the book of 1 Timothy, chapter
3. Now, we're suffering in this
day under two types of preaching. And I selected the word that
I meant to use, we are suffering. We are suffering. There are those who preach only
to our heads, and they're those who preach only to our hearts. Charles Spurgeon said he was
touched one Sunday morning when a mother came to him and said,
Mr. Spurgeon, I think you'll be interested
in what my son, ten years old, prayed last night. She said,
I went with him to his room to tell him goodnight And he wanted
to have prayer with me, so we knelt beside the bed and I asked
him to pray. And she said while he was praying,
he used these words, O Lord, I pray that our minister will
say something tomorrow that I can understand. O Lord, I pray that our minister
will say something tomorrow that I can understand. The story is
told, and is supposed to be true, of a minister in England by the
name of Dr. Guyce. He pastored the same church
for almost thirty years. He took the church. It was a
rather large assembly, and he was a well-educated man, having
finished the university. and the special theological school. He was a deep preacher. He prepared
his messages carefully and he wrote them out and he would read
them on Sunday morning and Sunday night and gradually the people
stopped coming to hear him except those who carried out the form
of church attendance on the Lord's Day and a few visitors that would
occasionally come. Dr. Guyce was in his middle fifties. One Sunday morning he was conducting
the service. He had read the Scripture and
he bowed to lead the congregation in one of his long prayers. This
is a true story. When he raised his head and opened
his eyes after leading the congregation in prayer, he had gone completely
blind. He told the people what had happened
that he could not see. He was unable to read. He was
unable to read his prepared manuscript. Tears began to flow down his
cheeks, and he said, All I can do this morning is try to tell
you what the Lord has done for me and what the Lord on the cross
did for sinners. And for twenty-five or thirty
or thirty-five minutes he spoke out of his heart. And the Lord
saved two or three people in that service. They had never
heard a message quite like that. And as two of the deacons were
leading him from the pulpit out of the auditorium after that
message, one of them was overheard to say, what a pity that he didn't
go blind twenty-five years ago. What a pity. that he didn't go
blind 25 years ago. They're those who minister doctrine,
ritualism, legalism, morality to our heads over and over and
over again, and never minister to our hearts. But there's another
group, and I had the misfortune of hearing one on the radio the
other day as long as I could stand it, and then I turned it
off. They're those who preach only to the emotions and to the
feelings. Now, if we're going to minister
the things of God to thoughtful people, we're going to have to
not only preach to their hearts, we're going to have to preach
to their heads. We're not only going to have to preach to their
heads, we're going to have to preach to their hearts. Now,
shallow minds may be swayed only by emotion. They may enjoy that. Shallow minds may be swayed and
persuaded by excitement, but the Apostle Paul wanted to instruct
us as well as inspire us. Both are necessary. We've got
to be inspired, but we've got to be instructed. Before I read
the text, just hold that text that we turned to there in 1
Timothy and turn with me now to 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter
3. Now listen to this. 1 Peter 3,
verse 15. Now this is a lesson for every
minister of the gospel. I've got to know what I believe
in my mind, and I've got to believe it in my heart. A religion which is based upon
emotion only, and sustained by excitement only, and dependent
upon feeling only, I know this appeals to the flesh. We like
to laugh and we like to cry. We don't like to think. But a religion, a faith that
is based upon emotion and excitement and feeling only, it will not
stand the trials of life. It won't do it. Now, it will
be all right as long as everything is going your way. It'll be all
right as long as there's health and wealth and happiness. But when the trials come, when
the severe time of testing comes, this emotional, exciting, so-called
religious feeling, it won't stand those trials. It won't give you
a foundation to build on when everything under you is being
swept away. And when the opposition of Satan
comes, and it will come, Satan will try you. Christ said that.
He's the accuser of the brethren. He's the adversary. He's a roaring
lion. Maybe you've never tackled him.
You may never. He's not omnipresent. God just
lets him move where it pleases God to let him move, as in the
life of Job. But you may personally encounter
him someday. You will encounter his demons.
You will encounter his messengers, you may not encounter him personally.
And then again you may. But I'm telling you, if he ever
attacks, you'd better have something stronger than a little easy believism. You'd better have a foundation
that's a lot stronger than church membership. You'd better have
a refuge that's a lot stronger than a decision. This religion
which is based upon and sustained by excitement and feeling will
not stand the pressures of death. When you're lying there in the
bed and the doctor shakes his head and turns to your wife and
says there's nothing I can do for him, and the children begin
to fall beside the bed and weep and cry, and your breath becomes more
difficult to draw, and you realize that this life is over and you're
going out to meet a holy God, it's going to take something
a whole lot stronger than walking down an aisle, shaking a preacher's
hand, and deciding that you believe on Jesus. You'd better have a
better foundation than that. Peter said in 1 Peter 3, verse
15, "...sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready
always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of
the hope that is in you. In Bible school this week I had
a class of young people in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grade,
and I taught them each day for an hour. It was a delight to
my heart. And on Friday I asked them to
take their workbooks and to write out for me in thirty words or
less a definition of the gospel. What is the gospel? Do you know
the gospel? Can you define the gospel? But
you say the gospels believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That is
not the gospel. That's a command to believe the
gospel. That's not the gospel. That's
not the gospel. The gospel is not a command.
The gospel is a proclamation. The gospel is not an invitation. The gospel is good news. What
is the gospel? It's a person. The gospel is
substitution. The gospel is what Christ did
for me, not what I'm supposed to do for him. I'm not the gospel. He's the gospel. Can you define
the gospel? One of those young men wrote
this, he said, Christ was born of the Virgin Mary in order that
he might not partake of the sin of Adam. He lived on this earth
a perfect life in order that we might have a righteousness.
He went to the cross and died for our sins in order that we
might be forgiven. He was buried and rose again
the third day and ascended to the right hand of God where he
is our mediator. That's the gospel. It's all what
Christ did for us, not what we're doing for Christ. Now, brethren,
in my text tonight, I want to preach to your hearts, but I
want to preach to your heads. I want you to believe in your
heart what God's taught you in your head. I want you to believe
in your heart and rest in your heart upon that foundation that
you've learned with your intelligence. be able to give a reason. If
somebody asks you tomorrow, you're going to heaven. Yes, I am. How
do you know? Well, I just know. Well, that's
not good enough reason. Christ said, every man that calls
me Lord, Lord, is not going to the kingdom of God. He's not
going to heaven. If somebody asks you tomorrow,
you say, well, yes, I am. Well, how do you know? Well,
I just know I am. The Scripture says for you to
be able to give a reason for your hope, a reason for your
hope, an intelligent reason for your hope. Now here in 1 Timothy
3, in my text tonight, verse 16 says, without controversy.
And this is not a matter of controversy, not a matter for debate or argument. I'm not arguing with anybody.
I'm not debating anybody. It's not Baptist doctrine, or
Methodist doctrine, or Presbyterian doctrine, or Nazarene doctrine,
or any other kind of denominational doctrine. It's God's Word. And
God's not going to ask you if you were a Baptist, or a Methodist,
or a Presbyterian, if you believe what they believe. This Word
is going to judge you, not your confession of faith, not your
catechism. The Word of God will judge you.
And he says it's without controversy, without controversy, without
debate, without argument. This is a revelation of God's
mercy. This is a revelation of eternal
life. But whether you say it's foolishness,
or whether you say it's the power of God, or whatever your opinion,
without debate, these are great things. Great is the mystery,
and it is a mystery. It's a mystery. There's no room
for indifference here. These statements are either the
most ridiculous claims ever made or the most amazing revelation
of all time. Without argument, great, great
is the mystery of godliness. It's a mystery. It must be revealed.
Not learned by research, it's learned by revelation. And I'm
here to tell you, you don't learn it overnight either. You don't walk in a congregation
and open a Bible and read three verses and go out a theologian.
You can't even do that with the books of fallible men, let alone
the book of an infallible God. The Holy Spirit is our teacher.
He's a teacher. He will teach you all things. Christ, after three and a half
years with His disciples, after three and a half years of walking
with the Master and talking with the Master, He said, I've got
many things to say to you. You are not able yet to bear
them. You can't even hear them. You
can't learn them. They're too far advanced for
you. You're on the milk of the Word. There's the meat of the
Word also. How be it when He, the Holy Spirit,
is come? He will lead you into all truth.
He will guide you into all truth. He will take the things of mine
and show them to you." The most amazing thing in the
world to me is how quickly a person becomes an authority on the Bible,
how quickly they become a master of theology, how quickly the
people become their own preachers and their own pastors. They know
just what ought to be preached, They know just what ought to
be done, they know just what ought to be taught, and if they're
crossed in any way, they'll pick up their marbles and go play
marbles in some other church without argument, without debate. This is not a matter of debate
or argument. This is a great theme. These
are great matters. Great is the mystery. It is a
mystery. It must be revealed by the Holy
Spirit. The natural man cannot understand
the things of God. The natural man cannot comprehend
the things of God. They're spiritually understood,
spiritually discerned. He must be taught by the Holy
Ghost. What are these things? Let's
look at them. There are six grand and glorious themes here. Without
argument, great, great, great is the mystery of godliness,
number one. God was manifest in the flesh. Now, my friends, if you'll carefully
consider this, it's one of the most extraordinary doctrines
ever declared in human hearing. God became a man. That's what he said. Now, if
we didn't have God's word for this, we'd deserve to be laughed
out of town. The infinite the infinite God
who fills all of heaven and earth and all the universe, who was
and is and is to come, the infinite God of whom it is said in His
word, the earth is His footstool and the heavens is His throne. The omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent
God is actually robed in human flesh and walking on this earth.
That's a pretty great theme. And men don't have the wisdom,
the understanding to comprehend it. The Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. And we can read that like we
read 2 and 2 of 4. It makes no impact on us. It does not grip our souls. We
can read it and go right on with all the foolishness of this earth.
God was in the flesh. God walked right down here on
this earth. Now, if you were an angel, you'd be standing back
tonight in awe and reverence and wonder at this fact, because
the Scripture says, these things the angels desire to look into. If you were an angel tonight,
you'd gather with other angels around that manger in Bethlehem
And you'd look there at that helpless infant, and you'd say
to the other angels, this is the sovereign Lord of heaven
there in that manger in human flesh. This child of poverty,
this child of poverty for whom there was no room in the inn,
lying there surrounded by the cattle and the sheep and ragged,
dirty shepherds. and born to a poor teenage Jewish
maiden, is none other than the prince of all wealth. This naked
babe is him who robes himself with the stars and with the light
of heaven. This is God Almighty. That's
great. gather with the angels around
that carpenter shop there in that poor, obscure village called
Nazareth, of which someone said, nothing good can come out of
that place, that's for sure. And there in that obscure village
is an unknown carpenter by the name of Joseph, and in his carpenter
shop, toiling with his father, so-called, over tables and chairs
and furniture, is a boy. And the angels come there and
they sit around and they watch this boy as he struggles with
a customer's cabinet, as he saws a board, as he tries to drive
a nail, and they stand and look with wonder and amazement. This
is him who, by word, brought the worlds into being. And yet
he's limited himself, he's confined himself to human flesh. And Joseph
turns and says, Jesus, go up to the house and get some water.
And he says, Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And he goes out of
that shop and walks up to the house and brings his dad a glass
of water. Gather with the angels in the
wilderness of temptation. There's a man there, thin. You could almost tell his bones.
Circles under his eyes. pale, hungry, thirsty, after
forty days of fasting. And he allows Satan to try him
and to test him and to mock him. As John said, the world is made
up of three things, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life. And in all three of these areas,
the Lord Jesus there allows this demon of hell to try him and
to mock him. The lust of the flesh, make these
stones into bread. You're hungry, aren't you? If
you're the son of God, make these stones into bread and feed your
hunger. The lust of the eyes, he took
him to a high pinnacle and said, look out there, they're the kingdoms
of this world. It belongs to me, it's mine to
give. I'll give it to you if you'll
worship me. The pride of life. People don't
believe you, do they? They're laughing at you, aren't
they? If you're the son of God, why don't you cast yourself down
off this temple and walk from the bruising fall? They'll believe
you. For the Scripture says he'll
give his angels charge over thee, lest thou dash thy foot against
a stone. And these angels stand around
in amazement as the master allows himself to be taunted and tempted
and tried and mocked by this demon of hell. It could be his good pleasure
to snap his finger and put him back in hell, but he didn't. He's born in that manger that
he might be identified with the lowest human being like me and
you. There's no person in all the
world that cannot be identified with Christ in the lowliness
of his birth. This world's got a terrible class
system. You know it and I know it. You
say, not in America. Yes, in America. But I do not
know a class in any country that cannot come to Christ and be
identified with him. Our Lord Jesus Christ worked
in that carpenter's shop and earned his living by the sweat
of his brow that he might live under the curse placed upon Adam
and his posterity in the Garden of Eden. By the sweat of thy
brow thou shalt earn thy bread. Our Lord went to the wilderness
of temptation and weakened his body after forty days of fasting,
and Satan caught him in the weakest moment, in the weakest hour,
and tried him and tested him in every point as we have tried,
but he didn't fall. He did not fall. The only way
that he can be a faithful high priest pertaining to the things
of God is to walk the same path we walk on the same thorns and
same rough stones, in the same darkness, in the same hunger,
in the same thirst, tried, tested in all points as you are, yet
without sin. Our congregations must hear these
things. They must know these things.
that God's Word. Gather with those angels around
that bloody cross as they stand and look in amazement in awe,
and see that indignity is heaped upon him, and see the mockings
and ridicule that he endured, and see the pain of body and
the agony of soul, and even deserted by the Heavenly Father, and they
stand amazed. He was wounded for our transgressions. You're not going to heaven because
you believed on Christ. You're going to heaven because
Christ died for your sins. You're not going to heaven because
you turned over a new leaf and joined the Church. You're going
to heaven because Christ went to that cross and satisfied God's
justice for you and allowed God to be a holy God and a just God
and justify the unholy. That's the basis on which we're
saved. We're not redeemed because of
what we did for Christ. We're redeemed because of what
Christ did for us. The song of heaven is unto him
who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and
made us kings and priests to our God. That's the gospel. And those angels stand around
that throne, God in the flesh. Then they gather around that
grave, and they see him still in death, see him taken down
from that tree and wrapped in grave clothes, and laid in that
tomb. There's no path I'm going to
walk that Christ hasn't already walked. I'm not afraid to be
put in the grave, because my Lord went there before I, and
He came out, and He said, Because I live, you'll live. My Lord
went there first, and up from the grave he arose with a mighty
triumph over his foes. He arose a victor over the dark
domain, and he lives forever with his saints to reign. Gather with the angels when he
comes back home. Turn to Psalms 24. Here is the
victorious entry of Christ into glory after his victory over
sin and death and hell. And in Psalms 24, listen to it,
Lift up your heads, verse 7, O ye gates, and be ye lift up,
ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the
Lord mighty in battle. Verse 9 of Psalm 24, Lift up
your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting
doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King
of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the
King of glory. Yeah, one day he left heaven,
and I know the angels were astonished, astounded, and amazed. They came
down here to this earth, and they saw what went on, and they
were more astonished and amazed. But then when the victory was
won, and then when the battle was done, and then when Christ
entered triumphantly into glory, when He led through the heavens
many vanquished foes, many conquered enemies, There was a triumphant
entry into glory because here he comes, the King of Glory. Lift up your hands. God was manifest
in the flesh. Look at the second statement
in 1 Timothy 3. Justified in the Spirit. What
does that mean? This is a great theme. Justified
in the Spirit. This is the Holy Spirit. Now
this means the Holy Spirit of God is the personal witness of
everything that Christ did. He's justified in and by the
Holy Spirit. Christ said, if I bear witness
of myself, my witness is not true. If I'm the only one who
claims what I claim, if I'm the only one who preaches what I
preach, if I'm the only one who lays claim to what I have presented,
don't believe me. But he said the Holy Spirit.
beareth witness of me, and the Spirit is truth." Observe what part the Holy Spirit
took in connection with our Lord. First of all, the formation of
His immaculate body in the womb of Mary was by whom? The Holy
Spirit. He was not the son of Joseph.
He was not conceived by Joseph. He was conceived by the Holy
Spirit of God. The Scripture said the angel
declared, The power of God shall come upon thee, the Holy Spirit
shall overshadow thee, and that holy thing which is born of thee
shall be called the Son of God. The Holy Spirit descended on
him at his baptism when he went down into that River Jordan with
John the Baptist and came up out of the water. The Scripture
says the Spirit of God descended on him. in the form of a dove. Romans 1, 4 tells us that he
was raised from the dead by the Holy Spirit. Forty days after
he arose from the grave, his disciples were meeting together,
and they were filled and baptized with the Holy Ghost and sent
out under the authority and power of the Holy Spirit to preach
his gospel. And as those apostles preached
his gospel, the gospel of Christ, The Holy Spirit bore witness,
the Scripture says, with signs and wonders. And the Holy Spirit quickens
us and reveals Christ to us. Let's look at the next statement
quickly. I said there were sixteen. Without argument. This is no
subject for debate. This is declared revelation. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God came down here in the form of a man. He was testified to
by the Holy Spirit, justified in all his claims by the Holy
Spirit. He was seen of the angels. Now let me ask you something. Everything Christ did was attended
by the angels. Did you ever hear of angels hovering
around our political society? We think they're so great. Congress
is going to meet, the Senate's going to meet, the President's
going to speak, we're going to have a declaration of war, we're
going to have this, everybody's tuned to their radios and everybody's
tuned to their televisions, everybody's waiting for a word from Washington,
but there are no angels hanging around there. Did you ever hear
of angels hovering around our philosophical society. We bring
out some astounding things. We study the behavior patterns,
etc., etc., but I don't see any angels hanging around. Did you
ever hear of the angels hovering around our religious society?
We have the National Council of Churches and the American
Council of Churches and the Christian Council of Churches, and the
Catholics have all of their cardinals' meetings and so forth, but I
don't ever hear of any angels. hovering around those places.
But when the Lord Jesus was born down there in Bethlehem, the
Scripture says the angels from heaven came down here, and they
found those shepherds on the hillside, and they said, Glory
to God, something is taking place in Bethlehem that the whole world
is going to hear about. There has been a baby born. There's
been a baby born. Glory to God in the highest,
on earth peace, goodwill toward men. Unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior, Christ the Lord. Turn to Matthew
4. Listen to this. And when the
master went out yonder into that wilderness and was tempted of
the devil, in Matthew 4, verse 11, it says, when the devil left
him, the angels came and gave him something to eat. The angels
came. And then turn to Luke chapter
22, verse 43. Listen to this. When he went
yonder in that awful, agony-filled garden of Gethsemane and fell
on his face and prayed, as his human nature rebelled against
the cross and against the separation from God as he thought, I'm going
to die right here, my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto
death. And the scripture says in Luke
22, 43, And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, and
strengthened him. And then around that bloody tree
the angels pressed with strong desire that wondrous sight to
see the Lord of glory expire. And could their eyes have known
a tear, they'd have dropped it there in sad surprise. When he arose from the grave,
the scripture says, the angel said to the women, He's not here.
They said, Whom do you seek? They said, Jesus of Nazareth.
They said, He's not here. He's risen. And when he ascended
back to the Father, the angels stood there and said to those
disciples, You men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into
heaven? This same Jesus which you've seen go into heaven shall
so come in like manners you've seen him go. He's seen of the
angels. Everything our Lord did was attended
by the angels. Then look at the next statement.
He was preached unto the Gentiles. Now we've talked of the wonders
of incarnation in this message, and I stood and looked at this,
this afternoon especially, and hear the Apostle Paul rising
with these grand themes, and teaching, instructing Timothy
in the things of God, in the mystery of godliness. And he
talks about God in human flesh. And he talks about the Holy Spirit's
witness and the Holy Spirit's work. And he talks about the
angels of God attending the Lord in all of his work, in all of
his ministry. And then, lo and behold, he says,
and he's preached to the Gentiles. Preach. It must be mighty important,
this business of preaching. I used to think that I was aware
of the importance of it, but I'm becoming more aware of it.
This matter of preaching is not exciting people or striking their
emotions. It's God speaking to us through
his word and through his messenger. It's solemn, it's serious, it's
sacred, it's holy. For the scripture says, God hath
chosen by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Oh, what a wonder that God should
use means such as this. That's what he said. The preaching of the gospel.
The preaching of the gospel. A friend of mine, a member of
his church, was very ill. He was taken to the hospital,
and the doctor told his wife that it would just be a matter
of days and he would be dead. She called the pastor, and he
went up to the hospital to see this friend of his, a man that
had been attending his church for years and years and years.
And he sat down by the bed, and they talked together, and they
had prayer. And then the minister took his friend by the hand for
the last time. And he looked into his face and
he said, Are you saved? And the man looked at him and
he said, Pastor, I am if you told me right. I am if you told me right. Has your pastor told you right?
That's serious, isn't it? The Bible talks about us obeying
those that have the rule over us as those that watch for our
souls and as those who must give an account. I know there are a lot of people,
and this is going over the radio next Thursday night, but I want
it to be heard. There are some people who are
critical of me. I've been preaching here in Ashland
now for 24 years, pastoring a church. And I do not use these fleshly
methods to get people into this building. I do not use high-pressure
persuasion to get people down this aisle. I do not use the tricks We don't
have giveaway programs here. We don't give away prizes or
green stamps or call people's names or put their names in the
bulletin or recognize them in any shape, form, or fashion. We don't put pressure on primary
and junior boys and girls to make a religious profession. I stand in this pulpit Sunday
after Sunday, Wednesday after Wednesday, preaching the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. and leaving it to the Holy Spirit
to reveal Christ and to work in men's hearts and bring them
to knowledge of their sin and a knowledge of Christ the Savior
and leave it to God to save sinners. I can't save men. I can give
them a profession. I can give them a refuge. I can
give them an ease of conscience. but I can't save their souls,
and I've got to give an account of my ministry some day. I've
got to stand before Almighty God, and I can say I believe
with the Apostle Paul as he spoke to those Elders at Antioch for
the last time, when he said, I have not shunned to the care
unto you the whole counsel of God. I've kept back nothing profitable
unto you. Now, brethren, we sow the seed
of God's Word, and we water it with prayers and tears, but it's
God who gives the increase. It's only God who can save a
soul. It's only God. We're not trying
to build crowds here. We're trying to build Christians.
We're not trying to see how many bodies we can have. We're trying
to see how many people we can tell the gospel to and teach
the way of life. We're meeting here to worship
God. We're not meeting here to play
games. We're not meeting here to get the young people off the
street. We're not meeting here to entertain sinners on their
road to hell. We're meeting here to teach God's
word. And all in the world these churches
are saying that have to have potluck suppers, and have to
have candy sales, and have to have car washes to make their
budget, and who have to do these things, they're simply saying,
the gospel can't do it. We've got to have some other
means. Well, I'm saying the gospel can do it. I don't need any other
means. We don't need any other means.
Hungry-hearted sinners want to hear the Word of God. They don't
want to hear me stand up here and catch my breath every third
or fourth word and hang on to my ear and holler like an idiot. They want to hear God's Word,
priests. They want to know, preacher, what does this mean? I know what
it says. What does it mean? What's God
teaching here? Teach me before I go to hell
unwarned and untaught. Teach me. That's what you're
for. You're a teacher. You're a pastor-teacher. You're not a toastmaster. You're
not a hail-fella-well-met. You're not a politician. You're
a teacher. And I want to say that to every
preacher in this whole area. We're not the servants of men.
We're God's servants. And we're not trying to please
the flesh, and we're not trying to get disciples to walk after
us. We're preaching God's Word. And it's time preachers learned
that and quit. One old preacher used to say,
pussyfootin' around afraid they're gonna hurt somebody's feelings.
Somebody says to me at the service, you really cut me up in little
pieces today. I said, well, thank the Lord.
I meant to. I did my best. I hope I did.
I hope I did. When my messages come to the
place that they do not disturb sinners, it's time I quit preaching.
When our messages come to the place where they do not convict
and where they do not convince of sin and where they do not
sweep the flesh out from among us and where they do not make
us feel small and sinful, I need to quit preaching and let somebody
up here who can. Notice the next statement, believed
on in this world. It's a miracle that you believe
what I'm preaching and what God says. You know what Spurgeon
said about this? This is the greatest preacher since Paul.
Listen to what he said. to every saved man, it never
ceases to be the greatest miracle in the world that he is a believer
in Christ. When I come to look at the truths
upon which I rest my soul, they are very simple indeed, but all
around them and in my heart so many doubts are cast by the evil
of my nature. that I'm constantly amazed, not
only that I believe on Christ, but that I continue to believe. Faith, my friend, is not difficult.
It's impossible. That's right. Apart from divine
assistance. To continue in the faith of God,
to continue You watch people, as they say, lose their religion. You watch people, as they say,
backslide along the way. You watch people, as they say,
depart from the faith. But I'm saying this, that the
original gift of faith is of the Lord, and a perseverance
in that faith is of the Lord. We are kept by the power of God
through faith. The fact that I have believed
is a miracle, the fact that I continue to believe the gospel is a miracle,
and the fact that someday I'll be conformed to the image of
Christ is a miracle. And all that's by the grace of
God. He's the author and finisher of our faith. Our Father in Heaven,