The Source of Faith

[00:00:00] Thank you. You all know the lovely verse that even the unsaved and the immenses have heard in John 3.16 and most of you can quote it in the King James. If you have another Bible version, we won't discuss that. [00:00:36] Not this morning. So, otherwise you might all leave if I go on about that. Please go back and get your King James. And, no, let's not go that way. But, for God so loved the world, even you can quote it, can't you? Can you? Are you brave enough to imagine that when you have a heart attack? At your age you can't have a heart attack. Does he belong to you? Who does he belong to? Of course he does. [00:01:10] There you are, he's a brave boy, isn't he? For God so loved the world that? Good, that? Now that is wonderful. Now stand. Shut your eyes, turn around and say it loud, as if you're preaching. Up you get. Don't worry, I've done worse things. This is nothing. Alright, you are now tasting what I hope one day you'd long for, the day you're going to preach. [00:01:46] For God so. Amen. You've got a good daddy and mommy because it's King James. And I really commend them that you haven't got... How do you memorize any other version? Impossible. Trust me, you will memorize a thousand times faster and more than any other version. So why waste your time? And they can understand thee and thou. I'm not supposed to be going there. [00:02:18] So here we go back to the point. For God so loved the world. He gave, and that word gave is staggering, His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish now that involves eternal damnation, not just a death we all perish, we all die, but this is speaking about eternal death the second death, not the first death should not perish, but have everlasting life [00:02:52] That's a precious, precious verse. My brother is three years older than me. You're about three years older than him, aren't you? Or one year, two years? How much older are you than your brother? Five years older when my brother's three years older than me. Okay? He got mightily saved. Three months before I was saved, we were very young, 19 years old, but my brother left his business. [00:03:33] He was a young fellow that thrived with businesses. He was like my daddy, able to just do everything. But he left it all, and so did I, and of course he went out on the mission field to a country called Rhodesia those days. Today it's Zimbabwe. Now he went as a young missionary. He had gone to theological school, a Bible school, to train for mission field with his wife. And the day after their honeymoon, they arrived at Bible school. [00:04:08] That's a good way to begin marriage. They had their first son while they were there in this very conservative, perhaps despised by most liberal academic theologians but where they long for you to walk with God to have the right to preach God's word. So he was there, went out on the mission field up to Zimbabwe, Rhodesia went out seeking souls and then they came back, him and his wife and his little baby boy. They only had one son, little baby, Clinton. [00:04:41] And so now they're having a few days rest in Salisbury, the capital of Rhodesia. And they were sitting on the lawns in this one friend's beautiful gardens and having fellowship and little goodies to eat while they fellowshiped, a whole group of Christians with my brother, other missionaries mostly. There was a swimming pool beside them and they were so intensely talking about doctrine, so intensely talking about the things of God, all these Christians and my brother included, that they weren't concentrating on this little boy, this little baby boy that could walk, but staggeringly. [00:05:29] and suddenly as they were intensely talking about the things of God my brother just glanced over to the swimming pool and there he saw the body of his little boy his only child just going down now under the water he said the strangest thing it didn't register they were so involved [00:06:02] he saw it but it didn't register and they went on speaking for a few moments when suddenly the horror of the father had suddenly looked and saw his son drowning sinking under that water it just went through him and he jumped up screaming with a horror that he had never ever known in his life. He fell into the pool, went down, retrieved this body of his only son. [00:06:40] They put the child's body beside the pool, everyone crying out to God for mercy. My brother took this child, they were doing everything to try and revive him. He was blue. and cold. And he picked this boy up and held him and he screamed, screamed, God don't do this to me. [00:07:12] God have mercy on me. Please don't take my son. Please God. And suddenly that boy did something He had doctors who couldn't understand, having gone so long. He just began to choke. And the water just poured out of him. And he revived. When they knew that child actually had survived this, [00:07:46] he held this child again, and he began to worship God in a way he'd never ever known. Oh he had been saved and worshipped God for salvation but as he was holding this child this verse came to his mind but differently than ever before for God so loved the world, you and me, that he gave his only begotten son [00:08:18] he saw his son dying He saw his son about to die and suffer at the hands of wicked men. But he turned his face away and he let him die. He let him die. He gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. [00:08:50] is God's only way. But don't believe it didn't cost God the Father. The horror that must have gone in the Father's heart is beyond human comprehension. Don't believe a human father is capable of more grief and fear and horror as his child is facing suffering at the hands of wicked. As his child faces death, don't you begin to believe. it is beyond comprehension the hurt and the sorrow [00:09:22] and the grief of God the Father he gave he turned his face away and let him die for you and me and that is an amazing verse but it became more amazing to my brother at that point it became something very very precious that verse And I suppose if I have to be honest, from then onward when he preached it, it wasn't like a preacher normally quotes. [00:09:54] It's with brokenness and reverence and carefulness that he says those words. Oh, much brokenness. The wages of sin is death. Death. Now that word death again has nothing to do with physical death. Physical death came upon Adam and all who would follow to you and me as a result of sin. But in its context, the just reward of unrepentant sin, once you've heard the truth of God and the gospel, is death. [00:10:42] In its context, beyond any doubt, eternal suffering and damnation. The second death, where the smoke of their torment has ended up forever and ever. They have no peace day or night. There will never be an ending. A soul will never die. But this death is a separation from God that God calls the second death. This is the second death. There will never be an ending to the torment or God lied, if there is. And God cannot lie. the wages of sin is eternal, eternally [00:11:15] the just reward, but the gift, the free gift literally in the Greek of God, that you can't work for you can just by faith take you can do nothing, nothing to pay you can go to church a million times, that won't pay you can give every 90% of your tithing and earnings to God that won't pay for you to go you can do every good work there is in the book to try no, until you come with nothing Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling Oh, as you come to God with Christ, the first time God will ever look at you [00:11:48] In a way that he could save your soul That you come with nothing but the blood of Jesus Nothing but the death of Christ, the free gift of God Is not eternal suffering and damnation, the death, eternal death It is eternal life Through Jesus Christ our Lord through faith. For by grace are you saved through faith. There are two things about Christ though. Not just one thing. Firstly, [00:12:20] his death. Faith in his death for the forgiveness of sins is vital. We have to have faith in his death. Isaiah 53 is the most beautiful chapter in the entire Bible. It is the axle upon which the entire scripture revolves. Isaiah 53 is the axle of the entire Bible. take that out, we're in trouble Isaiah is the gospel according to Isaiah the only book apart from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that you can say is the entire gospel 500 years before Christ came everything, his birth [00:12:51] the virgin birth, that he was God manifest in the flesh, how he would die, how he would preach the judgments of all in Isaiah the most quoted book in the New Testament is Isaiah the gospel according to Isaiah Isaiah 53 Every is beyond doubt how he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, with his stripes we are healed, all we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned every one to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. [00:13:26] Somehow Christ took us beyond human comprehension Every bit of suffering you would have suffered for eternity Don't try and comprehend it, but God is God And he's just and righteous Christ suffered every iota of suffering you and I And every billion person in eternity that has ever lived on this earth He took upon him Upon him God threw upon him All the punishment All he suffered We don't have to suffer He suffered for our sins. He paid totally for our sins. [00:14:00] The wages of sin is death, yes, eternal death and suffering. That word there involves suffering beyond human comprehension. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Through his death, faith in Christ. By grace are ye saved through faith. Faith in his death. But a dead saviour can't save you because God cries out repentance. is vital. God now commandeth all men everywhere, hallelujah, not some, all men everywhere to repent. [00:14:36] Repent ye therefore and be ye converted, that your sins may be blotted out, unless you've repented from them, they've never been blotted out. Who shall confesseth and forsaketh his sins, the same shall have mercy. Who shall ever commit a sin is a servant of sin, but If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. Now a dead Savior can't do that. So we have to look to a living Savior. I was once preaching in a Salvation Army call. They don't call it a church. You dare not say to the Salvationists, [00:15:09] Where's your church? They don't like the idea of them being called. It's a call. They're very much like an army. So this is the call where the soldiers of God meet to get equipped to go out there and do battle every step of the way when they walk out. So the Salvation Army, in a place called Jermiston, all joined up with the great Johannesburg, now one of the biggest cities in the world. The city built on gold, the deepest, most richest gold mines in the entire world, in Johannesburg, South Africa's major city. So Jermiston is there, and I was touring around years and years ago to many churches. [00:15:44] They arranged a tour in many places, all around the towns that are now just suburbs of this thing that goes on hours and hours and hours and hours of traveling. I've just built up urban areas and cities Well, I was in Jermiston and I was to preach in the Salvation Army so I went to the Salvation Army officer Captain Kirwan I went to his house where I had a meal and a time of prayer and met his family and then went over that night to preach It was close, it was right about Easter [00:16:16] of that year Now, Captain Kirwan was a big man I hope there's no big man here to be embarrassed but he was a big man and he was a fireball for God he just sat there looking at the maze alarmed at this man's fire burning heart for God so I was really blessed being with him and he shared about his life of course Captain Cohen had been a drunk he had been an alcoholic enslaved to sin and he was standing in a pub in a bar [00:16:46] drinking with men on the Friday night and there they were All these sinners, blaspheming, cursing, carrying on laughing, but in the heart, of course, there's nothing but sorrow and emptiness without Christ. Even in laughter, the heart is sorrowful. God says, these men, all carrying on, this is all there is for happiness, to drink themselves to a stupor, and to curse and carry on. Suddenly, the most amazing thing happened. A little lady stood at the door of the bar with these cursing men. Now that was brave [00:17:19] and perhaps not very wise so don't you think you must do it but who was it? It was a Salvation Army little girl She was there in her Salvation Army uniform She didn't come in there in a way dressed like the world to win the world You don't do that She wasn't taking a chance at the testimony She had a Bible and she stood in that doorway and began to cry out to those men to repent and to come to Christ or face eternal damnation. In the doorway, oh of course, the most horrific things happened. [00:17:53] They, somebody threw something at her and began to curse her with the most horrible blasphemes and dirty words and obscenities and told her to get out and screaming at her, this poor little thing standing there. And there was great anger at this woman daring to stand in the devil's house with the devil's people eating and drinking from the devil's tables where the devil wants them to drink. Oh. So there she was [00:18:23] and the devil's people were angry and cursing her and mass. Captain Curwen, heavily drinking, looked at all this and said, stop! Now he was bigger than anybody else. So they stopped. He walked over to this little lady who was trembling and little tears coming down her eyes at all the obscenities. He lifted her up and carried her and he placed her on the bar counter. And he said, wait, if anyone opens their mouth, I will beat you to a pulp. [00:19:06] If anyone says a word, you all will have it. Do you understand? Quiet! And I will! Now he says, You have something to say. And you are very brave. I've never known such courage. You have something to say that you had courage enough to stand there and tell us about God. Say it. I want to hear and I want everyone to hear what you have such courage enough to stand in this place. [00:19:39] Say it! That little lady began to preach the gospel in a bar, on the bar counter, to these men with their bottles. Oh, and she's weeping, by the way, because she was scared. Didn't make her really that brave that she couldn't weep. And as she stood there, this big Captain Cohen fell on his knees, under the deepest conviction he'd never once known conviction of sin in his life. [00:20:11] Never once. Here he's on his knees, weeping, sobbing, the whole place in shock because this was really the guy you didn't play with. And so Captain Coburn, this little lady comes down and kneels beside him and prays, whispers in his ear the words from the heart of God from this holy book. and he gets faith. And God saved him in a pub on his knees in front of drunks [00:20:42] looking in shock, unable to speak in fear at what God was doing and how God was shaking all of their hearts. Ah, that's courage. He married her. What else could you do with a woman like that? How would you ever not marry her? Anyway, they served the Lord together in the most astonishing ways. Now, those days, this was years ago, he was Captain Coven of the German Salvation Army Corps. [00:21:15] The preacher, in other words, the pastor. But anyway, now I'm going to preach there. And he said, you know, something amazing just happened. Easter has just passed, Easter weekend. And he said, of course everybody knows the Lord Jesus died. The world, in their masses, in their millions, somehow have some, just even if it's a moment, a reflection that Christ died for all men. That's Easter Friday. So it's Easter, Sunday comes, and we at the Salvation Army Corps, every year, have a sunrise service. [00:21:51] Because this is the day the Lord rose from the dead. Ah, he says, so we're all going to gather there before the sun comes up. We do it every year. and that church just fills up, the core just fills up with people. Come now, sing the praise of a risen saviour as the sun rises. A sunrise service for the day that Christ rose from the dead. Well, he says he got down there very early, drove through all the streets, the lights, no cars, just dead. Comes to the core, opens up the building, puts the lights on, gets everything ready, [00:22:22] waiting in anticipation for all the people to come, but he had come a little bit early. So now he's standing there at the door and he's got a little time to wait because no one's going to come but he's early He looks over the road Over the road, the opposite side right in the heart of the city it's all part of Germiston is the mortuary That's where they keep the dead bodies So if you die, they take your body to the mortuary So every time you leave the Salvation Army Corps [00:22:53] after you've heard a message you face the mortuary which the poor Salvation Army people had to do, you know, face the mortuary. You know, quite a message walking out of the church building. But the little man that's the undertaker lived on top of the mortuary. He was a very small man, I believe. And every time he had to walk out of his front door, he had to face Captain Kerwin. This fireman of God. And Captain Kerwin would run to him and preach and speak to him about God and his soul and salvation. [00:23:23] this man really lived in fear of walking out his front door when Captain Cohen was anywhere near the old corps so, now it's early in the morning Easter Sunday, sunrise service commemorating the birth, the resurrection of Christ and Captain Cohen decided to walk across the street total darkness, no cars, silence lights pitch black now he knocked and he knocked until Lights go on upstairs and down comes the undertaker in his dressing gown [00:23:58] At this early hour of the morning Opens up and he looks and he sees big Captain Kirwan there with his Bible, his Salvation Army uniform, a real soldier out to battle He says, what is it? And Captain Kirwan looks at him and says, do you remember who died? Do you remember who died on Friday? Do you remember? Yes Yes. Well, he's not dead anymore. He's alive. He's alive. What? What are you talking about, man? He's risen from the dead. What? [00:24:36] The man got a fright. Yes, he says, Jesus died for you. Paid every penalty of sin for all mankind with you in mind. He died knowing that you needed his death to have eternal life. But he didn't just stay in the grave. He rose from the dead. Hallelujah. And in all his risen glory. He promised that as many as received him. To them gave he the power. to become the sons of God, as many have received him by faith. [00:25:11] This risen Savior, Christ in you, is the hope of glory. If Christ isn't in you, you have no hope of eternal life. If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. This living Savior has to be received. We have this treasure with an earthen vessel, that the excellencies of power may be of God, not of us. Christ in you is the only hope you have. This living Savior, who so confesses with his lips and believes within his heart that God has risen him from the dead, shall be saved. [00:25:42] You must believe in a living Savior because a dead Savior can't set you free. But if the Son, this living Savior, received into your heart shall set you free, you shall be free indeed, God promises. John 8, verse 34 and 36. Oh yes, he has to be a living, so it's faith. The wages of sin is death, yes, eternal death. But the free gift of God for you to take, the moment you try and pay for it in any way or think anything could earn it, God cannot give it to you. You lose eternal life by religion, if religion keeps you from coming with nothing but the blood of Jesus. [00:26:22] And then, to receive this risen Savior, to believe with your heart that God has raised him from the dead, to seek him, to come into your heart, to receive him, this living saviour that you cannot see but you know and he comes into your heart by faith and he sets you free and transforms your life and all things are passed away and all things have become new so it's faith by grace are you saved through faith faith in the death of Christ and faith in the life of Christ [00:26:54] Now, what happens if you sin? Now that God has set you free, and free indeed from enslavement to sin. Whosoever committeth sin is a servant of sin, literally enslaved to sin. You try and stop, and then argue with me that you're not enslaved. And God only can set you free. God only can stop you. You may stop drinking through Alcoholics Anonymous [00:27:25] You may stop smoking through injections and summing up ulterior But you try living what God condemns, you cannot What God damns the soul for, you cannot Christ only can set you free from enslavement to sin because of the sinful nature He can transform you, but now he does You are transformed in a way that people are stunned to deathly silence My mother couldn't speak for about three weeks. She couldn't utter a word. [00:27:56] My father had so changed. Not a month after he was saved, but when he stood up from his knees. My mother was so stunned by the man that walked out there that she walked into the garden and weeped one day and says, I don't know who this man is. I'm living with a total stranger. I know not I've been married to your father. He was my first sweetheart. I never knew a boy or anyone before your daddy. and I've lived all these years but I know nothing about this man he's so changed that's what God does [00:28:28] I'm an alcoholic daddy stopped not over weeks finished the night he got up from his knees he smashed the bottle never touched it 60 cigarettes a day never touched another smoke stopped his swearing everything else that daddy did and this man staggered oh you're saved in such a way But no, set free from enslavement to sin. What happens if you do suddenly find you failed and you sinned? Does that mean you're not saved? Does that mean you have to start again? [00:29:06] I was once on a ship, a big boat, George Ferber, Operation Mobilization He was a young fellow, he got a ship by faith called the Logos Then he got the Julos, Logos number 2 and other ships And he really shook Christianity As he took young people from country upon country who gave months, sometimes years of their lives [00:29:37] going from one country to the other. And on the ship was all these printing presses and they print hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of tracts in the language of the... And then they would preach across and send on... It was amazing. And because of the ship, the uniqueness of it, people would flock to stand there and hear them preaching from the ship. We went on to the ship. All those who were preachers or theological students or somehow... and in this big auditorium on the ship that held really, I don't know, if it was two, perhaps three hundred people [00:30:09] all preachers or someone in full time capacity of some degree in Cape Town, in the harbour and all the Christians knew it was coming, there was advertising in the churches of course and so we all sat there and I remember the great Captain Dobby sitting there and the great Major Alice Smith, the great preachers of our country Roger Vogue, the Billy Grahams of South Africa We're all sitting, listening to this young fellow who's really shaken the world by his faith, getting these boats, these massive ships, sea lights. So, he came out, and this young face, he began to preach to us, but the staggering thing is he spoke to us like we were little children. [00:30:45] And I looked around at these great theologians, and I noticed something, nobody could breathe. They were enthralled at the way this man spoke, and the simplicity of the gospel, hallelujah. So, he was sharing this thing about what happens if you sin After you're saved, you fall He says it's like looking out the window one day and you see the storm clouds gathering up [00:31:16] Whoa, when you're looking, whoa, look at the dark, look at this There's a storm about to come and suddenly there's lightning and thunder and you see a man running in front of your house running he didn't know he was going to be caught in a storm he didn't have an umbrella, he didn't have a raincoat this is the last thing he thought he was going to face on his way to work place so you look at this poor man running in shock of what he's facing suddenly as the water just pours down like a waterfall he slips pow [00:31:46] onto his face and there he is on his face now War, hurt, down in his face, and in the mud, as the rain just pours down, you run out with your umbrella, of course you do, you're compassionate, you run out, and you go to this poor man and say, sir, you fell, I'm so sorry, you obviously weren't prepared for this, this is an incredible storm you faced, and unexpectedly, I'm so sorry this happened to you, before them, but please let me help you up, let me help you up, sir. [00:32:21] And he looks up at you and he says the most astonishing words. He says, no, I've fallen. I'm not going on. Leave me. I've fallen. I've given up. I'm never going to get up. I've fallen. You say, but that's ridiculous. You can't lie out here all the time. Let me help you up. No. I've fallen. I'm not going up. I'm not getting up again. I'm not going to try anymore. Believe me, I think, well, the man's mental. [00:32:56] Well, let me tell you something that will shock you. How many Christians do the same? They're going, God did something, they shook their families to silence. And they're going along and suddenly, on the roads of the celestial city, having turned on the broad road that leads, that many the masses take, to destruction, to eternal damnation, having turned, having repented. You see, when you repent, you don't go off the broad road, by the way. Oh, of course you don't go the way, but all that happens is that you turn and go the opposite direction. [00:33:30] Doesn't mean you don't see all those who have nothing to do, beginning with your family, of the ungodly. And so, on the road now to the celestial city, all that's happened is you've turned. Turned. Turned upon! Your preachers used to pray, you pray that now, you preach that, they'll burn you. And you'll be stunned whose lights the matches. So now you're turned, and you're road, you're now coming up in that direction. Every single person, you can't get away with it. From your family, to your friends, to your workplace, why? [00:34:04] They're uncomfortable, why don't you drink anymore? Why have you stopped smoking? Why can't you, we blaspheme anymore. Why can't you come with us to the dance floor? Why don't you go to the movie house anymore? What's wrong with everything? What's wrong with everything on the television? Why has this got to stop, Daddy? You used to sit and laugh with us. Why now suddenly you weep on your knees? Why? We can't enjoy it. Oh, and all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, beginning with the members of the man's household become his enemies. [00:34:39] You don't have to go out there to the pub to find enemies when you turn. Suddenly your family become your enemies. The father rise up against the children. The son against his father. Why? In the rebellion against God. But, you're still going on that road to the celestial city. You rise on Christ like pilgrim in pilgrim's progress. Staggered as your family regard you as God of your head. Your past excommunicates you, your trouble, talking about being born again, new birth, repenting [00:35:14] Oh, you're going now, on your road But all the powers of hell are against you in the narrow, narrow road that leadeth to life Thank God the Lord said it's narrow, brother, I didn't And everybody in this world will regard you as narrow On a very narrow, Christ said it What road do you want to take if Christ said it's narrow? Oh, with all the powers of hell coming against you, and they will, [00:35:49] all the devils undertaking an experience of all these thousands of years to try and make those who've turned fall. God knows it's possible that you can fall. Though you've turned, God knows the possibility. 1 John 2 verse 1 My little children, these things write I unto you that you sin not Preach it Or leave the pulpit forever for God's sake God doesn't want you to fall But it doesn't stop there [00:36:20] That's half a verse Don't be like the Jehovah Witness You can only quote half a verse You quote the other half and it cancels out what he's saying That's a lie Look at the other half of the verse My little children 1 John 2 verse 1 These things write I unto you that ye sin not. But, but, if, on your road to the celestial city with all the powers of hell against you, with everyone beginning in your home against you, if in your weariness in summer you stagger, [00:36:52] you take your eyes of God like Peter's sink, or if any man fall, now he's speaking to born-again Christians, not to the unsaved he's not licensing sin in a way of sin you have to come to repentance or you're still going to hell that's 1 John 3 clear, Romans 6, clear and most of the New Testament clear as can be oh there's repentance, don't think this is a compromising sin-excusing doctrine but God knows the possibility that those who have turned, who are living in victory [00:37:24] who have staggered their families and friends to silence and fear and anger and hatred to become enemies of these people who turn to God. Oh, if, oh, that comes against you that the devil will use any one of you, children of God, for sin. God names it, so you name it. It's not the end, don't you give up. Don't you dare give up. Give up! [00:37:55] you have no right to give up you came to God by faith in the promises from this book like our dear brother was sharing until you die you survive by the promises God didn't leave us there he tells us in the same book the same faith must be given to the same God who now saved you through faith in what he promised he would do if you put your faith in Christ, death and resurrection and now he doesn't leave you there. [00:38:28] He knows the possibility is there. You could fall. He doesn't give you up. He doesn't give you up. You get up or you defy God. You deny God. You don't lie on the ground and let the devil stand on you and you just squalor while the devil keeps you down there crawling. Ah, it didn't work. It did work. you staggered people, the fire is in your heart the witness of the spirit is there not some rippling feeling but a deep consciousness [00:39:00] that you just know don't try and explain it, nobody will explain it it's unexplainable until you experience it you know you're saved without emotion or warm little feelings it doesn't involve feelings salvation, you know that God saved you and brother, when you know you don't give up believing you take the promises by faith the faith in Christ this living savior if any man, Christian, sin [00:39:31] for isolated sin, not just continuing sin, that's rubbish God doesn't say give up, you get up we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins, you go to Leviticus chapter 16, where he sprinkled the blood, the high priest for all the sins of the people, onto the altar He stands before God the Father with his own blood. If any of us sin, it's not just the blood of Christ that cleanses us of salvation, but till the day you die, past, present, and anything future, so long as you don't think you have the right to go back into a life of sin. [00:40:06] Then we have other doctrines that we won't touch today in case you are extreme. Let's go stop there. But the fact is, the fact is, there's mercy. when you fall and God knew the possibility you would fall get up, confess that isolated sin, and if we confess isolated sins as they come, with the victory we're living while we're in the victory, while we sin not because God delivered us God promises he who is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins [00:40:36] Christians by the way and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, that blood of Christ goes on cleansing brother it's in the past, present and continuous tense the present continuous tense it's something that keeps on it's not a once and for all cleansing God's blood is there for you and me the high priest stands there and sprinkles the blood on the altar before God he shows his death his blood, his death for Christians to get up and he forgives [00:41:08] God the Father forgives because there's the possibility till the day you die you may fall. Oh, what father! When your little baby comes into the world, good brother, like this boy, and that boy that's speaking to his sister. Sorry, we didn't mean to say that, but that should stop you. Don't look shocked. Everybody's shocked at me, okay? Then he says, why do you have to embarrass people? I don't mean to. Nonetheless, what was I saying? [00:41:41] And now you're in trouble if none of you remember. Then he says when you divert, it's terrible. Then you're tired. Nonetheless, a daddy, a mommy, they get a baby. The birth of a child is the most wonderful thing. The joy it gives us. But now that child can't crawl. So he's your total responsibility. So the mother feeds with milk. And we too, by the word of God, the only milk God gives us, once you're born as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. [00:42:23] Without this, oh, but soak yourself in the Bible, and you grow. Now, you can't walk, suddenly you are crawling, and daddy and mommy want you to walk, and you know it, and you have instinct to walk. but they protect you, they carry you they total protection because you're their total responsibility now, come on he's standing come take the first step, we're going to teach you to walk now so he looks at you, walk, I've never walked before [00:42:54] doesn't speak by the way but that's what he's saying so come on, come on take a step because daddy wants you to walk, you take a step boom, you fall Now what father here honestly would look and say, look at him, he falls, I don't want this child, he fell, look at him, he can't walk. I mean that's ridiculous, do you think you're better than God the Father? Do you think you have any more compassion or patience than God? [00:43:29] You say, no, come on, it's not the end of the world, we all fell when we were learning, come. Stand up now. Let's try again. I won't stop until you walk. Come on, try again. Come on. Do you honestly think God has any less patience with us until we walk with God? Oh, have patience with yourself. If God's got such patience. Long-suffering. This heart of God. [00:44:01] He's long-suffering. He is to every one of us. Otherwise you're lying if you say he wasn't to you. To me. But the faith in this long-suffering God comes from this book. It comes from this book. We have not a high priest which cannot be moved with the feeling of our infirmities. In all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Wherefore let us come boldly. That's a staggering word. Don't crawl. It grieved God you fell. Yes. You didn't have to. It's something you really missed somehow. You took your eyes off God. [00:44:33] Let us come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy if we as Christians, because of this high priest that is moved, because he went through it all, he understands, he can show compassion because he knows what temptation is, literally, experienced in a human form, yet without sin. shall we come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and grace to help in time of need. That's a very vital little statement so that we can seek God for the grace not to fall [00:45:05] again as we are. To seek God for victory as many of you did last night. I want to ask you a question. Where does faith come from? Now if you don't know by now you're in trouble. Who should be embarrassed now by asking Where does faith come from? Well, you're looking and hoping that I'm not looking at you, but I am. Where does faith come from in the second row? Well, someone ought to know. [00:45:38] Okay, D.R. Moody, he also got very big. Don't know why, but so did Spurgeon. Don't know why, but they were great men of God, so let's not go that way too much. but here this big D.L. Moody you know when he was young and born of God to a Sunday school teacher which truly was an amazing impact on his life you know all that people who were we emulate who were in trouble God sends them just in the right time [00:46:13] and Moody started to pray as very few people do longing for God to turn this world We'll preach about that tonight a bit. Moody said when he prayed, God didn't answer his prayers. And that caused him great sorrow. Why God? Why don't you? I wonder when in the world he wanted to bring Chicago to God. So little was actually happening. [00:46:45] through this man who longed desperately, longing in a desperation for God to use him. But he'd come back in the night and say, God, you didn't answer my prayers. I cry, I groan. Why? Why is my faith so weak? Oh, God, give me faith. Send in my faith that I can answer my prayers because it's for thy glory. I don't want to waste life. I mean nothing to thee. So, he would come back again and again, get on his knees, groaning, broken, oh God give me faith, and then one day, he opened the Bible, boom, wasn't expecting anything, got on his knees and opened the Bible and he cries, oh God I need faith, oh give me faith, and a little tear dropped onto the Bible, and onto this verse, when tears mark the verses, oh, not pen but the tear. [00:47:44] So he wiped the tear off the page but he read the words Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God Faith comes by the word of God Oh He said I didn't ask God again for faith because God told me where it comes from So I used to read six verses a day he said, meditating I stopped every single thing in life that wasn't vital from that day to devote my time to God's word. [00:48:23] I didn't read six verses, I read chapters upon chapters upon chapters upon chapters. I found so much time for God's word and from that time, apart from one prayer, Every prayer I have uttered to God, no matter what I uttered, whether it was for nations or towns or communities or people, God answered fully. From the time I soaked myself in the source of faith, God has answered every prayer I can look back from that time as a young man that I ever uttered. [00:48:59] Faith comes by the word of God To the degree you soak yourself in the Bible To that degree And I got up on my knees as a young man Smashed by sin But saved I was staggered because I had no feeling I thought, surely I must feel something God I was so staggered that I literally physically was staggered. [00:49:31] I couldn't believe I just felt nothing. After groaning as I don't know if any human in history has ever groaned in such desperation for God to save his soul as I did that day. Surely I must, you shall meet the old godly man who was dying that led me to Christ. The Irish man. He shook me and he said, Keith, boy, it doesn't matter that you feel nothing, that you don't feel any emotion, feeling different. That doesn't matter. I looked at him and fear gripped me. [00:50:02] How does this man know what I was thinking? Why don't I feel something? Surely I would feel. It doesn't matter that you feel nothing. It's faith. Feeling doesn't matter. People that go by emotion and measure from the day you save to the day you die. If you measure your right relationship with God by feeling, you go mental. These groups, they're mental. They act like mental people, where it's all emotion. There is emotion in religion, but it has nothing to do. [00:50:36] It has nothing to do with your relationship with God, Keith. You go by faith. That's God's way. It doesn't matter that you don't have feeling. Don't measure your relationship with God any day of your life from the moment you're saved to the day you die by feeling. It's faith. Now Keith, the source of faith And he held out the old King James Bible, thank God Thank God He put it in my hands, he says, this is your source of survival [00:51:10] Your only source of survival Soak yourself in the Bible, Keith Every day of your life is the greatest discipline of your life No matter what Satan does And you'll be stunned what he'll do Satan's greatest priority in your life till the day you die now from this night till the day you die every day is not to put some wickedness in front of you or a wicked girl or something to tempt you it won't work [00:51:40] if you soaked yourself in the Bible his greatest priority is to keep you from this book and you'll be stunned what measure he goes in through whom he uses to keep you from this book but if you put God first And you know God's first daily by if this book is your first choice and your greatest discipline in life. Keith, if you don't ever succumb to what Satan does, and he's going to try, boy. And you never neglect this book. You soak yourself in the Bible as the greatest discipline of your life daily. You'll be stunned how much of this book you will be able to read daily. [00:52:15] And how many times you'll be able to get through this book. Hundreds of times. When God's first, if it isn't hundreds of times, Keith, by the time you reach my age, you wasted life on rubbish. Others would be offended at that word, boy. But what else can you call it if it wasn't necessary? You don't neglect the vital things in life. When you're saved, you give yourself more than ever before to the vital things in life in a way that has integrity you never had before. [00:52:46] But, you never neglect this book. And you will find so much time for this book when God is first. You see, this is a man that's blessed, Psalm 1. Not a man who does everything the wicked do to find happiness and joy. His delight is in the law of the Lord. In his law doth he meditate. No hurry, because there's nothing on television, nothing in the world that has such impact on you. So no matter what Hollywood does, it's boring. [00:53:20] It's totally dead. To the degree you soak yourself, you start hungering and thirsting after the world and the place of the world and going back to the table to the devil and anything he offers to satisfy or give you. Oh, it's because you neglect feeding from the word of God. You're starving yourself from the one thing that will fill you. Oh, his delight is in the law of the Lord, in his law that he meditate day and night. Not all day, not all night, but whenever you can. You should, Keith, soak your shelf in the Bible as the greatest discipline of your life, greatest priority of your life, that nothing will ever divert you when you have the retorse. [00:53:54] And the devil can't touch you. But if you don't, Keith, though I've never heard a man pray in my life such a way you prayed tonight, for God's sake, I don't want to see what will become of you. I don't want to see you again to see what happens to you if you don't, Keith. But that's your choice. [00:54:28] Each chapter is a day you're through the Bible once. That means if you haven't given God 15 minutes a day in 24 hours, you haven't been through the Bible. If you haven't given God in 24 hours, 15 minutes, If you give God 15 minutes in the morning, three chapters of the old, three chapters of the new, you threw the Bible twice in one year, in 10 years, 20 times. If you give God half an hour, oh that's martyrdom, in the morning, six chapters, half an hour, 30 minutes, and 30 minutes a night, you can get through this book hundreds of times. [00:55:06] I know people who have been through this book thousands of times. You might say that's impossible. But you want to see their faces. And you want to tremble like my daddy. When he prayed, everyone trembled. Because of this. Whenever he prayed, like Moody, with the exception of one prayer, we knew that God answered my father's prayers fully, immediately, most of it. And that staggered me when he prayed for me. like it will stagger your children if they know daddy's prayers God answers. [00:55:40] Why did Moody's prayers get answered? Why did daddy's prayers get answered? They found the source of faith to walk with God, to have victory in Christ, to be prepared for the battle no matter what comes against you because you're not ignorant of the devil's devices you've learned from the only book you can learn truly what to do. and applying, being doers of the word. And faith that comes, that changes you, makes you step forward. [00:56:14] Being saved is not enough, young man, young girl. Most people who say they're saved are a disgrace to God. In this compromising generation and busy generation where you're so busy you have no time for this. And therefore, people are stunned if you even dare to say you're saved because you're no different from them. Beginning with your children. you have a choice you're saved by grace through faith in his death in his resurrected life [00:56:45] and the resurrected Christ received into your heart by faith and being set free does not mean there's no possibility of failure again but you by faith in the same God who promised to save you, who promised that if you fall in spite of the great victory he gives you that staggers your wife to total silence and your children to seek God It's not the end, you don't give up, you get up by the faith in this book. And then, knowing the source of faith, and that is the source of your survival. [00:57:23] The devil is just waiting for one day, when you think you can face a day on yesterday's manner from heaven. I have come to regard more than my necessary food thy word. David said, and you and I should also. Man shall not live by bread alone. When you're saved, you're no longer a child of your mother and father, you're a child of God. Until then, you live by bread alone. But by God's grace, when you're saved, you live by this food. By every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. [00:57:56] Wherewith also the young man cleansed his way. by taking heed according to thy word. By word have I hid within my heart that I might not sin against thee. Oh, the old saint said, sin will keep me from the Bible. But the Bible will keep me from sin. And it's your choice. Even if you're ten years old. Even if you're nine years old. The choice is yours. [00:58:28] Don't blame God. Can we stand please? Father, take this word, burn it into the hearts of those who had an open ear to God, who weren't just here because mummy and daddy brought them, but they wanted to be here for God to speak to them and teach them, through the basis of men, yes. And thou will never turn away such a heart, who comes seeking God, instruction through even the basis of men. and so take all who had an open ear to these things [00:59:02] and write it on their hearts that they will never ever forget and they won't give up, they'll get up they'll know how to be saved if they're unsaved and they'll come to the source of faith daily till they stagger this world like Moody did and won the Queen of England and the King of England to God and Scotland turned to God through Moody as he prayed Give me this land Oh, John Knox brought Scotland from Rome [00:59:32] Moody brought Scotland to God Because he had faith He found the source of faith Help us to And not only to learn to walk with God And to survive through the source of survival But to stagger this world through our faith In Jesus Christ's name And for his glory, Amen