Gospel—John Kaiser
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I'm glad you're here. I hope you're glad you're here.
There's somebody else.
That's glad you're here, and that's God.
You look up at this stage.
And you wonder what I might have to say.
But I'm more concerned that you.
Are concerned what God has to say.
You may see sitting in your seat this evening thinking, well, I've heard the gospel, I don't need to hear it again.
But God doesn't waste anything.
God uses everything.
And we can either benefit or lose the benefit.
Let's start with #30.
Weeping will not save me. I'm going to talk this evening. Lord willing. I want to talk about faith. That's pretty obvious from what I have up here. I want to talk about what faith is, what faith is not.
And how faith works.
And why it is important to you tonight.
And so this song says, weeping will not save me. That's some people thinking, getting very emotional.
Will have something to do with their salvation. Weeping will not save me. Working will not save me.
Waiting will not save me procrastination.
We're all natural procrastinators.
God is not a procrastinator. You ever think about that?
God does everything on schedule.
Faith in Christ will save me #30.
Weeping will not say.
My fears could not wash us. Since I'm here, we speak well, not saying.
We're working will not save me your spirit that I have there. Oh yes, thoughts and feelings, Sir. And I'm not for my soul.
Working will not stay in you.
Jesus word and die for me.
Jesus suffered on the tree. You lost weight to make me free.
Alone and save me.
Waiting till my save me.
Out was guilty as I want in my third city crying.
In my ways I can but die waiting thing will not save me.
Jesus let him die for me. Jesus suffered on the tree. She needs the place to make me free.
In a long and say clean.
They think Christ will save me, Christ standing by Prince, and one trust the word that he has done till his heart's I now may run.
They think Christ will save you. Jesus.
Died before me.
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Faith is a very common thing. The government has arrangements for what so-called faith-based organizations and you ask the average man if he has faith, He usually has faith in something matter of fact.
Everybody in this room that I can see and confess my visions, not the greatest, but everybody I can see is exhibiting faith right now.
At least, I don't don't recall seeing anybody here inspecting the chair they're sitting in to make sure it would hold them up.
You just walked over to it and sat down. You say, well, I assumed that's a form of faith. We operate on faith. Every day we get in our car and turn the key and we expect it to start. You lift, you pick out, you hear a cell phone ring and you answer it because you have faith. That's indicating somebody else is on the line, so to speak.
We operate on faith all the time.
God built it into this universe.
Is part of your life.
But faith in Christ is something different.
The faith of Scripture is something different. People say, oh, I've got faith. Some people have faith like they have a a rabbits foot in their pocket. Yeah, I've got faith. Very casual about it.
And we tend and, and this is a universal problem when dealing with all my life. When we read the word of God, we tend to read our own definitions into the words. Tonight we want to talk about what God means.
When he talks of faith, turn with me to pardon me. I made notes because I have a bad memory. Luke chapter 18.
Verse 8.
That this subject's been going over through my mind for the past week and more. Actually, this is a subject I've spoken on before. I didn't prepare all these materials just for this meeting, but it's been particularly before me. Afresh Luke. Chapter 18.
And verse.
8.
And we're going to pick up the middle.
Of the.
Conversation here. I'm not going to read the first part because I find that I've got a big subject and only 45 minutes to cover it. So Luke chapter 18, verse eight, I tell you he will avenge them speedily. So we're talking about a judgement situation.
Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
Jesus is coming back.
And the question is when the Lord Jesus comes back. And remember, the Lord Jesus said these words.
When he comes back, he's going to be looking for faith.
Well, you say yes, I expect you'll find faith. Well, if you looked in your heart, would he find the kind of faith that he's looking for?
God deals with individuals. He saves individually. Every one of us here tonight is responsible to him individually.
And we're responsible to have faith. Turn to Hebrews Chapter 11.
Hebrews Chapter 11, of course, is the big faith chapter in Scripture.
It's a wonderful chapter begins with verse one. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Well, we know what evidence is. We know what it means to not see things. But the substance of things hoped for, well, what does that mean?
I want to tell you a story. Maybe I've told it here before.
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I used to work with a fellow named Brian.
A young fella, he came to work for Bible Truth Publishers, I think right out of high school, so he's about 18 years old or so. He worked for us for a year or two and he saved us some money and he bought a motorcycle, a very nice motorcycle. Might sticks in my mind that was yellow.
And he obviously enjoyed riding that motorcycle to work. I don't know where else he wrote it, but he he enjoyed that motorcycle.
And then one day.
I noticed that he didn't bring a motorcycle to work and next day he didn't ride his motorcycle and the next day finally my curiosity got the best of me and I said Brian.
What's happened to your motorcycle?
You guessed it, He said. Well, you know I'm going to get married and he doesn't want a honeymoon, so I sold my motorcycle. Now what does have that have to do with Faith? Well, you see Brian.
Met Laura and Laura promised to marry him.
And Brian believed that was a good idea.
And he believed that Laura meant it when she said she'd marry him, and on the basis of her promise, he sold his motorcycle to pay for his honeymoon. The future became an A presently actionable reality. I'm going to write those words up on the board here because I want you to remember that that's what this verse means.
Faith brings the future into the present.
When we talk about faith, we're talking about your future.
Everybody has a future here tonight.
And if a faith, you don't have faith in Christ, you don't have a future.
That you want to talk about.
You know I have a neighbor.
Back in Addison, he's an old man.
But in his early years, he was an Olympic star.
And he got to know a number of celebrities and he, you go into his office, he still runs a business. You go into his office, it's like a museum. He can show you all these wonderful people. The only thing person I can think of right now that he mentioned that is Charlton Heston. He was a personal friend of Charlton Heston. But he has this on his walls. They're plastered pictures of, of famous people in Hollywood and the sports that he knew at one time.
And he glories in his past. And I said to him, Ed, you live in the past.
I live in the future.
My past is my past. There's a lot of things I can't. I'd like to change and I can't. But the past is the past and my future is greater than my past. All poor Ed has is his to to glory and is his past long past. He's in his 80s.
I said what, Ed, what about your future? Well, he hopes he'll go to heaven. He's heard the gospel many times, but he's all wrapped up in his past. And I'm tell you, ask you a question, which is greater, your past or your future? Well, none of us here have a past is greater than 100 years.
How about your future? That's the big thing, and that is what Faith is involved with. Brian believed Laura's promises and he believed in Laura.
And by by the way, the Bible says that faith works by love. And you, you can while you're sitting here, if you lose track of me, you can start thinking of all the verses that link love and faith together, like for God so loved the world.
That whosoever believes in him, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, believeth should not perish. There's love and faith together in one verse and there's a lot of verses like that in Scripture. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave him himself for me. Faith does not exist by itself, not not the kind of faith we're talking about. It has an object so.
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We're talking about your future.
And I said I was going to write those words up there.
Faith takes the future and makes it a.
Well, it's not very dark. Let's see, I can find something darker here.
Now, now, you know. Faith, by the way, doesn't last forever. Faith is only something for time or beyond time. And the future has no meaning because we'll be an eternity and that'll be the eternal future. But faith takes what is promised to us and makes it a presently.
Actionable reality. It brings it in. It brings the future. It brings the hope.
Into the present Faith brings the hope into the present.
So.
Faith is essential. Want to talk about?
A little bit more about faith, turn to John chapter 3 and you'll see this verse, John 3, verse 33.
And by the way, I'm rushing through some things tonight, conscious that the time is going to go fast, and I'm not sure we can cover even all that I have up here. I went through and weeded out a lot of things last night. John, chapter 3, verse 33. Let me read it to you because I don't suppose all can read that.
Little sign on the board.
John chapter 3 verse 33 says.
He that has received his testimony has set to his seal that God is true. You know what happened back in the Garden of Eden.
God told Adam, don't eat of this tree.
Of the knowledge of good and evil.
And Satan came along and said to Eve, Hath God said, Just introduce a little doubt.
And then he flatly contradicted God and said, Ye not shall not surely die. But he started with a little doubt.
And people think there's such a thing as honest doubt.
But when you're doubting God.
How honest is that?
How honest is it to doubt God?
No, I'm not. I'm sure Eve was not conscious of her dishonesty, but what she was really in her mind saying, oh God make God said that. But I think this, I think I have better judgment than God. When we doubt God, we're putting ourselves above him. That's pride and that's not honest.
He that hath received his testimony, what's his testimony? It's the word of God.
Most of us here have heard it all our lives.
Doesn't say he that's.
Been under the sound of it says he's received it. Have you received it into your heart or have you closed your ears to it? How have you retreated? How have you treated God? The way we treat God is the way we treat his word. That's you'll find that in Scripture that's a practical in life. You have parents and your parents tell you something you ignore them.
Wait a second, are you ignoring their word or are you ignoring them? It's both.
When you ignore their word, you ignore them. How are you treating God tonight? He that has received his testimony has set to his seal that God is true. Now what does that mean set to his seal? Well.
He Here's another translation. He who has received his testimony has certified that God is true.
But actually the Greek says set to a seal because even when the Bible was written, they had public notaries, they had people who could certify the documents were valid, and they would take a seal and they would set the seal to that.
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We call them notary public, sometimes public notary. Same thing.
But they certify that something is true. Have you personally certified?
Every statement in this book.
Have you read every statement in this book? Good idea.
You get before God, and I don't say that God is ever going to ask this, but he's going to say I gave you 20-30 years, whatever. Why didn't you read my book?
What are you going to answer? It's the greatest we we insult God, put everything ahead of his word.
And we insult him now.
I want to emphasize one more thing about faith. We we read. Let's go back to Hebrews Chapter 11.
Hebrews Chapter 11 again.
And you find that this book is this chapter is full of people who acted on faith. Hebrews Chapter 11, it says we'll start again, verse one. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We've explained what that means now.
Notice down diverse 6. But without faith it is impossible to please him. Are you concerned with pleasing God?
You should be.
Are you concerned of pleasing God? He loves you, He cares about you, He wants the best for you.
Are you concerned with pleasing God? Without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe. There's no other way. Faith is not an option as far as God is concerned. We consider faith an option. God does not.
He that comes to God must believe that he is, that is, that God exists, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. What does that mean? God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. God is responsive. People think God is a spectator, an indifferent spectator. They want to think that.
Einstein thought that Einstein. Most of you have heard of Einstein. He believed there was a God.
I read some of his Diaries, some of his notes and letters and Diaries, so on. He believed there was a God, but he believed that God was indifferent.
But why would an indifferent God make a person who has feelings? It doesn't make sense. Einstein didn't want it to make sense. He loved his sins. He admitted it.
Faith sets to its seal that God is true. What God says is what is.
And every one of us has to deal with that. I remember one time my father and I got in an argument.
And I was convinced I was right.
And he said something that changed my life. Very simple statement, he said. John, you can't know what's not true.
You can think what's not true, but you can't know it.
Truth and knowledge go together.
The source of all knowledge is God. The source of all truth is God.
So you've heard this statement.
God said it.
I believe it.
That settles it.
True.
This is also true.
Whether or not you believe it, God said it. That's it for eternity.
I'd like to turn real quickly to a verse in John Chapter 11.
John, Chapter 11.
I.
And we won't go over the story. Most of us here are familiar with it. But Jesus had gone to Bethany, where Lazarus had died.
He got there after Lazarus died. He was. He was asked to come before Lazarus died, but he waited and came after Lazarus died. It looked like God made a mistake. It was not a mistake. We know the story the Lord Jesus went to.
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Bethany and stood outside the sepulchre where Lazarus was buried, and he said Lazarus come forth and the dead man came out alive.
Greater than a healing, but it's interesting that what the Lord Jesus said.
Here John Chapter 11, verse 40.
Verse 39 Let's read that, Jesus said, taking away the stone, Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith to him, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead for days. Jesus said to her, said, I not unto thee, If thou wouldst believe, thou should see the glory of God.
Said I not unto thee, If thou is believed, thou should see the glory of God. There's a lot in that verse.
First thing in that verse, Jesus said it Authority.
Said I not unto thee, If thou shalt believe, that's our responsibility to believe what God says. He says, Said I not unto thee, If thou shouldst believe, you would see the glory of God. It's as simple as.
ABC Authority. Belief Consequences.
That's what faith is for, is for God. God gives it to us so that we can access. We can see things the way He sees them, and then we can see beyond our current circumstances. When we see the things the way God sees them, we don't see them as clearly as he sees them. Faith is limited.
Faith is not an eternal thing. It's it's a limited thing, but it, it, it's, it's like glasses.
It helps us to see faith gives us the ability to see what God sees.
Not as not necessarily as clearly or as abundantly as sees he sees him because he's God, but we can look beyond the current circumstances. Authority. We take the authority from the word of God.
We believe it.
And we benefit from the consequences.
Well, that's a little bit about the nature of faith. I want to talk about what faith is not. Our song gave us a introduction to that, and I'm going to want to go through it very quickly.
Faith is not conscience. The first thing that woman, that man got after he sinned was conscience. And people boast about their conscience. Say I've got a conscience, I must have faith. No, Judas had a conscience and he hung himself.
And you know, I have scriptures I could refer to for all these, but like I say, our time is short. According to the clock, I got 15 minutes and I'm only a third through. Faith is not conscience.
Faith is not an excuse. I'll make excuses. God doesn't make excuses. God does not accept excuses. We have all kinds of excuses and we think we can come up with good excuses and we think maybe that's some evidence of faith. It's not.
God does not accept excuses. Don't blame your parents if they don't either.
God doesn't accept excuses. God never makes excuses. Why should he accept something that he himself wouldn't do?
Faith is not experience. People. I talk to people about faith and they start talking about their experiences, things that have happened to them, and so on. We all have experiences. Faith is not experience. Faith is spelled FAITH. It is not experience. Experience is valuable, but it's not faith. Faith is not fantasy. Some people think, oh, I can just think whatever I want.
Maybe it's a dream, people get very occupied with their dreams and of course you want fantasy wise.
There's all kinds of fantasy in this world. They call it artificial reality or something like that. Virtual reality. It's fantasy. It looks, it looks real, it's amazing, but it's still fantasy. Faith is not fantasy. Faith is not.
Feelings. I want to talk about this for a minute.
That's probably the biggest thing, single thing. Feelings. Oh, I have faith.
Or you feel down, you say I don't have faith. Faith is not feelings. We're in a society that's totally occupied with feelings. As a matter of fact, every one of these other substitutes for faith involves feelings because people will passionately defend their ideas of what faith is. Faith is not feelings. Why?
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Feelings mislead you. Faith takes the Longview. It sees beyond the present. I remember I've told this story. I told this story here before too. I remember when I was about 12 years old, I was riding my bike one day, a beautiful day. A bike I'd build myself. I had confidence in it.
And I felt fine until the front wheel fell off.
And I went, I went over the handlebars. Was I safe on that bike? No, I wasn't. But I felt safe.
Feelings deceive God never deceive. God's worthy of being trusted because He's always true. Faith is not foolishness. There are people who scoff at faith, say faith is foolishness, and they have faith in their own opinions. It's kind of foolish, isn't it?
Yeah.
Faith is not formula. These people will tell you you do this and you do this like this. The TV preachers, you do this, you send money to this and this and God will bless you.
Or the formula. We have it all the time. And formulas do work, but not in the things of God. You know why?
Because God never does the same thing twice. Never. God is always original in everything he does. He never does the same thing twice. Look at this. Look in the gospel.
Every time the Lord Jesus cured a person, it was a different way. There was differences.
Snowflakes. We know the snowflakes are there are billions of them come down and not want to like.
That's why formula doesn't work. Faith is not formula. Faith is not legality. What we think. People who have faith, they're hard to get along with their Of course, we have our own opinions and we make laws about other people.
We, we, you know, we shun legal people. That's kind of a legal thing to do.
Faith is not legality. Faith. God gave faith by grace. Are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves? It is a gift of God. There's no legality there, not of works, lest any man should boast. Faith is not legality. Faith is not precedent. Oh, we talked about faith not being experienced.
How about somebody else's experience? No, Faith is not precedent. Precedence is a good thing. We can.
That the Supreme Court works on the basis of precedent because.
To try every case right from this, from the ground up would be overwhelming. So they work on the basis of precedent and the Carpenter works on the basis of president. He's he's pounded 2000 nails and they held. So he pounds another one because he counts on it to hold precedent. But faith is not precedent because faith deals with God.
Not circumstances.
Faith is not principle.
Principles and wonderful things. This universe runs on principles. They're wonderful things, but they're that's not faith. Faith is a unique thing. It involves a relationship with God.
It doesn't exist without it.
Faith is not reason. How many people think, well, I'm you know.
I think this.
And that's their faith. It's not reason. Many people reasoned it would be very safe to go out to on the Titanic's maiden voyage. Built by the best shipbuilders, crewed by the best crew, an established route.
Someone said that God himself couldn't sink that ship. They were wrong. Sank on his maiden voyage, but it was reasonable thing to go on it.
Reason.
Who was, it said, the best laid plans of mice and men?
In other words, men plan things. Reason has a place. God gave us reason. God gave us feelings, but they are not faith. Why do I say all these things Because every one of us has been guilty of.
Putting these things in the place of faith we need to be delivered from, that faith faintly sees what God sees and which he has chosen.
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To reveal to faith for faith. Faith is not ritualist. There are so many people go through all kinds of rituals and they think they're pleasing God.
Faith is not ritual. Now we have.
Maybe I can stretch the five to six, I don't know.
I want to talk about.
A little bit more about faith.
We talked about the Reformation earlier and Martin Luther he said he discovered he found this phrase in the Bible amazed him. It amazed him. He found it 4 * 3 times in the Old Testament, the three three times, one time in the Old Testament, three times in the New Testament. The just shall live by faith and it changed his life and it he.
Has been accused of turning the world upside down. The monk that turned the world upside down.
Because he broadcasts his discovery, the justice shall live by faith.
There's two things, three things here that are important to you. The just, the righteous.
Shall live Are you interested in being righteous? Are you interested in living It's by.
Faith.
But the apostle Paul says we walk by faith, not by sight. The just shall live by faith. And then I come to a favorite illustration that I picked up 50 years ago. It's been a it's been a big help to me. We all know what this is, I think, what's this?
Well, it's not an entire train. It's a locomotive. Yeah. What we call a train. Yeah. You saw one of these companies, you say a train because generally speaking, they don't come by themselves. Yes.
I we'll, we'll go ahead and put the rest of the train out here.
Which way is the train heading? To my right or to my left?
You hope so. You don't expect a caboose to pull a train?
But people run their lives that way. Let me explain why I say that.
How, how many people run their lives by faith? We had a prayer meeting someone that was mentioned. How many people run their lives by feelings? We had in the prayer meeting somebody who's into drugs, that's all about feelings. There's no, there's no reason, there's no common sense to drugs. It's all about feeling good. But.
Most people in this world go for what feels good.
They've got the wrong end of the train.
Faith.
Leads fueled by the Word of God.
And you know, this is a very simple concept, but it'll be so helpful in your life if you get this image planted in your mind.
That the Word of God fuels faith and that makes progress. And what about feelings? Well, they'll follow. They come along. Do you ever do you think we're ever going to get to ever be unhappy in heaven? Of course not.
How would he get there?
By faith.
So.
Just one more, my time is almost up. I want to read to you a poem that was written by Martin Luther.
700 years ago.
It's called feelings and trust. Feelings come and feelings go.
And feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God, not elf. Not else is worth believing. Though all my heart should feel condemned for want of some sweet token, there is one greater than my heart whose word cannot be broken. I'll trust in God's unchanging word.
Till soul and body sever, For though all things shall pass away.
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His word shall stand forever.
What are you trusting tonight? Are you trusting your feelings, your reason? Or are you trusting God and His Word? You know there's another statement by a more recent author. His name is William Kelly, he wrote. This faith will always appear proud to those who have not got it, but it will be proved in the day of the Lord to be the only humility, and that everything which is not faith.
Is pride.
Keep that in mind. What was it that Eve replaced faith with pride? She looked at the fruit, she said. She said to herself, it looks good. She saw that it was. Of course, she had no basis for judgment, but she trusted her judgment anyway. She saw that it was good for food. That's what the Scripture says. She saw that.
Was their own imagination because God had spoken differently?
But she trusted herself. And you know, that's the bottom line. We either trust ourselves or we trust God.
Who are you trusting tonight? Faith will always appear proud to those who have not got it, but it will be proved in the day of the Lord to be the only humility, and that everything which is not faith is pride or no better. Faith admits that he who has it is nothing, that he has no power nor wisdom of his own, and he looks to God.
He is strong in faith, giving glory to Him.
Remember the verse we read?
There's other verses I want to read and never got to them.
He that comes to God must believe.
Must believe. If you're not believing tonight, you're not coming to God, you're going away from Him.
There's no middle ground. You're either coming to him or going away from him. He that comes to God must believe. Faith is required. When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith in the earth? Does he see it in your heart tonight? With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, with the mouth confessions made in salvation. Maybe you've said the earth saved.
But faith is a matter of the heart.
Faith is essential. Faith is not optional.
One more thing.
Faith is not occupied with faith. Faith is occupied with its object, the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why I'm here tonight. I'm not here talking about faith for the sake of faith.
It's by faith that we are saved, faith in Christ.
What's the opposite of faith?
It's your choice, faith.
Or pride? Which are you going to present to God?
Tonight.