In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of faith in getting in touch with God and experiencing His miraculous work in our lives. He encourages listeners to choose to believe in God, even when faced with failures and doubts. The speaker references the 11th chapter of Hebrews as a key chapter that highlights the role of faith in God's movement. He also emphasizes the obligation to believe God when we have a problem and can find a promise in the Bible that fits that problem. The sermon emphasizes the constant presence of Jesus in our lives and the ability of the Holy Spirit to make the words of the Bible relevant to our individual situations.

I suppose we'll have to get to heaven before we all really know just how much of His grace this whole business of knowing the Lord really is. But we sure are grateful, I'm sure, at this point of all the grace that He's given us. I looked at the bulletin there and I'm to speak this morning and one other morning. And in these morning services, I wanted to share something of the matter of how to trust Jesus. I enjoy sharing this truth as much, if not more, than any truth that I get to share. And I really don't understand why. Some truth is just so much a part of your life. And so this morning I want to cover a lot of territory. So I'm going to ask you just to pray that the Lord will open the truth up to you. Where basically I'd stop and spend a little time. I won't be able to spend some time. But just make some suggestions as to the truth that's there. And the Holy Spirit that reopened the truth to me can open it up to you. And so I want to cover a lot of territory. So if you listen fast, I can cover more. But if you're not listening fast, I'll stop and slow down. I won't run off and leave you. I may not be able to give you as much as I'd like to give you. Because I'm covering in two mornings the territory that I'm going to cover in four weeks in 12 sermons. So you can imagine what I'm saying to you. I'm not doing much more than giving you that much. But if you look through the Bible, you'll find just one story after another of men and women who discovered the secret of getting in touch with God and seeing God miraculously work in their lives. And a real good chapter to see how the key that they discovered is the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews. And you go through that chapter and you'll find it's by faith and it's through faith that God moved. I've heard so many people say, you know, well just what's the answer? And what's the real answer to the Christian life? And I think Brother Jack gave it last night when he said, This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom the Father has sent. This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom the Father has sent. Believe on Jesus. And of course the question might be in your mind, well I believe on Jesus. I really do. But do we really believe on Jesus? And I'm not questioning the fact of whether or not you're saved. But you know in Jude 5, one chapter in that book, it says that these people had the faith that it took to get them out of Egypt. But they did not have the faith that it took to get them into Canaan. And that's interesting. And I think a very honest study of that would indicate that the children of Israel had the faith that it took to get them saved, but did not have the faith that it took to get them sanctified. And I think we'd have to be honest with that, because 1 Corinthians 10 lets us know that these people that followed the Lord out of Egypt had a relationship with the Lord. And it's very plain. And I think we'd have to admit that they knew the Lord. And so here it's possible for us, for every one of us today, to have a faith that saves, a saving faith, but not a faith in our lives that's getting us into the victory. The victory of the Lord working in us and the Lord working for us and for us. And so we want to talk about this type of matter of believing. And some very significant things. I'll only just make a statement of two of those things. And there is material available on tape. Most of this is on tape. And some of it's in books that you can pick up. But I have come to believe that the Bible teaches that there are three areas or three types of faith. Now let me just say this before I mention these three types of faith. There is not a thing in this world that is right and good that is not of God. And you can't say that, or you can say everything out here is a gift from God. In fact, technically, if you wanted to be absolutely biblical about it, you'd have to say even the wrong and the right, the wrong things are from God. Now, of course, you're getting into, you know, technicality there, but just read Colossians 1. Starting with the 14th verse, and you'll find that all things were created by him and for him. And it's all there. People say, well, when you come to this faith, it's a gift from God. And so I'm having to qualify this gift from God idea. Because everyone sits around on the premises, letting the world go to hell, while they say they are waiting for a gift from God, the gift of faith. And so, in essence, you can't say that everything that relates to God and man is not a gift from God. It is. It really is. And you wouldn't have any trouble believing that all the positive things you have in your life is a gift from God, would you? Amen? But I've got news for you, the negative things you've got in your life is a gift from God also. Yes, I realize that, but they come through different means. Right. I was shocked when I discovered in Job that the Lord giveth. I had no problem with that, but the next part of that verse, he taketh away. I have a difficult time with that negative side. But nevertheless, it's a tremendous truth to see. And the faith life. To discover the part of adversity in life is probably to make one of the great discoveries in life. Yes, really. To me, one of the great discoveries that the men and women of God made in the Bible was the fact that they learned the purpose of temptation. They learned how to handle adversity. And in the fact that they learned the purpose and how to handle adversity, most of them, in every case, turned all of their adversity, all of their temptation, into victory. Now, friends, that's learning. That's Christianity. That's real. This is down where you live, isn't it? Right? It really is. Because all the time we're having adversity, difficulty, and if everyone I know knew how to handle all their adversities and turn them to victory, I'd be out of business, praise the Lord. Amen. I'd love to preach myself out of business. I really would, wouldn't you? By the time you'd learn it, God, there'd be another crop coming up that need some help. But anyway, this is a great thing. I can easily say that one of the great keys to the Christian life is learning the key to how to handle adversity or temptation. The word temptation sort of shocks us because of our misunderstanding of the word, but I like to use it because I like to see folk impressed. I don't like them to forget what I say. I don't mind them forgetting me, but I don't like them forgetting what I say. And so I find that this Christian life of faith is tied up in knowing the person. This is very important. There must be a relationship established if a person is going to trust the Lord. There must be a relationship established. And even though the principles of faith are obvious in the lives of people in the world, if you're going to trust the Lord and walk with the Lord, there must be a relationship established. And then there must be a fellowship maintained. And this is so important that a person realize that they must be saved if they're going to trust Jesus, and they must have fellowship with him if they're going to trust him. And I think this is something that we leave out. We give people the truth that they can do these things in the Christian life, but in the Christian life you have to come to know the Lord, and that's what it is. And you have to learn how to maintain a fellowship with the Lord Jesus. Now, to the three types of faith, I believe the Bible teaches that there's the grace of faith, the gift of faith, and the impartation of faith. The grace of faith, we go to Romans 12. Romans 12, 3 and 6. And there we talk about the gift of God, and we see that God gives people gifts, and he gives them these gifts by his grace. It seems that these gifts are given without man meriting these gifts. They're just given, and the grace of faith is included here. Now, you may think it's strange that in this context we're talking about the gifts that the Spirit gives, but when it comes to faith here, he's not talking about the gift of faith, in the sense that I want to refer to the grace of faith. Now, let me outline all three of these different, the grace, the gift, and the impartation, and then come back to the grace of faith. This will help your notes, and I'm not too much on giving you very clear notes, I know. But maybe the Lord will give you the heart of what you need. Now, we have the grace of faith. Then the gift of faith is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12. What is it, 9? 1 Corinthians 12, 9. And there we have the gift of faith. That is very obvious, and we'll talk about it. We'll come back and talk about it. We're not going to talk about it much, but we're going to talk about it a little bit. Then we have the impartation of faith, Galatians 2.20. To me, we have three different areas of faith. Now, I'm going to go to the gift of faith and then the impartation of faith, and then back to the grace of faith, because I think that this matter of the grace of faith is what really pertains to us today. When you come to the gift of faith, I believe that if you'll make a careful study of 1 Corinthians 12, you'll find that there's a unique division in that chapter, and that division comes to us on the basis of the gifts, the grace gifts, the ministering gifts, and the manifestation gifts. And I believe it falls into this line. And I believe that the gift of faith is resident in every person because the author of the gift of faith is the Lord. And I believe the gift of faith is resident in every person. And I believe the gift of faith is manifested in people in accordance to the sovereign will of God for a designed purpose. And that does not mean that it is a continuing manifestation. You say, well, what in the world have you said? I have simply said that the gift of faith is resident in every person that's saved by the grace of God. When God has a plan that fits his sovereign will, that manifestation of faith is obvious in given individuals to cooperate with God against the devil for man to accomplish God's end in that given situation. And when that situation is accomplished, when God's will is accomplished in that given situation, then that gift of faith does not cease to exist, but it is not manifested any longer. So therefore man can't run around saying, I've got the gift of faith, I've got the gift of faith, because the gift of faith comes and goes in its manifestation in relationship to the sovereign will of God for a given situation. You say, well, what are you talking about? Well, let's take healing. That's the big issue today, isn't it? Right? Let's take healing. For instance, now there's not many Baptist preachers that I've talked to that haven't in some way, maybe in a very stammering way or faltering way, but most preachers that I've talked to in their lifelong ministry, they can look back to a few occasions, sometimes many occasions, where they have been called in to pray for someone that was sick. And as they were called in to pray, deep down in their hearts, they knew when they prayed, that person was going to be all right. And I tell you, I can take you to hundreds and hundreds of good, solid Baptist preachers that can give one illustration after another of that sort of situation. And yet those same preachers can say, well, I was called in to the bedside of a friend that was more related to me than that, this individual, or sometimes relations even, people that were related to me. And I tell you, I'd pray and I'd just kneel. There's nothing I could do. And why is it that one time they have faith and the next time they don't? I think there's one thing. I think the will of God is at stake, is the key. Now let me say something. This is hard to you if you're on the opposite side from me. And I know this. And I have no mercy. Very likely you feel that way, but I probably have more than you think. But I am merciless. My wife says I can't even get it out this morning. I can't even say it, maybe I shouldn't say it. But here's what I'm saying. Friends, it is absolutely error, heresy, to take the truth of God out of balance. And it is wrong for people to design a doctrine by scriptural selection to establish a basis and call it a doctrine. For instance, the doctrine of healing being in the atonement. Therefore all sicknesses of the devil, and everyone is not healed, it's because they're either ignorant or full of unbelief. And therefore they put God in the position by their system of doctrine to obligate God to keep his word. That's wrong. That's wrong. It's wrong because it takes God out of his God position. And any time you take God out of his place and make him a slave to man, you have placed God in a place the Bible does not give you ground to do. And you cannot concoct a doctrine and say because you said this, you've got to do this. It's the Holy Spirit that leads us to the truth. And the Holy Spirit is the inviter of the individual to discover the truth of God that God is committed to. And on this basis, he still maintains this position of being God because man has not placed demands upon God. God has placed demands upon man and brought man to unity with him, to cooperate with him. And friends, this is something else when it comes to this matter of healing. You're not going to run out here and say, God, you've got to heal this person. You've got to heal this person. And I see this charismatic movement of this divine healing program falling all to pieces all over the world and I'm having to deal with the people who picked up the pieces. You know why? They're super intelligent. They're wonderful, marvelous people. And they have lived long enough now to see people prayed for on the basis of healings in the atonement. Therefore, God's got to do this and God's got to do this. And they've lived in that environment long enough to see that God didn't do it. And it's causing them some confusion and they're wanting to find out why and what's going on. And friends, what I'm saying to you this morning is this. When God has planned to meet a person's needs physically and the Holy Spirit manifests the gift of faith in a believer's life and that person cooperates with God to believe God for that person's healing it's not a hope so, maybe so situation. That person really gets their needs met. But it's always in cooperation with the mighty God and it leads God where he wants to stay. God. Of course, you're not going to get him out of being gone anyway. But I mean, you know, you try and you end up on the junkies. Amen. But on the other hand, friends, God is really genuinely healing people. Right. He is genuinely healing people. And when he heals people by the time you think you got it categorized right he'll heal somebody different. Just blow you out. Just let you know that you don't have it all. You don't have it all put together. But I do believe that the gift of faith is resident in every person and can be manifested in relationship to the sovereign will of God. And I think it's beautiful. I don't think this binds people up neither does it bind God up. And I don't think you take a thing away from divine healing because who wants to be healed if God doesn't want to heal them? Amen. And this places you in the position of you and God cooperating to get God's will done on earth as it is being done in heaven. To me it's exciting. Amen. And I know it's a little difficult to explain. The impartation of faith is not difficult to explain. Galatians 2.20, Paul said, I live this life by what? The faith of the Son of God. Monday, I had to go to Houston and have some tests run. That's why I didn't get here Monday until late. And so I had some time waiting on the plane and I was resting. And Corrie Ten Boone's book, Tramp for God, was there. And I just picked it up and started reading those short chapters. And I ran across something that really fit there. She said, you know, it wasn't my faith. It was the Lord's faith. She said, I discovered that I soon came to the end of my faith. And I said, Lord, you've got to be my faith. And she said, he became my faith. Jack Taylor illustrates this so beautifully. He works with Mrs. Bertha a great deal. And I used to work with her a great deal. And I still love her. But she and I preach so much alike on certain subjects, I think it's sort of foolish for us to go to the same meeting. And I really mean that. In our revival approach to revival, we say the same thing. And her and her way, and I can't say as good as she can, so I'm certainly not going there and telling my little woman how to preach me. Of course, she wouldn't call it preaching, but Lord, I'd hate to hear her preach. But anyway, her devotionals can outdo most of our preaching in whatever, testimony of whatever she's doing. But he says, out of all the experiences he's seen, core ten boom. One day while I was in the hospital, and I was very near death, and Jack Taylor and six of his men, he was pastor, flew in from San Antonio to Houston to see me. Now, no one but God set up this day. And they walked in, and they were there, and that was my wife and two or three other friends. I don't remember who all was there. But here they were, and in walk, core ten boom. And she'd stand there at the end of the bed, and she'd talk to me a minute, and then she'd talk to Jesus. It was really a strange experience to watch her move out of the physical and spiritual world, and it was just like walking. And she'd talk to Jesus. It was really a beautiful experience. But this woman, it's obvious that she has learned that Jesus is all she needs. She can go. She can go. And she just says, well, Jesus is my strength, and he's my faith. And Miss Bertha's sister passed away here a few weeks ago, and she just praised God for it when she heard Hallelujah. Bill, you were with her. She just shouted, didn't you? And she ministered that night, caught a plane at three o'clock in the morning, went home, made all the arrangements for the funeral, had the funeral, came back to the meeting, and still hadn't slept, and still kept going, and out did you and Jack Bolt. I mean, I know it's funny, but friends, let me tell you something. That's supernatural strength for an 88-year-old lady. Amen. But you know what she's discovered? You never see her getting frustrated. I mean, she might frustrate you, but she won't get frustrated. And you know what she's learned? She has learned that there is an exchanged life, and she's learned to let Jesus be her life. Right. Now, that's what Paul's talking about. But he doesn't only have life, he has faith to offer. And when you get to the end of your faith, you can come back to him. And I'll tell you, this is the ultimate in the Christian life, the exchanged life. This is it. But now back to the grace of faith, which is the area where most of us are struggling. Let me give you a definition of the grace of faith. The grace of faith is that ability God has given you whereby you can respond to reveal truth. The grace of faith is that God-given ability whereby you can respond to reveal truth. Not only do you have the ability to respond, but let me just put it very frankly, you are commanded to respond, and you are responsible for responding because, you see, Hebrews 4 tells us that if there's a problem in your life and there's a promise that fits your problem, you need to fear lest you fail to get those two together by faith. And see, God gives you victory in that situation. And so the grace of faith is that God-given ability whereby you can respond to reveal truth. Now, here's what I'm trying to say to you. This feeling doesn't enter in here. Feeling doesn't. In fact, your feelings may play games with you here. Reasoning does not enter in here. That may shock some of you. Well, preacher, what does enter in here? A couple of things. A couple of things. One is you've got to have an issue. Right. You'll not turn to God unless you have an issue. I could have said you've got to have a problem and it would have fit most of you, right? But I don't want to be completely negative. God does give you some positive opportunities sometimes. And so that's one thing that's an issue. You've got to have a need. And then the next thing is that you've got to know that God's available. You've got to know the truth at this point. That's right. And when you have a need or a situation and you know the truth, then, friends, regardless of what you feel or think, you are obligated to believe God. All I've said is when you have a problem and you can find a promise to fit that problem, you are obligated to believe God. That's right. This is called the grace of faith. It's that given ability. Now, you believe this, but you may not be thinking altogether with me right now about all the facets that I'm thinking about. Sometimes I have trouble. I get all these thoughts in my mind and I think you know exactly what I know and I don't ever get it out. And it does me good to listen to myself sometimes because I don't make things as clear as I should. But now you watch this. Now watch this. When a lost man comes to the conviction that he's lost and the truth that Jesus is the Savior died on the cross to forgive him of his sins, then with this problem and with this revealed truth that Jesus is the Savior, he's the sinner, and Jesus is the Savior, then that man is obligated to believe God. But he's not only obligated, he has the ability to believe God. Yes, he does. But he's not only obligated, he has the ability to believe God. Yes, he does. Now, I don't know if he had the ability before he got the truth or not, but friends, when he gets the truth, he's got the ability. And sometimes I think the ability comes with getting the truth. But this is what you call the grace of faith. You say, well, how in the world then can we believe? All right. I don't know if we're ready for it, but I'm going to give it to you on the level that I know we won't misunderstand. A man, everything in a person's life, everything in a person's life that a man, that involves a person, is basically and finally reduced to a choice when it comes to believing. You see, you can choose to believe God. That's right. You can choose to believe God. It's hard for us to get a hold of this, but I'm going to say it and then let you worry about getting a hold of it. You can only, you can only receive what God has got for you by choice. That's right. I haven't seen any nod yet one way or the other, so I guess you don't know whether you agree or disagree. Amen? So when a man is convicted that he's a sinner and he knows the Lord chose him, you show him by the word that Jesus died on the cross for him, and here he is face to face with this issue, is that man reduced to a choice? Come on. Right. Amen. And by that choice, and only by that choice, can he receive what God got for him. Right? So it's reduced to a choice. And when it comes to this matter of believing God, obeying God, receiving from God, it's all reduced to a choice. And you know what? That's as simple as I can put it. You can choose to believe. You can choose to obey. You can choose to receive. God, you know, you hear us preachers say that God has never asked you to do anything you can do? Have you ever heard a preacher say that? I say it about every sermon. Amen. And you know what's the amazing thing about that? That's true. In the sense that I say it, and most preachers I hear say it. But do you know in another sense it's not true? God has never called on you to do a thing that you can't do. Because when he calls on you to do anything, he calls on you to come to him and trust him. Any call that is not a call to Jesus is not a call from God. Amen. And you can only obey God by choice. Only receive from God by choice. Only believe God by choice. And then, what you are commissioned to do when you trust the Lord, then, friend, you can't do it. Except by faith you release God to do it. You release God to do it. You see, faith is that act of obedience on your part that places you at the disposal of God whereby you release God to do in you and through you and for you all that he has promised to do for you. And if you don't trust him, he can't work. He really can't. He really can't work in your life if you do not trust him. And it's so simple to see people get so reduced and all finally they just say, Well, Lord, I just have to choose to trust you. There's nothing else I can do. And they just bottom out, as Bill said yesterday morning. But they just make the choice. I like to put it this way. Sometimes you get so weak in your faith that your choosing capacity gets so frail and weak that you just get to the place that you refuse to doubt. And you just say, God, I know this is it and I just refuse to doubt. And taking that little simple stand of refusing to doubt but simply to trust Jesus is enough of a choice to release God in your given situation so he can do the work. And so I pray today that as we talk I've just given a lot of information rather than inspiration but I believe if you stick with us in the conference someone will keep putting it all together because in a conference like this you don't try to preach a sermon that gives you all the answers. In fact, I get sick of preachers that preach and give people all the answers. I think we ought to make sermons that create questions and get people so in quest for God that some way, somehow they get to Jesus and get the answers. Right. And I think we would get a deeper element in our Christian walk. You know, I love the man that I suppose discipled me when I was a young fellow in college. I'd go home from college because of the Petters. I had one fault and the other did this and this. A few things I didn't agree with. And so they couldn't witness to me. I'm sure they're greater Christians than I was but anyway, I had a problem with them. I didn't dislike them, I just couldn't believe that they were walking where I thought they should. So I'd go home to a man that really was a great soul, a spiritual man, God had put on his life. And I'd go with this big problem. Oh man, I'd just say, please give me the answer. And he'd reach over and get his Bible and he said there's about 100 acres of wood back out there. He said, here's the Bible, go get the answer yourself. And boy, I'd go out there and I'd pray and I'd pray and I'd pray and I'd pray and I'd get the answer. Because I had the problem and God would show me the truth that would fit that problem. And that's where I learned to walk with Jesus. And that's where I learned to walk with him as a person and get to know him. And get to know him to be more real than the flesh on my bones and the clothes on my body. And boy, I'm so glad that a fella didn't give me all the answers. But he shut me up for Jesus to get up. Because I learned something about Jesus. Friends, it's been real to me. In the hours when no one else could help me, that Jesus I met out there in those woods and that night at that 6th pew when I got saved, that Jesus has stayed with me. When all the doors had been shut and even my wife could not see me, he was still there. He was still there. So I found this, you know, this constant, there's a life that's constant full of problems and then there's a life that's constant, a book that's constantly full of promises. And the Holy Spirit knows how to take this word and make it real and fit your problem. And then there is where we make the choice. Here it is. Here's the issue, situation. Here's the availability of God. Boy, I can have it. So now they've got to get together. And how do they get together? They get together by faith. And I know God can do these things. And I want him to so that I can't stand it. And here I have the problem, here I have the promise. So what do I do? I make the choice. I make the choice. I choose to believe in God. I choose to believe. Amen. I choose to believe. And I'll tell you what, it doesn't always work. You know what I'll do? I'll fall flat on my face. You know what I'll do then? I'll say, well, Lord, I don't understand. I confess it. I must have made a mistake. It ain't gone. Amen. I never stumble over my failures. And somewhere down the road, you know, I fail. And it's beautiful. I run into people who've been stumbling over their failures for six months, six years, longer than that. That's beautiful. Well, I know Bill is very young, so amen. I've enjoyed saying what I've got to say, and I'll finish this next time.