorrow overseeing Thought he
said well, I was awful. Sorry from the sin Judas was
to Judas brought the money back a lot of you don't even get bring
the money back Judas brought the money back and threw it on
the floor and he said I betrayed innocent blood, but he didn't
have saving faith His false faith convicted him his false faith
gave him a sorrow for his sins He said I've been wrong and then
he went out and hanged himself false faith can do religious
work Republican in the temple said I fast twice a week I give
tithes of all I possess, I give alms to the poor. Christ said
he went home not justified. False faith. False faith can
tremble under the preaching of the gospel. Boy, I heard that
preaching, my knees shook. Felix did too. I heard that preaching,
I liked him. Herod liked John, but he finally
wound up killing him. False faith can make you tremble
under the preaching of the gospel. And false faith can even gain
high office in the church. There wasn't but one treasurer.
the early church in the disciples group that treasurer was Judas
and I'll tell you something else false faith can even persevere
to the judgment men can hold to a false faith all the way
to the judgment and Even stand and look into the face of Jesus
Christ himself and claim that they have a right to enter heaven
Matthew 7.22 says, Lord, now wait a minute. Let's hold judgment
up for a moment. Let me make my final plea. I
preached in your name. I cast out devils in your name.
I did many wonderful works in your name. And then, even in
the judgment, while they're holding to their false faith and holding
to their profession of religion and holding to their claim to
heaven on the basis of their good work, He says, I never knew
you. Depart from me. What is saving
faith? What is saving faith? This faith
is necessary. Well, first of all, saving faith.
I cannot give you a plan or a blueprint by which you can follow and attain
saving faith, except to say faith come at the hearing and hearing
by the word of God. If I didn't have saving faith
and I was desirous of saving faith, I'd bury myself in the
scripture. I'd bury myself in the word of
God, and I'd go hear somebody who's preaching the word. I hear
these fellows always talking about preaching the gospel all
the way around the world But I don't ever hear him preach
the gospel. I Hear him go over here and pick out a verse of
scripture. It has to do with giving so they can get some more
money You know, I hear him going over him picking out a verse
of scripture that offends nobody it covers everything and touches
nothing I don't hear of reading the scripture and preaching the
gospel and tell the sinners how God saves sinners If I were you
my friend, I'd go I'd go get me a Bible And I bury myself
in that book, because faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God. Of his own will begat he us through the word
of truth. That's right. We are born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of the incorruptible seed, the blessed word of God.
But I would point you to God's word. But I will tell you this.
First of all, what is saving faith? Saving faith consists
of knowledge. Knowledge. Paul said, I know
whom I have believed. A man cannot believe what he
does not know. That's an impossibility. You
can't trust an unrevealed Savior. A man cannot believe what he
does not know. That's an impossibility. In order to believe, a man's
got to know something about the Bible, because that's where the
gospel's revealed in the Word of God. He's got to know something
about the book. In order to be saved, in order
to have saving faith, a man's got to know something of the
character of God. He's got to know something of the character
of God. In order to have saving faith, a man's got to know something
of his own character, his own condition. When the publican
came to Christ for mercy, he knew that he needed mercy because
he was a sinner. When the thief on the cross pleaded
for mercy and for Christ to remember him, he said, Lord, you're coming
into a kingdom. I'm getting what I deserve. He
knew something of the character of Christ. He knew something
of the power of Christ. He knew something of the glory
of Christ, and he knew something of his own inability, and his
own need, and his own sinfulness. In order to have saving faith,
a man's got to know something of the work of Christ. Throughout
heaven, we're going to sing this song unto him who loved us and
washed us from our sins in his own precious blood, and has made
us kings and priests of our God. Unto his name be glory forever
and ever. Who is Jesus Christ? Who is he? You better know something about
who he is. How can you call on him in whom you've not believed?
And how should they believe in him of whom they've not heard?
And how should they hear without a preacher? You better know who
he is. You better know what he did. He didn't die of pneumonia. He died on a cross. He shed his
blood for sin. He didn't die as a martyr. He
died as a sinner offering. He didn't die as a reformer,
a defeated reformer. He died as a substitute, bearing
our sins in his body. And he didn't stay in the tomb.
He arose again. Where is he now? He's at the
right hand of God. Well, why'd he do all this? Could
somebody else have done it? Maybe you could have done it.
Maybe an angel could have done it. Maybe we didn't need Jesus Christ.
Oh, yes, we do. He's the only Savior because
he's the only one who can enable God to be just and justify the
ungodly. He's the only one, the God-man,
who is able both to satisfy and to suffer, to satisfy God's righteousness
and to suffer under the condemnation of God's judgment and live again,
and live again. So faith is knowledge. And then
I would say, secondly, faith is agreement. Paul said, I know
whom I have believed. I am persuaded. I am persuaded
he's able. I know he's able. I not only
have read the scriptures, I not only understand what they say
about God and what they say about me and what they say about Christ,
but I agree with them. I agree with them. I believe
the record that God has given concerning his son. There's no
way, you listen to me now, and you remember I said this to you.
There's no way to have saving faith and at the same time put
a question mark on the Word of God. Can't be done. The Word
of God is the final authority. It's the final authority. If
they speak not according to the law and the prophets, it's because
there's no light in them. If any man bring not this message,
if he bring any other message, Paul said, let him be accursed.
I don't care. He said it's just an angel from heaven. If they
speak not according to God's word, let them be accursed when
Jesus comes. So I agree. I agree I'm a sinner. I agree I deserve to go to hell.
I agree God doesn't owe me anything. I agree God's the only one who
can save. And that through the blood of Christ. All right, wait
a minute. Saving faith. No, I know whom I have believed.
Saving faith is in agreement with what he said. And saving
faith makes a committal. Now my friend, you're going to
make a committal. You're going to make a committal. You can
die and perish knowing some things and even agreeing to some things. But you've got to make a committal
to Christ. He that believeth on the Son of God. hath everlasting
life, not he that knows there is a Son of God, not he that
agrees there ought to be a Son of God, but he who personally
believes on the Son of God. Christ said, believe on me. I
do. Lord, I do. Christ said, come
to me as best I can. I come. Christ says, trust me. I commit it to you, my home,
my health, my happiness, my future, my refuge. My life, my love,
I give to thee, thy son of God who died for me. Oh, may I ever
faithful be, my Savior and my God." I do believe that Jesus
died for me. I rest in him. I trust in him.
I commit my soul to him. Thomas Brooks said this, he that
believeth on Christ shall be saved. Be his sins never so many. He that believeth not on Christ
must be damned. Be his sins never so few. What
is saving faith? It's to know whom you have believed.
Not to trust an uncertain person or an uncertain sound or an unrevealed
savior. It's to trust Christ as he revealed
in God's word. It's to agree with him. It's
to agree, to be persuaded that he's able to do all that he says.
And it's a committal. If thou shalt believe in thine
heart, God raised him from the dead, and confessed with thine
mouth Jesus to be Lord, thou shalt be saved. For with the
heart man believeth unto righteousness, with the mouth confessions made
unto salvation.