Turn once again to the book of
John, chapter 6. My subject this morning is the
object and nature of faith. The object and nature of faith. In John, chapter 6, verse 28,
they ask the Lord Jesus this question. John 6, 28, what shall
we do? that we might work the works
of God. And Jesus answered and said unto
them, this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom
he hath sent. This is the work of God, that
you believe on Christ. Now look at John 6 verse 40. In John 6 verse 40, and this
is the will, this is the work of God that you believe on Christ,
and this is the will of God, this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on Him
may have everlasting life, and I'll raise him up at the last
day. I want you to listen very carefully
to the next statement that I'm about to make. You know, we hear
statements like this, keep the faith, have faith, I believe,
I believe. Well, you listen carefully to
this and you weigh it very carefully. It is not faith alone that saves
the person, but it is faith in Christ Did you notice the words
that I read a moment ago? This is the work of God that
you believe on Him. Not that you believe. This is
not the work of God that you believe. Everybody believes something. You believe in that bench you're
sitting on or you wouldn't sit on. When you sat down, you believed
that it would hold you up. You believed in that car that
you rode to church this morning or you wouldn't have come over
here in it. You believe, everybody believes something, but it says,
He that believeth on him, he that seeth the Son, and believeth
on him. Listen to these verses. What
must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. Listen to this verse. He that
seeth the Son, and believeth on him. Listen to this. He that
believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life. He that believeth
not the Son, hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him."
Now, the life of the body is the soul. I've heard people say,
well, man has a soul. No, man is a soul. He has a body. The life of the body is the soul.
Here's a body standing before you. I have eyes and ears. I have a tongue. The tongue is
speaking. The eyes are seeing you. The ears are hearing. whatever
noises they pick up. But if my soul leaves this body,
this body will still be right here. It'll fall over in the
floor. It'll have the same eyes, but they won't see. The same
ears. There won't be any organic change
in these ears, but they won't hear. And this tongue won't change,
there won't be one change, or it'll start changing, it'll start
rotting and corrupting and going back to the dust. But for the
first few moments, there won't be any change any way in this
body. One change. The life's gone,
which is the soul. You see, the soul is the life
of this body. The life of the soul is faith.
The life of the spiritual life of the soul is faith. The scripture
tells us that the just shall live by faith. If I do not, if
my soul does not have faith in God, it's dead spiritually. It may be alive physically and
mentally, but not spiritually. It's dead without faith. Faith
is the life of the soul. Now watch this. Christ is the
life of faith. Just as the soul is the life
of the body, and if the body doesn't have a soul, it's a dead
body. And if the soul does not have
faith, it's dead in trespasses and sin. You have to quicken
who were dead in trespasses and sin. And if faith does not have
Christ, it's dead faith. That's what James was writing
about in his book. That is dead faith, if it does
not have Christ. Christ is the life of faith. Christ is the life of faith.
He is the object of faith. He is the life of faith. Just
as the body without the soul is dead, the soul without faith
is spiritually dead, and faith without Christ is dead, being
alone. Now, I've heard people say this,
well, seeing is believing. And somebody says, well, believing
is seeing. Well, actually, there's a lot of truth to seeing is believing.
There's a lot of truth to that. There's a lot of truth scripturally
to that. For look at our text, John 6,
40. This is the will of him that sent me, that every one that
seeth the sun and believeth on him. Now we're not talking about
a physical manifestation. We're not talking about a dream
or a vision. We're not talking about a physical
sight. We're talking about Christ revealed
to the understanding. Our Lord Jesus Christ said to
Nicodemus, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God. What Christ mean by seeing the
kingdom of God? Understanding it. Understanding
how God can redeem sinners. Understanding how God can be
just and justifier. Understanding how God's righteousness
and law and yet his mercy and love can all be satisfied. Understanding
the wisdom and the power of God in the cross. Except a man have
a new nature, except a man be born again, he cannot understand,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. No man will repent of sin
until he sees his sin. You've got to see it. What do
you mean by seeing it, preacher? Actually seeing it out there
in front, understanding it. No man is going to repent until
he understands his sin. No man is going to cry for mercy
until he understands his need. When I was in the Navy in the
Philippines, our landing ship was pulled up close to the shore
and docked alongside an island in the Philippines. And we had
been warned not to go swimming here, that there was a strong
undercurrent. And the boys had been told not
to swim out there because the undercurrent was strong. And
I was up on the conning tower. One afternoon, the sun was shining
brightly, and there was another ship or two around, but two fellas
decided they'd go swimming. And they put on their bathing
suits and jumped over the side, and I was standing there watching
them swim, and everybody was going about their business, and
I looked down in a minute, and one of the fellas was hollering
for help, just waving his arms and hollering for help. In a
few moments, I saw him swept under, and he never came back
up. The other fella began to holler for help, and he was swept
under and never came back up. These men were in need. They
understood their predicament. They understood their distress.
They understood their danger and they began to cry for help. They weren't crying for help
a few minutes before they were swimming. They were enjoying
themselves. But once they understood their
danger, when they understood that death was near, they began
to cry, somebody help me. And this is the way it is with
repentance. This is the way it is with grieving
over sin. This is the way it is suing for
mercy. A man's got to understand his
sin, understand his inability, understand his danger, understanding
that hell is moving up to meet him at his coming. He's got to
understand it. He's got to see that. See his distress. And that's what I'm saying here
is that a person is not going to believe on Christ until he
sees his need, until he sees that Christ meets that need.
Until he sees the sufficiency of Christ, or the power of Christ,
or the ability of Christ, or the efficacy of Christ. As the
Apostle Paul says, I know whom I have believed. I know that
he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. Turn to Romans 10 in just a moment.
Romans chapter 10. Let's look at verse 13. Here's
what we're saying. He that seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, he that understandeth his need of the Son, he who understandeth
his inability to satisfy the holy law of God or make himself
acceptable to God, he that sees and understands that Christ is
the ordained Savior and the appointed Savior and the sufficient Savior,
he understands that. You know, our Lord said, he that
heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me. You see,
Faith has got to see, faith has got to hear, faith has got to
understand before faith can be exercised. Alright, look at Romans chapter
10. It says verse 13, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. Now we know that. We know that
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
The whosoever here is a man in need. He calls upon one who can
meet the need. The whosoever is a man in distress
and he calls upon the one who can relieve his distress. The
whosoever is the man who is sinking like Peter, Lord save me or I
perish. And he calls upon the only one
who can save him. You notice Peter didn't call
on Matthew or Mark or Luke. He called on the Lord. And he
said, Lord save me or I perish. All right, whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But look at verse 14.
But how then shall they call on him in whom they've not believed?
You've got to believe that Christ is able, that he's sufficient,
that he's the one God sent. And what's the next line? But
how shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard? A
man's not going to believe in one of whom he hasn't heard.
And how are they going to hear without a preacher? How are they
going to preach except they be sent? God sends his messenger. He sends his messenger to declare
his word. His word declares his holiness.
His word declares our sinfulness. His word declares what he commands
and what he demands. His word declares our inability
and insufficiency to meet what God commands. His word declares
that he will show mercy. that he will be gracious, that
he will save sinners, that he will pardon iniquity. I will,
God said, pardon iniquity. Turn to Exodus 33 and let me
show you that a moment. In Exodus chapter 33. In Exodus
33, it says here, in verse, Exodus 34, let's look at verse 34, verse
5. And the Lord descended in the
cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the
Lord. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed the
Lord, the Lord God, merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abundant
in goodness and truth. That's the name of the Lord.
Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, forgiving
transgression, forgiving sin, but by no means clearing the
guilty. God will forgive, but God will
forgive in such a way that he can be just. He will not clear
the guilty, the guilty is going to be punished. And this is what
we understand. God sent his messenger with a
message that Christ Jesus has been given and sent of God to
fulfill the law that God has given, to fulfill the righteousness
that God has commanded. to satisfy the justice and holiness
and character of God Almighty. And this good news is preached.
And when a man understands that, he says, oh, I see. I see what
you mean. For example, I say that in Adam,
men died. You say, well, I don't understand
that. Well, when God created man, God didn't create you. I heard A fella say one time that God
created me and he created you. God created Adam. We were J-born
from Adam. You see, God created one man.
He created Adam. He made Adam from the dust of
the ground, breathed into him the breath of life, he became
a living soul. But we were produced from Adam's
loins. That's where we came from. God's
responsible for our birth. God's responsible for our life. God gave us life. But we were
born in Adam, and Adam represented every human being. Adam stood,
we stood. When Adam obeyed, we obeyed.
When Adam fell, we fell. When Adam sinned, we sinned.
When Adam died, we died spiritually. And through Adam, death and judgment
and condemnation passed upon all men. You say, oh, I see,
that's representation. That's right. That's what the
Scripture teaches, as in Adam all die. All right, Christ is
the second Adam. And God Almighty sent His Son,
His well-beloved, His only begotten, as a representative of His people,
the representative of believers, the representative of all whom
God had given to Him, as we read in John 6, 37 a while ago. And
by Christ's obedience, we are accepted. You say, oh, I see
that. I understand what you're saying. Christ came down as a
man. Adam was a man. Christ was a
man. Adam was of the earth, earthy,
and as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall bear
the image of the heavenly. Christ is the Lord from heaven.
And as we died in Adam, we're restored in Christ. I see that. I understand what you're saying.
I believe it. That's what we're saying. He
that seeth the Son, and believeth on him. He that heareth the word
of God, and believeth on him. So, seeing is inseparably connected
with believing. There's got to be an understanding
before there can be a faith. I hear preachers say all the
time, well, just believe, just believe. Well, my friends, I've
got to know what to believe. I've got to know whom to believe.
And that's what we find out from the Word of God. All right, let's
see two things. Now, here are two things I want
to bring out in this message. And under these two things, just
several brief points. Now, first of all, Christ. Christ
is the object of faith. Jesus Christ is the object of
faith. Now in the gospel, Christ is
presented. Christ is presented in the gospel
sincerely. First Timothy 1.15 says this,
my friends, this is a true saying. This is what Paul is saying.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. This
is a true saying not to be doubted. not to be argued, not to be debated,
but to be accepted by all. This is a true saying, and it's
worthy of acceptation by all men. It's a true saying. It's not to be debated. There
was a young Presbyterian preacher who had a brother, an older brother,
who was also a preacher, and he went to visit his older brother
around Christmas time or sometime during the holidays. His older
brother was pastor of a church, and the young man, the younger
brother was pastor of a church, and the older brother was a liberal. He just, he questioned the creation,
he questioned the miracles of the Bible, he questioned the
virgin birth, he questioned the blood atonement, he questioned
all these things, and the younger brother was a strong conservative
in theology. He believed God's word, he believed
everything God said. And so when he went to visit
his older brother, the older brother said, now, I'd like for
you to preach for me in the morning in my pulpit, to our congregation,
I'd like for you to preach. But he said, now, if you preach
for me tomorrow, I don't want you to preach on anything controversial. Don't raise any controversies.
Now, don't raise any controversy at all. And the young man said,
that'll be fine. I'll preach something without
controversy. So the next morning he got up,
of course, to preach in a liberal pulpit, something that that's
not debated or doubted would be difficult. He'd rob the young
man of his whole message, you know. So he got up the next morning,
and he said, I want you to turn with me to the book of Galatians,
and let me read my text. It's Galatians chapter 3, I believe
it is, verse 16. And he got up, Galatians 3, 1
Timothy, that is. But let me read it, let me quote
it to you. I don't know where it's found. But he said, this
is my text, without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in human flesh, justified in the spirit, seen
of the angels, preached to the Gentiles, and believed on in
the world. That's what Paul is saying here,
without controversy. This is a true saying. This is
a faithful saying. It's faithful to God's law. It's
faithful to God's justice. It's faithful to God's promise.
What is that saying? That Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners. That is a faithful saying. And
in the gospel, Christ is presented sincerely and truthfully. All right? Secondly, in the gospel,
Christ is not only presented sincerely, but in the gospel,
Christ is presented undivided. What do you mean by that, preacher?
I mean this. Some people want Christ's benefits
without Christ's teachings. Some people want Christ's teachings
without His atonement. Some people want Christ's sacrifice
without His sovereignty. My friends, in the gospel of
the Word of God, the Son of God is presented in all his offices
undivided. He is prophet, priest, and king. And he will not be your prophet
to reveal God's mercy if he's not your king to reign in your
heart. He will not be your example if
he is not your mediator and intercessor. Listen to these verses. This
is my beloved son. Hear him. Behold the Lamb of
God that taketh away the sin of the world. God hath given
him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that he's
Lord. Christ is presented in the gospel. He's the object of
faith. Sincerely, undivided. Now watch this. Christ is presented
in the gospel exclusively. There is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Other foundation
can no man lay than that which is laid. I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. For me to rest one foot on Christ
and one foot on anything else is to have one foot on a rock
and the other in quicksand. Jesus Christ will be all or he'll
be nothing at all. He is presented in the gospel
exclusively. We will trust in him, rest in
him, we will find our joy and satisfaction in him, we'll find
our hope and life in him, or we'll have no part of Christ
exclusively. Quickly, number four. Christ
is presented in the gospel freely. Freely. The wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God, the gift of God is eternal life. The believer
receives Christ as a gift. The believer lays hold on Christ
with an empty hand. The believer comes to Christ
with nothing to pay. Turn with me to Romans chapter
6, verse 23. This is a scripture that ought
to be underlined in your Bible. ought to be memorized by everyone
here. Listen to this scripture. The
wages of sin, we earn those. The wages of sin is death. That's
ours because we earned it. But the gift, the free gift,
now suppose you drove a new car up in front of my house tomorrow
and you said I got a gift for you. And I'll go out and look
at it. It's a fine new automobile. I
sure appreciate that. But you say, now, why don't you
just give me five dollars so we can make this a legal transaction
before the city of Ashland or before the federal government,
a dollar and other considerations, and I give it to you. Now, realistically,
that wasn't a gift. I made some kind of payment.
I contributed something in return for that. The only way that that
car can be a gift is for you to give it to me without anything
in return. And the only way that salvation
can be the gift of God, the free, unspeakable, inexpressible gift
of God, is for that salvation in Christ to be mine without
anything in return. Not one thing. And that's the
way it is. It's the gift of God. The wages. Now I earn the wages. I earn the punishment of my sin. I deserve it. But the gift of
God, eternal life through Christ the Lord, is a free gift of God. I absolutely give nothing. I'm
totally, completely passive in this matter of salvation. God
gave me eternal life in Christ. And fifthly, in the gospel, Christ
is presented sincerely, undivided, exclusively, freely, and in the
gospel, Christ is presented personally. Personally. Now my friends, this
is where most people miss the gospel. This is where most professing
church members miss the gospel. In other words, first the person,
then the privilege. It's first the person and then
the privilege. It's first the redeemer and then
the redemption. It's first the bridegroom and
then the inheritance. Suppose a woman wants to be married
to a certain man. She has her eye on a certain
man. He is a successful man. He is a man with much security. He is a man with great holdings.
She's a very poor woman. She has nothing. And she's in
love with this man who's very secure and very settled and very
capable and very wealthy and very strong and very sensible.
He just has everything. There's just one way for her
to share in what he has. She can't have the benefits first. She must commit herself to the
man. She must marry him. First the
man, and then the blessings. First she takes his name. First
she comes and stands before the preacher, and she marries him,
and she takes his name, and becomes one with him. And then everything
he has belongs to her, because she wears his name. She's his
wife, his bride. She belongs to Him, and what
He has belongs to her. And this is the same way with
Christ. So many folks got the idea that, I want forgiveness,
and I want a new nature, and I want my name in the last book
of life, and I want this, I want that, I want the other. All of
these things are in Christ. And if you have Him by faith,
If you are married to Him and united to Him and vitally joined
to Him by the grace of God through faith, you have everything that
He is. The Scripture says, Let Israel
hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy. You stand
back and see an apple tree. It's loaded down with apples.
I've done this as a little boy. Usually there's a fence around
it. And you walk by the orchard and there's the There's the orange
tree or apple tree with all that delicious fruit. You say, boy,
I'd like to have that fruit. If you had the tree, the fruit
would be yours. The fruit would be yours. Everything
about it would be yours if you had the tree. And the same thing
is true of Christ. It says, He that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life. He has life because of his relationship
with the Son. Now watch this. Seeing, believing,
having. There's no having without believing. There's no believing without
understanding. Having, believing, seeing. These are inseparably
united. You'll find it, he that heareth
my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting
life. He that seeth the sun, and believeth on him, hath everlasting
life. So this, the object of faith
is Christ. And Christ is presented in this
glorious gospel. He's presented sincerely. This is true. Come to the Son
and rest. Come to the Son and find in Him
all you need. Come to Christ and be saved.
Come to Christ and have forgiveness. That truth is presented sincerely
and Christ is undivided. Christ is the only way. He's
the only source of life. He is the bread. He is the water. He is the life. He is the truth. He is the way. He is the door.
He is the foundation. He is the rock. He is the refuge. But a man's not going to call
or believe on Christ until he has some understanding in his
head and in his heart. of who Christ is. That's why
we're preaching what we're preaching. It's not just a hoop-dee-doo,
let's join the church, or we've got troubles in our home and
so we're going to straighten them out by going to church,
or we've got troubles on the job and we'll straighten it out
by going to church, or I've got troubles in my life and we'll
straighten them out by joining the church. That's not it. It's
seeing the source of my trouble is seeing. The source of my trouble
is my will, my rebellion, my hatred for God, my hatred for
truth, my hatred for holiness. The source of my trouble is I've
never submitted to Christ, I've never bowed to Christ, I've never
surrendered to Christ, I've never received Christ undivided to
reign over me, to rule in my life. And if I ever see who He
is and what I need and ever believe, and receiving, then I'll have
all these things. They'll be mine. They'll be mine. Turn to Romans 8 just a moment. In Romans 8 chapter, it says
here, in Romans chapter 8 verse 16, Romans 8 verse 16, look at
it. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that
we are children of God. And if children Then we're heirs. Heirs. What's an heir? Well,
if I had a rich father and I'm the only heir, when he dies everything's
mine. Everything's mine. That's what
an heir is. He's a person that everything belongs to on the
death of the testator. Now Christ's last will and testament,
this is the testament we're reading here. And there's been the death
of the testator. Christ hath died and therefore
Whoever is the heir of Christ is the heir of all that Christ
gave and left in his death, which is forgiveness and mercy and
grace and pardon and all these things. So if with children we're
heirs, we're joint heirs with Christ. You see that? Everything
is ours in him. All right, I will give you this
in closing. Here's the second thing. Now let's remember, I'm
trying to be, I realize faith is something that must be revealed,
but I'm trying to help myself and you too. But I do know that
it's just not faith that saves. The fellow's not saved just because
he believes something. Just as the life of the body is the soul,
the life of faith is Christ. If Christ is not there, it's
dead faith, it's worthless faith, it's lifeless faith. In order
for faith to be genuine, there's got to be an understanding. There's
got to be a seeing, an understanding, a seeing of the mind, of the
heart. I know the shape I'm in. I know my inability. I know that
God's angry with the wicked. I know that sin must be punished.
I know that I deserve to go to hell, that God's just when He
condemns me, but I want mercy. Now where is mercy? God says
it's in Christ. And Christ is presented in the
gospel. And I understand that gospel, I see what he's saying,
and I commit myself to Christ, I give myself to Christ. All
right, you say, Preacher, how do I know if I've got saving
faith? How do I know? Here's the nature
of faith. Now Christ is the object of faith,
here's the nature of faith. Saving faith has certain characteristics. Saving faith, living faith, forgiving
faith. Redeeming faith has certain characteristics. Here briefly are five. Number
one, saving faith knows who Christ is. Now he's not just a sweet
little Jesus boy. He's the one who created heaven
and earth. Saving faith knows that. Saving faith says, I know
whom I have believed. Saving faith is not trusting
a reformer, a superstar, a frustrated, defeated Messiah. Saving faith
knows that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and was God, and all things were made by Him, for Him, through
Him, and for His glory. He's very God of very God. He's
the brightness of the Father's image. He's the express image
of His person. He's very God and very man, the
God man. I know who Jesus Christ is. No
man can call Him Lord but by the Holy Spirit, but faith knows
who He is. Faith knows who and why and what
he did, and faith knows where he is. Now, saving faith knows
that. Saving faith, not worshiping
an idol. Saving faith, not worshiping a good luck charm. Saving faith,
not wearing a cross around his neck to ward off evil spirit.
Saving faith, not submitted to superstition. Saving faith knows
a person, a living Eternal Lord, infinite, immutable, eternal
deity, who became a man and died on the cross. Saving faith knows
that. And then saving faith rests totally,
secondly, on the Word of God. Not on feeling, on the Word of
God. Not on experience, on the Word
of God. Saving faith rests on the Word of God. We'd better
make much of this Word. Faith is born of the Word of
God. We're born again, not of the corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible seed by the Word of God. It's not emotionalism that'll
save you, it's God's Word that'll save you. You've got to have
a foundation for faith. I believe because God says it.
We don't believe because we feel it, or some preacher said it,
or always thought it, or somebody passed it down from mouth to
ear. We believe it because we can
open the Bible and read it. Faith is born of the Word of
God. Faith's foundation is the Word of God. Faith grows on the
Word of God. Desire the sincere milk of the
Word, that you may grow thereby. And faith's assurance is the
Word of God. These things are written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may
know you have eternal life. Thirdly, this is the nature of
faith. Faith knows who Christ is. And
faith rests on the word of God. Now don't you rest your salvation
in a church, or a religion, or a creed, or a cult. You better
rest on this book. And thirdly, faith embraces Christ
with sincere love. With sincere love. Our Lord sat
Peter down by the fire. And Peter denied him. And he
looked at him and he said, Peter, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? He asked him
that three times. And brethren, that's the test.
That's the test right there. To you that believe, he's precious. Christ is precious. And because
Christ is precious, everything about him is precious. His word,
his will, his glory, his people, his church, all these things
are precious because he is. Christ is precious. This is the
motivation for all that we do. Christ is precious. We love him. He said, Peter, you love me?
Feed my sheep. You love me? Feed my lambs. You
love me? Do my will. If you love Christ,
you will. Saving faith embraces Christ
with a sincere love. If any man love not our Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. Let him be under the
curse of God, the Lord cometh. Saving faith is the consent and
choice of the will. Yes, sir, it sure is. Christ
charged the unbelievers. Listen to me now. Christ charged
the unbelievers in this fashion. He said, you will not come to
me that you might have life. But every believer will come
to Christ. He will. He comes willingly. He comes lovingly. He comes with
full consent of his will. He's made willing. Turn to Psalm
110, verse 3. Psalm 110, verse 3. It's not
of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man that anybody
comes to Christ. It's first of the will of God,
but then it's of the will of man. It says in Psalm 110 verse
3, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the
beauty of holiness from the womb of the morning. It's God's will
that designed my salvation. It's God's will that decreed
my salvation. It's God's will that executed
my salvation. It's God's will that applied
my salvation. But by my will, I received that
salvation. That's so. 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 has
no unwilling people. When it started to rain, and
the door of the ark was open, God said, Noah, come in. Noah wasn't picked up and thrown
in the ark. He wasn't drug into the ark.
He wasn't driven into the ark. The Lord God said, come in. And brethren, he went in willingly,
willingly. The other people stayed out willingly. But Noah went in willingly. Why
did he go in? Well, he knew some things they
didn't, Jerry. He saw some things they didn't. He understood some
things they didn't understand. You see, faith acts. Faith responds,
true faith. If a man understands, this is
seeing, he that seeth the Son and believeth on him, he'll receive
Christ, he'll love Christ, he'll walk with Christ, he'll serve
because he understands some things, he believes. The man who doesn't
see doesn't understand and doesn't believe and consequently he doesn't
act. But faith is the consent and
choice of the will. I will to receive Christ. Whosoever
will, let him take the water of life. The Spirit and the bride
say, come. Let him that hear it say, come.
Let him the thirst come. And whosoever will, let him take
the water of life. Are you willing? Then take the
water of life. But faith wills to receive Christ. This is what he wants to do.
Not what he's forced to do or made to do or required to do,
but what he wants to do. You go all the way through the
Bible, you'll find that worship is always willing worship, never
coerced, never forced. Giving is always willing, never
forced. Nobody's forced to praise God.
Nobody's forced to give for the glory of God. No one is forced
to come to Christ. No man against his will is brought
to Christ. He comes willingly. That's a
characteristic of faith. I'm here because I want to be.
I pray because I want to pray. I love God because I want to
love God. And then in the fifth place, saving faith justifies
God, whether in mercy or judgment. I know this is difficult, but
this is true. I want to give you several examples.
Job said, when everything was swept away, I want you to turn to that. Let
me show you that in Job, I believe it's chapter 1 or chapter 2,
but I want you to see this right away. Everything was swept away.
Chapter 1. In chapter 1, in verse 20, when
everything was gone, swept away, it says, Job arose and writ his
mantle, shaved his head, fell down on the ground and worshipped
God. And he said, the Lord gave The
Lord giveth, naked I came out of my mother's womb, the Lord
gave, the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord,
either in judgment or grace, praise God. He said on another
occasion, though he slay me, I'll trust him. Eli said this,
it's the Lord, let him do what he will. David said this, God, you're
just when you condemn me, and you're righteous and clear when
you judge me. Now here's what saving faith
does. Saving faith knows that God doesn't owe me anything. I think we've got the wrong conception
in this generation of this thing called faith. We feel like God
is obligated. If I do this, that, and the other,
God's obligated to do something. God's not obligated to any creature,
except in one way, to deal with us after our sins in a just and
righteous fashion, and he'll do that. But God's not obligated
to show mercy to anybody. He's not obligated to forgive
anybody. I don't know where we get this sort of thing. I don't
know where preachers get it. If you do thus and so, God will. I'll guarantee you God will save
you. I don't guarantee any man God will save you. I'll guarantee you one thing,
God will deal with the injustice. I guarantee you that. I guarantee
you God will be righteous, he'll be just, he'll be holy, but mercy
is his prerogative. He said, I'll be merciful to
whom I will. I'll be gracious to whom I will. And faith justifies God whether
in mercy or in grace. He's just. All right. The object
of faith is Christ. It's Christ Jesus presented in
the gospel. Everything's in him. The nature
of faith is this. This is the nature of faith.
It looks to Christ. It rests on the word of God.
It comes willingly. And it says, Lord, do with me
what you will. You're God. And whatever you
do with me, I'll forever praise your name. You're the Lord. That's right. Now, I believe
a man can come that way. I believe a man can can be shut
up by the law, his mouth can be stopped, and all his foundations
of flesh swept out from under him, stripped, and like the thief
on the cross. Here's an example. Lord, I'm
getting what I deserve. You don't deserve what you're
getting, what's happening to you. You're coming in their kingdom.
Would you remember me? You notice that man did not say,
will you take me into your kingdom? He did not say, let me go with
you to your kingdom. He said, just remember me. Now
that's humility and that's submission. And Christ said, today you'll
be with me in paradise. And you go through the Bible,
you'll find people who came to the Lord, didn't debate whether
or not they patronized the Son of God, but they cried unto him
for mercy. If you will, you can make me
whole. Our Father in heaven, we need to know something about
this. is subject of faith. Thy word has said, Thy faith
hath made thee whole, that just shall live by faith. He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. Give us some understanding. Open our eyes that we might see,
and our ears that we might hear, and our hearts that we might
understand. You preach to the multitude in parables because
seeing they didn't see, and hearing they did not hear, because they
had hearts that were in darkness and blindness. Don't leave us
to ourselves, to our own understanding. Reveal thy glory and thy greatness
and thy power and thy beauty, thy wisdom and justice and righteousness
and redemption in Christ Jesus. or that we might search the scriptures,
that we might find in them the message of grace, that you might
speak peace to our hearts, rest to these troubled souls. In Christ
Jesus our Lord we pray. Amen.