for that. Turn with me, if you will, please, this morning to Isaiah chapter 53. In the Old Testament, rather, Isaiah chapter number 53. Thank you so much for being here in God's house this morning. What a joy to see you here. Beautiful time of the year, and I thank the Lord that as the leaves change, I'm glad we have a God that never changes, aren't you? And he's the same yesterday, today, and forever, able to meet every need that we might have, and I praise the Lord for it. Isaiah chapter 53, and let's read one verse of scripture here, and we'll get into the message this morning. Isaiah 53 and verse number one. The Bible says, who hath believed our report, And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Heavenly Father, thank you for this great day. Thank you for the privilege of being in the house of the Lord today. We thank you for all those that have come this way to worship you with us today, Lord. And I know there are many other places they could have gone, but I'm so grateful for all those that came to Temple Baptist Church today. And Lord, we have met to worship you. We're here and should be here for one reason today, and that's to hear from you and to lift you up today. And Lord, I pray. that you will please do a great work in hearts. I need your help. And I pray that you'll please empty me of myself and fill me with the power of your spirit. And Lord, please use this message to speak to the heart of every person that is in this place today. I pray that if there's one that came in that doesn't know Jesus as their savior, that today will be the day of their salvation. And I pray for those of us as Christians that you'll draw us closer to you, Lord. Please, again, just fill me with your power as I preach in Jesus' name, amen. Isaiah 53 here, he asks a question in verse number one, who hath believed our report? Isaiah here is reporting and, you know, we have a lot of reporters today with a whole lot of different news organizations. And in a day when so many people wonder who can you believe? I'm glad that there is somebody and there are some things that we can believe and that we must believe if we're going to make it to heaven when we die and if we're going to have God's blessings here upon this earth. He asks here, who hath believed our report? You know, there are people that believe a lot of different things. There are believers in different things. There are people that are believers in politicians. And I mean they put all their eggs in that basket and they trust in that politician and you know we ought to vote. I believe it's the right of every it's the right and the duty of every American to vote and be informed and pray that God will give us leaders that will turn us back to the right way. But you know the truth is we cannot put our hope in politicians. We can't be just wholehearted believers in them. Many times they'll let us down. Many people are believers. And they say I'm a believer in science even though a lot of times science changes But the Bible never does change and you know last night at the hayride I was almost a believer in Sasquatch out there in the woods, and I realized it was John Smith coming toward me, but anyway, but no but people are believers in a lot of different things, but You know, the truth is there are some things and there is someone that we can believe in. In fact, we must believe in to have a home in heaven and to have God's blessings here in this life. I want to speak to you this morning on the subject. Do you believe? Do you believe? First of all, let me say number one. We need to believe to be saved by the grace of God. That's what it takes to have a home in heaven. It's always been that way, even in the Old Testament days. We find way back in the first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 15 and verse number six, it's talking about a man named Abraham and it says, and he believed in the Lord and he, God counted it to him for righteousness. That's how we become righteous today, not by being trying to be a good person, not by trying to be religious, but we become righteous only by believing in the Lord today. And that's how it was back in Abraham's day. That's the way it still is today. In John chapter number three, we find where Jesus was telling that story about Moses. in the wilderness and when people the people complained God sent serpents in there and these fiery serpents were biting people and people were dying and they were sick and there was screaming and crying all over the place and God told Moses to set a serpent up on a pole and he said anybody that gets bitten by one of those serpents look up at that serpent of brass on the pole and everyone that looks whenever he looks he will live You know there were people no doubt that probably didn't believe that. There may have been people that were around there that said that just sounds too easy. That just sounds too simplistic. That just doesn't even make sense that if I just look at a serpent on a pole that I will be healed. But that was God's way and that was God's commandment. And so every single person that would look up by faith upon that serpent would immediately be healed of that snake bite. And referring to that, Jesus said in John chapter 3 in verse 14, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. The Son of Man is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a name for Him. That whosoever, that means anybody, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. And here's the gospel in a nutshell, the most famous verse in all the Bible. Many of you can quote it by heart. John 3 verse 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. You know, this text that we read earlier in Isaiah chapter 53, when he says, Who hath believed our report? What report is it that we're supposed to believe? Well, this is amazing because this is over 700 years before Jesus would ever even be born in Bethlehem. And yet it's a prophecy, a direct prophecy of what Jesus Christ would go through. You know, it's interesting that the Jews today as a nation are God's chosen people, and yet Spiritually, they've rejected Jesus Christ. One day they will be saved, the Bible says, but for right now they're blinded and they've rejected Christ. And they call Isaiah 53 the forbidden chapter. Because even today, whenever the rabbis will read through the book of Isaiah, many times they'll skip from Isaiah 52 to Isaiah 54. and they don't even read Isaiah 53 because it's such a direct prophecy of Jesus Christ. You can't read Isaiah 53 without realizing it's talking about Jesus. He fulfilled every one of these prophecies. It says in Isaiah 53 in verse number two, for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men. Remember what it said about Jesus? He came unto His own and His own received Him not. They despised Him, they rejected Him. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The Bible says Jesus wept. Different occasions, He knew what it was to weep. And we hid as it were our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Boy, aren't you glad we can cast all of our care upon Him. for He cares for us. Yet we need esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. That verse is a direct prophecy of the fact that the Bible says God made Jesus to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. You see, Jesus didn't sin of his own accord. Jesus never sinned one time. Jesus was sinless. And yet when he hung up on that cross, he bore your sins and he bore my sins. And that is what that's talking about over 700 years before Jesus was ever even born. Isn't that amazing? The Bible says all we like sheep have gone astray. In Isaiah 53, 6, we have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. That's the substitutionary death of Christ way back in Isaiah. We have all sinned, the Bible says, and come short of the glory of God. And yet God took those sins and put them on Jesus. And he who never sinned became sin for you and me and paid for our sins. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. I believe those guys that Jesus was crucified with probably writhed, and I mean, they probably punched out, they probably spit at the Roman soldiers. I bet you they cussed and screamed and said, I'm innocent, let me go, and everybody they would crucify, no doubt, would have something to say, and yet Jesus Christ, the one who was truly innocent, the one who was truly sinless and didn't deserve to die, never said a word. until he was on that cross, and he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Prophesied right here. Verse number eight, he was taken from prison and from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, that's talking about the two thieves that he was crucified in between, and with the rich in his death. Remember when he was taken down from the cross, there was a rich man named Joseph that took his body off the cross and buried Jesus in his own tomb. Here it is prophesied that he died with the wicked and then he was buried in a rich man's tomb, made his grave with the rich in his death. Because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord, that's Jehovah Lord, that's God the Father. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. Isn't that an amazing thing? I don't understand that, I cannot understand that. Our minds can't wrap around it. God loved his son, Jesus, more than anybody else could ever love their child. Jesus was not just the son of God, he was God and is God and always will be God. But it says, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. The only way we can even possibly wrap our minds around that is to say that's how much he loves you and me. That he looked down and was willing to let them chastise and kill his own son so that you and I could be his child. That's an amazing, what a sacrifice. He hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. How could somebody that died see his seed and prolong his days? That's a prophecy of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He became sin for you and me and bore our sins. He was buried, He made His grave with the wicked and with the rich. But then up from the grave He arose and now His days are prolonged and He will live forevermore. Isn't that an amazing passage of scripture? And the Bible says, who hath believed our report? Your eternal destiny depends on whether or not you believe that report that we just read. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that we are saved by believing the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the fact that Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Somebody might say, that's just too simple. I've got to believe there's something else I have to do. Somebody said it like this, salvation, all the religions of the world can be narrowed down to two. Most of them say something in my hand I bring. God, here's my baptism. Here's my church membership. Here's my good works. Oh, but true salvation comes to the cross and says nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to the cross I cling. There is no other way to heaven but believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says in John chapter number 20 and verse number 31. Let me read this to you here. John chapter number 20 and verse number 31. This is a kind of a summary of the book of John, the gospel of John, who some believe is the greatest book in all the Bible. It's all about Jesus and his gospel and salvation. And in John 20 and verse 31, the Bible says, but these are written. Why was the Bible written? Why did God inspire and preserve the Bible for us, particularly the book of John? He said, but these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you might have life through his name. The only way to have eternal life is through believing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 16 we find where Paul and Silas are in prison and at midnight they prayed and sang praises to God and there was a great earthquake and the doors open and everybody's chains fell off and the the prison guard thought that everybody would have he thought everybody surely had escaped and he said I might as well just kill myself they're gonna kill me anyway and so he decided to take a sword and fall on it and kill himself but all of a sudden Paul called out he said sir don't do yourself any harm We're all still here. And the Bible says that man came in, I believe he slid in like a baseball player sliding into home plate. He slid in there on his knees and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? You know what? They looked at him and of all the things that people think they should have said, they said the one thing that it takes to be saved, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You say it's too simple. I didn't write it. God wrote it. If you think it's too easy to be saved by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, let me just tell you what Jesus did for you. Hey, listen, look at the cross. Look through the eye of faith. If you think salvation's simple, if you think salvation's cheap, if you think salvation's easy, Picture Jesus after he's had the crown of thorns on his head, and after he's had his beard ripped out of his face, after he's been beaten with the cat-of-nine-tails and been nailed to a cross. No, my friends, salvation's not cheap. Salvation's not easy. Salvation's not simple. It costs Jesus everything. But he tells us today, you can have it just by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. in Acts chapter eight and verse number 37. We find here that where Philip, the evangelist, he had been in a great revival at Samaria. God said, I want you to leave Samaria and I want you to go down toward Gaza, which is desert. And he didn't understand why, but here he went down there and all of a sudden he looked up and he sees this man from Ethiopia and he's riding along and he's reading a scroll. Lo and behold, he's reading the exact passage we took as our text today, Isaiah 53. And as he's reading, Philip goes up there to him and he says, hey, do you understand what you're reading? The guy says, how can I except some man should guide me? I need somebody to explain it to me. And the Bible says that Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture that we just read and preached unto him Jesus. The next verse says that, as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? He wanted to be baptized. This next verse is not even in most of the modern versions of the Bible, but I'm glad it's in the right one. Acts 8, verse number 37, and Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. Notice he didn't just say, hey, you want to get baptized? Sure, let's do it. That's what a whole lot of churches will do that. They'll say, hey, you want to go to heaven? OK, let me baptize you. That's not the Bible way. He said, if you want to be baptized, let me make sure you really have the possession of Jesus Christ. If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest, and he, this Ethiopian, answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He was a saved man. Why? Because he believed. Because he believed. My in in Romans chapter 1 in verse 16 the Apostle Paul said for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek what about Romans 10 9 that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart and that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Romans 10, 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 1 John 5, 13, these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God. There it is. Believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life. If you're here today and you don't know for sure you're going to heaven, you can know that today. And it's not through me, and it's not through this church, and it's not through any preacher, and it's not through any church, and it's not through any baptism, and it's not through any good works. The only way to know for sure you have a home in heaven and that you're saved by the grace of God is simply by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, well, yeah, well, that's easy then. Everybody's saved, aren't they? I don't know of anybody that doesn't believe that there was a historical figure named Jesus. It's not talking about just believing, having a knowledge that somebody named Jesus existed. Or even just believing that in history there was a man that was nailed to a cross named Jesus. That's not enough. When he talks about believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, it's an old illustration but it's still true. I could look at that chair and I could say, I believe that chair will hold me up. I believe in that chair. It's got four good legs on it. Looks like it's pretty solid. Doesn't look like it's all that old. I believe that that chair would hold me up. That's believing in that chair. I mean, it's a head knowledge. I look at it. I know that it exists and I believe that it would hold me up and I think so anyway. But here's the kind of believing that is required for salvation. Not only do I look at that chair and say, I believe that chair will hold me up. Now I'm believing on the chair. I'm resting on that chair. I'm putting my confidence in that chair. I could be very embarrassed if that chair did not hold me up the way I thought it would. And that's what being saved is. Same thing as whenever you go to an airport. You can look at that airplane and say, I believe that airplane will get me to Atlanta, Georgia. I believe that that airplane will get me where I'm trying to go. But you're not really believing on the airplane until you walk down the breezeway, get in your seat, buckle up, and trust a pilot you've never seen to take you to a destination. Isn't it something that people can trust a pilot they've never seen to take them across the country in a tube at 30,000 feet going hundreds of miles an hour, but they can't trust a Savior that came and died on the cross to pay for their sins? I'm just simply saying today, you can be saved by the grace of God by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Rest upon him, put your entire faith and trust in him, and nothing you can do to take you to heaven. You know, people say, well, I tell you, I've had people say to me before, well, I'm gonna forgive them because that'll keep me out of heaven if I don't. There's a lot of people that believe, I remember I used to go preach in the jail once a month in Kentucky, and there was guys in there that had got drunk and committed crimes. And there were guys in there that had done horrible things we can't even mention. There were guys in there that had killed people. But the truth is, those guys, really, if you boil it down, they weren't going to die and go to hell because they drank alcohol, or because they killed somebody, or because they stole from a gas station. There's one sin that will take somebody to hell, and that's the sin of unbelief. because all those sins have already been paid for on the cross. And so every one of those sins can be washed away and can be gone and completely covered, not just covered, but washed away by the blood. But the truth is they must believe that Jesus died on the cross to shed his blood to pay for those sins. Here's another little illustration of it. We went to Niagara Falls some years ago. We got a little book there called Niagara and the Daredevils. And one of those daredevils years ago was a guy by the name of Bobby Leach. I questioned his sanity because he got in a barrel and decided to get famous by going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Amazingly, the man survived. He was a little bit the worst for wear, but he survived it. And so when he got out of that barrel, he actually had done what a whole lot of people had not been able to do and survived going over the falls. But then he decided he'd try to get rich by traveling all over the place and telling about his exploits. So for the next 15 years, he would go and give lectures and tell how he made his barrel and tell everything he did and how he survived a trip over the falls. He survived that, but then in New Zealand, he was given a lecture and he was walking down the sidewalk and slipped on an orange peel and fell and died from complications from the injury. Here was a guy that survived going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, but it just took one orange peel to take him out. You know, somebody might say, well, I tell you what, I've come this far. I've done this and I've done that. Man, I give money in the offering plate and I'm a good person. I'm a good citizen. I pay my taxes and I do all this and I do that. Yes, but I'm telling you this, all it takes is one sin to send you to hell. And that's the sin of unbelief. The sin of not believing that Jesus died to pay for all of your sins. But you know what, today you can be saved by the grace of God if you'll believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Number two, after we get saved, we can believe not just to be saved by the grace of God at salvation, but after we get saved, we can believe to see the goodness of God. In Psalm 27 and verse number 13, Here's what the Bible says about that, Psalm 27, 13. He didn't say, I saw to believe. There's a lot of people say, well, if I see it, I'll believe it. I'm not gonna believe it unless I see it. A whole lot of Missouri people, show me first, show me. But I'll tell you what, the Bible says we don't have to see to believe. We can believe to see. Sometimes the seeing comes after the believing. That's what happened with Job in the Bible. He was a man that lost everything. It seemed like everything had fallen apart. In his mind it seemed like God must have forgotten about him and God didn't care about him. But Job looked up to God and he said, Lord, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. He saw God in his glory. He saw how big God was. And it was after he believed on God, after he believed that God was still there and that God had not forgotten about him. God turned his captivity and gave him twice as much as he had before. He believed to see. He believed to see. You know, there were some blind men in Matthew chapter number 9, and they came to Jesus and they needed a miracle. They literally couldn't even see physically. And the Bible says in Matthew 9, 27, And when Jesus departed Vince, two blind men followed him, crying and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him. And Jesus saith unto them, believe ye that I am able to do this? And they said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith, be it unto you. Those men, if they had not believed that Jesus was able to do it, would not have ever seen the miracle. Jesus asked them first, Do you believe that I am able to work this miracle? And whenever they said, Yes, Lord, we believe, then he touched their eyes. You see, they had to believe to see. It wouldn't do them any good if they said, well, I've got to see it first. They couldn't see it first. They were blind. They had to believe to see. Oh, that's how it is in our lives so many times. We find in John chapter number 20, Jesus had risen from the dead. He had appeared to the disciples and Thomas wasn't there the first time. By the way, that's a good reason. You say, oh, it's not important to miss one service in church. Ask Thomas that. He missed one service and it was the service where Jesus showed up in person after he rose from the dead You never know that service you miss might just be the one when Jesus shows up and gives you exactly what you need But they told Thomas we've seen the Lord. He's risen from the dead. We saw him Thomas said Unless I see it, I ain't gonna believe it. Unless I take my finger and put it in the print of the nails in his hands, I'm not gonna believe. Unless I take my hand and shove it up in the hole in his side, I will not believe. Well, lo and behold, just in case, Thomas showed up the next Sunday. He was there the next time, and lo and behold, Jesus showed up again. And Thomas said, my Lord and my God. He believed when he saw Jesus. Here's what Jesus said to him in John 10, or John 20, 29. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. You know, that's exactly how we get saved. We've never seen Jesus with these eyes. But by faith, we have to believe what the Bible says, that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was buried and rose again. Let me ask you this. If we can trust Jesus and believe on him without seeing him, if we can believe on him to save us for all of eternity, to save our souls and take us to heaven and keep us out of hell for all eternity, don't you think we ought to be able to believe him to get us through every day? and to get us through the trials and the burdens and the sorrows and the storms of life? Hey, if we can believe on him to save us, surely we can believe on him to meet our needs. What about Paul? In Acts chapter 27, we find where the apostle Paul was on a ship bound for Rome, an enormous storm came up named Heraclodon. As we've seen recently, you start naming storms, you know that's a doozy of a storm, like Helene or Milton or something. And they named this one Euroclodon. And the Bible says that after they had sailed for many days, they couldn't see the sun or the stars or the moon. I mean, it was dark as could be. The waves were enormous. It looked like all hope was gone. And the people were getting depressed. They said, man, we're all dead. We're not even going to make it out of this. But all of a sudden Paul stood up, and he said, I exhort you to be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve, saying, fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar, and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God that it shall be even as it was told me. Hold on a second. The sun still hadn't come out. The storm was still raging. Nothing had changed as far as his circumstance, but Paul stood up and said, sirs, you need to cheer up. I just believe God. And lo and behold, his faith was rewarded. And God brought every single one of them through the storm. There's some people that are here today. You're going through a storm in your life. You don't know what in the world to do about it. You don't know if you're going to make it through. And the circumstances and maybe even other people are telling you, you're never going to make it through this. You might as well just give up. Oh, listen, don't give up. Don't give up. Don't give up. Sometimes you just have to believe to see. Believe that God's going to get you through. Believe that God's promises are true. Believe that God doesn't make any mistakes. And I'm telling you why. The seeing doesn't always come before believing. Sometimes you have to just believe God, and then you'll see the miracle. In Mark chapter number 9, in verse 23, listen to this one here. A man came to Jesus, and he had a son that was demon-possessed. And this demon would try to kill his son. It would throw his son in the fire. It would throw his son in the water and try to kill him. And the man came to Jesus. He said, Lord, if you could do anything for us, please have compassion on us and help us. Jesus said unto him if thou can't believe all things are possible to him that believeth and Straightway the father of the child cried out and said with tears Lord. I believe help thou mine unbelief You ever felt like that before I sure have that verse encourages me because that man got the miracle He was asking for that shows me that man didn't believe that he had perfect faith. He didn't even believe he had a whole lot of faith and He just said, Lord, I do believe. I got some unbelief, but just help me with that. But Lord, I believe that you can do what I'm asking you to do. You know, Jesus said with a mustard seed of faith, you can move mountains. I read about a church in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains some years ago. Somebody in the church had died and willed to them a beautiful piece of land and so they built a new church building on it. The local building inspector came and they just finished this building and they were planning on dedicating it 10 days after this, a week from the coming up Sunday. And the building inspector looked, he said, I hate to tell you this, but he said, you can't meet here. Your parking lot's not big enough. You know how the red tape is. I mean, it's got to tell you everywhere to breathe and everything. And he said, you can't meet here. He said, now, he said, if you can somehow extend your parking lot back there where there's enough room for everybody to park, then you can meet here. But until then, you're just not going to be able to. The problem was they had used every bit of available space. And there was literally a mountain. In the foothills of the Smokies, there was a part of a mountain coming down right there against their parking lot. And so the pastor called the church together. He said, here's what the building inspector said. But this was on that next Sunday. He said, I'll tell you what, I believe we have a God that can work miracles. God didn't just give us this land for us to not use it. He said, I just believe that God can work a miracle. He said, I want to ask all of you with mountain-moving faith that believe God can move that mountain back there to show up and help me pray tonight. Let me ask you, how many of you would show up for something like that? That night, 24 of the 300 members in that church showed up to pray. That's all that believed God could do it. They prayed for about three hours, begging God to work a miracle and do the impossible. They got done praying, the pastor stood up, probably wiped some tears out of his eyes. He said, all right, folks, I'm believing God. He said, next Sunday, we're going to dedicate this thing just like God wants us to. That's a lot of faith right there. People went home. The next day, the pastor was sitting in his office, and all of a sudden, he looked up and saw a dirty man walking through the door there, had a hard hat on. The man walked through the door, and he pulled off his hard hat. He said, excuse me, Reverend. He said, I'm from the Acme Construction Company. He said, we're building a strip mall over in the next county there. He said, we're hung up. He said, our work's come to a close. We can't do anything until we get some field dirt. He said, would you sell us part of that mountain back there behind your church? He said, if you'll sell us that mountain, he said, we will pave all the exposed area free of charge. I don't know about you, but somebody ought to say amen right there. I'll tell you what, that's exactly what they did. They came in there the next couple of days, they took that thing out of there, paved the exposing parking lot there, and I'm telling you what, they met and they dedicated that building just like God had said. I'll tell you what though, the next Sunday there was more than 24 people with mountain moving faith in that church. There was a man that just had to, he had to believe to see. Didn't see how it was possible. I'll tell you what, you may have a mountain in your life and you say, I don't see any way out of it. I don't see how, how there's any human explanation. That's good. That's good. Because if there's any human explanation, we can figure it out. God specializes in situations where there is no human explanation, when there's nothing we can do and nothing anybody else can do. That's when God shows up and says, Hey, let me show you what I can do. That's why I'm a lot bigger than you are. This little boy, Lee Robinson, told this story. There's a guy walking by a baseball field, and there was a little boy out there playing outfield. And he walked by. He said, hey, son, how's it going? He said, well, not too good right now. He said, what's the score? He said, 17 to nothing. He said, who's winning? The boy said, they are. And he said, man doesn't look too good, does it, buddy? He said, well, it ain't that bad. We ain't been up to bat yet. Oh, let me tell you, your circumstance may look too bad, but God hasn't been up to bat yet. Sometimes you just gotta believe to see, believe to see. I'm not preaching some kind of prosperity gospel. I'm just telling you the truth of the word of God. Over and over and over in the Bible we find where situations seem hopeless, but people just believe to see the goodness of God. When I used to take flight lessons, We would fly something called VFR, visual flight rules, and there you're just flying straight and level by looking out at the horizon and you can see everything. But the advanced stage of that is sometimes people go on to get their instrument rating, IFR, instrument flight rules, and what they do in training for that, some of you may be in here and you've trained like that, they call it flying under the hood. And they'll put these goggles on where you can't see outside at all, all you can see is the instruments. And the reason they do that is they say, look, there's going to be times you're going to get in the clouds, and your body is going to be screaming at you that you're turning. Your body's going to be screaming at you that you're upside down. Your body's going to be screaming at you that you're in all these weird different positions. They call them attitudes. But you're going to think that you're about to crash, or you're going to respond to what your body's telling you. They said you've got to learn to just look at that instrument. And no matter what you feel like, no matter what your body's telling you, you look at that instrument. That's the only way you're going to make it through those clouds. Folks, that's how it is in the Christian life. Everything around you is screaming, you're not gonna make it. Everything around you is screaming, you better do this, you better do that, you better do the other thing. God says, I've given you an instrument that will never fail. Hey, don't look around you, just believe to see. Keep your eyes on the instrument, it'll always give you the reading that you need. Believe to see the goodness of God. Lastly this morning, if you're here today and not saved, you need to believe to be saved by the grace of God. Please, I beg you to do it today. If you're here today and you're in the middle of a storm, you can believe to see the goodness of God. Number three, we can believe to stand in the glory of God. Hebrews chapter 3 and verse number 18. This is a very interesting passage here. The writer of Hebrews, I believe it's the Apostle Paul, no one knows it really for sure except the Lord and the person that wrote it, but in Hebrews chapter 3, well I guess the one he was writing to, if they're in heaven right now they would know, but Hebrews chapter 3, we find here where he's talking about the Israelites, God had brought them out of Egypt and promised them the promised land. And you remember how Moses sent 12 spies over to view the land. Boy, here they came back. They were carrying one cluster of grapes on a staff between two men. I can't imagine how big those grapes must have been. They must have been huge. And here they came and they said, oh my, this land is like God told us. It's a land that flows with milk and honey. And the people started to get excited. But then 10 of those 12 spies says, hold on, just chill out a minute. Just be quiet, don't get too excited. Yeah, the fruit is big, but boy, there's some big old fellas over there. There's some giants that make us look like grasshoppers. We can't do it. And all the people started crying and moaning and complaining and said, oh, Moses, why did you even bring us out here? Oh my, there's no way we can go in there. But there was two men by the name of Joshua and Caleb. Those two men rose up on their hind legs and they said, what are y'all crying about? Hey, listen, yeah, the giants are big, but our God's bigger. Let's go into that promised land that God told us to go into. The Bible says that those 10 men, those 10 spies that brought up an evil report just died right there before the Lord. And then those that did not believe God and didn't believe God could take them in there and give them the promised land, they had to wander in the wilderness until they all died. For 40 years they wandered around. And that's what it's talking about here in Hebrews chapter three in verse number 18. The Bible says, or verse 17, but with whom was he grieved 40 years? Was it not with them that had sinned whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, talking about the promised land, but to them that believe not. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. You know, the promised land in the Bible, sometimes people talk about Canaan land and the promised land like it's heaven. But the truth is, the promised land in the Bible, Canaan land is a lot better picture of the victorious Christian life here on this earth than it is of heaven. Because in heaven there will not be any battles. They still had to fight battles there in the promised land. But the truth is, The Canaan land to the Israelites, that was victory to them. That was the ultimate goal God had for them. That was the plan God had. That was the place God had promised them. It was a place they could stand there and raise their hands and shout and say, God is good. He brought us out of being slaves in Egypt and now he's given us this wonderful, victorious promised land. In the Christian life, the promised land is living in victory. no matter what's going on, even though there's still battles, even though there's still problems, being able to raise our hand and say, we got a good God. Boy, God is so good. How great thou art. Hey, listen, that is that's the victorious promised land for God's people. And the only way we can experience that is if we believe it, if we believe that God is able to do anything. Listen to this. This was written by A young woman by the name of Helen Keller, some of you are familiar with her, she couldn't see or hear. Can you imagine not being able to see? That'd be awful to be blind, wouldn't it? Can you imagine not being able to hear but still being able to see? That'd be awful to not be able to hear. But can you imagine not being able to see or hear? And somehow she was able to get an education. She had a teacher that worked with her for endless hours and taught her. And here's what Helen Keller wrote down or said or whatever. Observers in the full enjoyment of their bodily senses pity me. But it is because they do not see the golden chamber in my life where I dwell delighted. For as dark as my path may seem to them, I carry a magic light in my heart. Faith, the spiritual strong searchlight, illumines the way, and all those sinister doubts lurk in the shadow. I walk unafraid toward the enchanted wood, where the foliage is always green, where joy abides, where nightingales nest and sing, and where life and death are one in the presence of the Lord. written by somebody who couldn't see or hear. You know what? There are people, some of the most joyful Christians, some of the most victorious Christians that are not living in the bondage of depression and not living in the bondage of just feeling like they're in the chains of what's going to happen next, you know, and all that. Some of the most joyous and victorious Christians I've ever known in my life were ones that had some of the biggest trials and burdens. And yet they had somehow believed to stand in the glory of God. I can't help but think about Miss Pat Upton. We were talking about her last week. Miss Pat Upton, man, she would sit back there and sometimes had those, they call them suicide headaches, worse than migraines. She could barely even see. She was almost blind. She lived in, I mean, she just so many times lived in excruciating pain. But those of you that knew Ms. Pat Upton, she would sit back there and there was not a more joyful Christian. She would raise both hands. Oh, God is so good. She'd write songs. Every now and then she'd come up and stand right down there and sing one of those songs that she had written. Folks, I'm here to tell you something. There's no magic drug that'll do that for you. Hey, listen, there's no magic recipe for that. It's just simply believing that God is a whole lot bigger than whatever's causing us the problem and that God is still good no matter what goes on. believe to stand in the glory of God. In the early days, in the exploration, whenever people were leaving eastern U.S. and going out west, they had to cross the Mississippi River. And this guy I read about was going, he was trying to go west and it was getting dark, and he came up to the Mississippi River. And he said, oh my, I've got to get across this thing. But there was no bridge where he was. He said, I've got to get across this thing before nightfall. And it was the middle of the wintertime. And so he saw that it was frozen. And he saw this sheet of ice across the top. But he had no idea how thick it was. So man, he got down on his hands and knees. And he was trying to evenly distribute his weight. And I mean, man, he went over there. And he would put his hand forward. And he'd hear some kind of a noise. And he'd stop, his heart just pounding. He'd inch forward a little bit more, and he'd just stop. And he'd hear some kind of noise, and his heart was pounding. And it was getting darker and darker. He said, man, this is awful. And he's just trembling, trying to crawl across that ice. All of a sudden, he heard somebody singing. And he looked back behind him, and here came a man that was pulling with four horses a cartload of coal. I mean, there's no telling. It weighed a couple of tons, probably. And that guy's just singing away, whipping those horses, getting out there on that ice, just riding along. You know, the truth is, that guy knew how thick that ice was. He knew that nobody was gonna fall through. You know, that's how it is in the Christian life. So many times we go along, we're just creeping along, trembling. What's gonna happen? What's gonna happen in 16 days with the election? Oh, what's gonna happen his next doctor's appointment? What's gonna happen when the money runs out? And we got all these things that we're trembling and creeping along and worried about. Hey, listen, the Bible says we can just sing a song to the Lord as we go along. We've got a God that is more powerful than anything that's coming down the pike. and we can believe to stand in the glory of God. I'll close with this. There was a man that had built this, this engineer had designed this dam, and it held back millions of cubic feet of water. I mean, it just, it was there, and it had been there for years, and it held fast. One time, though, they said a flood was coming. There'd been a ton of rain, and they thought that the dam had broken. They even announced it on the radio. They said, it looks, it appears that the dam has broken. The water's beginning to make its way down into the valley. Well, a man heard that on the radio, and he knew that the engineer that designed that dam lived down in the valley. And he said, I bet he hadn't heard the radio announcement. He got in his car and drove as fast as he could to that engineer's house. When he got there, he ran up on the porch and beat on the door. He heard a voice that said, come in. And he ran in. And that engineer was just sitting there reading in his chair. The man said, sir, you've got to get out of here. There's a flood coming. The dam is broken. That man looked up. He said, what dam? He said, the one you designed, it's broken. It's about to flood out. Water's coming all down here. You better get out of here. Guy just looked back up. He said, the dam hadn't broken. He said, yes, sir. I just heard it on the radio. The dam's broken. The guy, the engineer, just calmly smiled. He said, son, I'm the one that designed that dam. I know what's in that dam. That dam didn't break. He just kept on reading. And sure enough, Upon further investigation, they found out the dam had held just like it was supposed to. I'll tell you what, the floods may be coming our way. Somebody told me just this morning, there's dark days ahead. I don't doubt that, no matter what happens in 16 days. But I'm here to tell you something, folks. We don't have to think we're gonna be washed away because we've got a God that we can put our trust in. We know that he created everything. We know he's got everything under control. He holds us and he holds the world in the palm of his hand. And thank God we can stand upon that solid rock. Stand on the promises of God. I ask you today, have you believed to be saved by the grace of God? If so, will you believe to see the goodness of God? Will you believe to stand in the glory of God and be able to say, Lord, what a great God you are. I'm still gonna raise my hand and shout and praise you. Because even though things are looking bad, I can live in the victorious promised land because I know that you're in control and you're on the throne. Every head bow, please. Every eye closed.