Welcome to From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons.
Each week we bring you a different message
from some of history's greatest speakers in the
Christian faith and powerful sermons from modern preachers
too.
This week we have William Blackburn with his
message, How to Have a Miracle-Working Faith.
The Bible says the just shall live by
faith.
You cannot know God without faith.
Now you can know about God without faith,
but you can't know God without faith.
You may be here tonight, you may have
walked an aisle sometime in your life and
prayed a prayer and been baptized.
You may have spent a long time in
Sunday school.
You may have been sprinkled or confirmed.
You may have taken catechism.
You may have your name on a church
roll somewhere, but that does not mean you
know God in your heart.
You've got to know God by faith.
You cannot know God simply by religion.
You cannot know God by simply being a
good person and living a good life.
In fact, the Bible says a lot of
good people are going to hell.
You can be the best person in town
and go straight to hell.
It's not goodness because the Bible says in
you dwells no good thing.
No matter how good you look on the
outside, you see God looks at your heart
tonight and you may have cleaned up your
act for the folks around you, but God
looks deep inside your heart.
He sees in you dwells no good thing.
If you were the best man, the best
woman, the best teenager in all of Mississippi,
without Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you
will go straight to hell.
You can be a member of every church.
Your daddy can be a preacher or a
deacon.
Your mom can be a Sunday school teacher.
You may have made a profession of faith.
You may live your life in a church.
You may even believe in God, but if
you have not done what the Bible says
to do and that is to repent of
your sin and surrender your life to the
Lord Jesus through faith, the Bible says God
classifies you lost.
Now this is not a Baptist thing.
It's not a Methodist thing.
It's not a Catholic thing.
It's a God thing.
God said, except a man be born again,
he'll never see the kingdom of God.
The Bible says the just, that is those
who have been justified, those who have been
really born again, the just shall live by
faith.
My friend, you are born again by faith
and once you are born again by faith,
you live by faith.
It is faith in God that causes us
to be able to know God and to
walk with God and to live like God
and to one day go to heaven to
be with God.
It is faith, friends.
Faith is the most important thing you have
in your life and the sad fact is
that most folks don't have much faith.
Even folks who have been born again don't
have much faith, but my friends, the key
to being a born-again believer is not
trusting in yourself, not trusting in your good
life, not trusting in your good works, but
having faith in He who died on the
cross to pay your sin debt and to
live a holy and godly life.
Once you are born again, you still must
live by faith.
You cannot trust your opinion or your circumstances
or your talent or your ability.
The just shall live by faith, by faith
to be born again and then by faith
to live like Jesus wants you to live.
Friends, faith is the most important thing in
your life.
You can't be saved without faith.
In fact, the Bible says in Ephesians 6,
16, it says, above all taking the shield
of faith wherewith ye shall be able to
quench the fiery darts of the wicked.
The Bible says the shield of faith.
Hey friend, you're never gonna know God without
faith and even after you're born again, you'll
never be a dynamic Christian.
You'll never be a warrior for Christ unless
you take that shield of faith.
You see, there's a real battle going out
there.
You see, there's a God in heaven, but
there's a real devil and my friends, God,
the forces of God and the forces of
Satan are battling for your soul right now.
Man, I want to tell you, there are
some of you here tonight that Satan's winning
the battle in your life.
You're out there living in sin, drinking and
running around, living like a devil and I
want to tell you, Satan's got his hooks
in you.
He's dragging you straight to hell and you're
so, you're so blinded by the things of
the world, you don't even see what's going
on.
My friend, you need faith.
You need to trust the one and living
true God because there is a God in
heaven, one God, the living God, the true
God and the enemies of God, the forces
of hell, the demons of hell are fighting
for the souls of men and you need
faith to be saved and my friend, we
who have been born again, we need to
have that shield of faith so we can
serve God with a hot heart.
You cannot be born again without faith.
You cannot love God without faith.
You cannot pray without faith.
You cannot win your lost loved ones without
faith.
Friends, faith is the most important thing in
your life.
In fact, sir, you know what the Bible
says?
The Bible says, whatever's not faith is sin.
You see my friends, there's no middle ground
with God.
This old silly stuff that's taught in church
about situation ethics.
Oh man, if it feels good, do it.
I mean, if it depends on what the
circumstances are, whether it's right or wrong, you
won't find that from God, sir.
God says, whatever's not faith is sin.
Whatever's not for God is against God.
If you are not living by faith and
serving God, you are living in rebellion against
God and the Bible says that's a sin
to not have faith.
Listen to what the Bible says about how
faith honors God and God always honors faith.
In Matthew 9 to it says, and behold,
they brought a man sick of palsy lying
on a bed and Jesus seeing their faith
said unto the sick of palsy, son, be
of good cheer.
Thy sins be forgiven thee.
There was a man who had had palsy.
He couldn't even walk, but he had four
good men who really were friends and they
took him to Jesus.
They lured him down through the roof.
There was a crowd there.
They couldn't even get through the crowd.
Hey, but these old boys wouldn't be stopped.
They went around the crowd.
They climbed on the building.
They tore the shingles off, son, and they
lured him down through the building and you
know what Jesus said?
He said, I see your faith.
You see, sir, faith is not some silly
namby-pamby thing you put in your mind
and you think I've got faith.
No, man, faith has feet to it.
Faith has muscle to it.
Faith is action.
You know what you believe?
You know what you believe tonight?
You show me how you live your life
and I'll show you what you believe.
Faith is what you do with your life.
You say, I believe in God.
You say, I believe this.
I believe that.
Well, sir, how do you live your life?
If you are not living for God, you're
not of God.
You see what you really believe is how
you live.
If you live like a lost man, sir,
you're a lost man.
I don't care how many church members you've
gone, how you live shows how much faith
you have.
It shows what your faith is in and
God says, listen, you say you have faith.
Hey, show me your faith.
You say you believe, show me how you
live.
Show me the fruits of your life.
Show me what you've done with your life
for God and I'll show you whether you've
got little faith or big faith.
A few years ago, I was preaching at
a Baptist church in Bruton, Alabama and gave
the invitation.
Many folks were saved.
And at the end of the invitation, a
woman about 55 years of age came to
me.
She said, William, I've been diagnosed with terminal
cancer in a Baptist, both of you seat
belts.
I'm going to tell you something that'll shock
you.
She said, William, I believe God wants to
heal me.
He wants to supernaturally heal me.
If God doesn't heal me, I've only got
six months to live.
We had her kneel here.
The men of the church came.
We anointed her with oil.
We prayed for her to be healed by
the power of the living God.
She went home that day from church.
She took all the muscle, the medicine she'd
been given.
She flushed it down the toilet.
She said, I'm healed by the power of
God, sir.
That was eight years ago.
God reached down.
You say, William, you believe in healing?
I sure do, son.
I believe God heals today.
God is the great physician.
But there was a woman with great faith.
There was a woman who was not trusting
in a man or trusting in a preacher
or even trusting in a little bottle of
oil.
She was trusting in the God of heaven
who has given his word.
If you will come to me, if you
will trust me, give me your life, I
will touch your life and I will heal
you.
About two years after that woman being healed,
we were in Atmore, Alabama visiting my parents.
She called me on the phone.
She said, William, there's an 18 year old
girl in Bruton, Alabama.
She's heard about me being healed from cancer.
She's got terminal cancer, three pieces of cancer
in her chest, three tumors in her chest.
She was 18 years old.
My wife and I went to her.
What an attractive young lady, beautiful young lady
with no hair on her head, taking all
those treatments for cancer.
She sat there and I told her about
Jesus because Hey, what?
The only reason Jesus heals folks is so
they can be born again by the spirit
of God.
And we prayed with her and led her
to Christ.
She was born again by the Holy Spirit.
And then we laid hands on her and
we prayed for her.
She was healed of that terminal cancer.
Today, she's married, heard her husband travel around
the world, giving glory to God, to the
power of God as a testimony of what
God has done in their life.
I'm telling you friends, I believe in the
power of the living God.
I believe in the Holy Spirit of God
to touch men's lives.
How can you explain what we've seen here
these six weeks?
How can we explain the men who have
come down here?
Men who came down, who were hard and
cold and religious and yet the power of
God touched their lives and has supernaturally changed
them, saved them, saved their families, saved their
friends, turned their life around.
It is the power of the living God
to do that.
And that is done only by faith.
Faith.
I want to tell you about Peter, a
man who had a little faith.
I read these verses to you and I
want to tell you Peter was a man
who had a little faith.
I've always thought, you know, I'd like to
be a great warrior for the Lord.
I wish I was a disciple.
You know, I'd like to be the Apostle
Paul, but the truth is I'm more like
Peter than the Apostle Paul.
I mean Peter was, Paul was smart, intelligent.
He always stood, never called Peter.
He was one of those guys, he was
always jumping up with a sword, cutting somebody's
ear off, you know.
And I mean, Peter was always biting off
more than he could chew.
And you know, I kind of identify with
old Peter.
You know, I kind of get excited about
things, but you know, Peter was a man
who had a little faith.
And I want to tell you what happened
here in verse 29, it says, and when
Peter was come down out of the ship,
he walked on the water to go to
Jesus.
Now, man, here's the story.
Remember Jesus Christ had said, y'all go
without me, I'm going to pray.
And so all the disciples got into the
ship and they were out there on the
water and Christ was praying.
And then at that, that hour, between 3
AM and 6 AM, there was a terrible
storm going on.
The waves were high.
It was very dangerous.
And the Bible says the disciples, they were
terrified.
And then the Bible says they saw Jesus
walking on the water.
And Peter said, Hey Lord, Lord, if that's
really you, tell me to come out there
and I'll walk on the water to you.
And Jesus said, Peter, come on out here
on the water.
Just explain how this water walking is going
to work first.
And once I understand it, I mean, once
I understand the diagrams and the principle, and
I mean, once I understand the philosophy and
how it's all going to work, I mean,
once I understand it, then I'll believe you.
No, Peter said, Hey, Lord, if that's really
you, you say to come out on the
water and I'll step out like a man,
I'll walk on the water.
So the first thing Peter did was he
did the impossible.
It's impossible to walk on water unless you're
walking with Jesus.
Peter did the impossible thing.
What is faith, sir?
Well, faith, it says in Hebrews 11 one,
now faith is the substance of things hoped
for the evidence of things not seen.
Hey buddy, you can't see faith.
Faith comes from the heart.
Faith is when you can't explain what's happening.
You just believe God.
He's going to work a miracle in your
life.
I've had so many men say we need
to run our church like a business.
Hey buddy, you run it like a business.
You'll run it straight in the ground.
The church is not a business.
Now you need to be a good steward
of God's money.
I'm not saying that, but my friends, there
are some things you just got to step
out on the water on.
Hey, you just got to step out and
believe God.
Sometimes we don't understand how it's going to
work.
We don't see how we're going to finance
it.
We're going to not see how, how we
can do it, but we think God has
called us to do it.
We're just going to step out on the
water and trust God.
Hey friend, that's what faith is.
The substance of things that are hoped for,
things you can't even see, but you're just
going to believe God.
You see, faith is trusting God.
Faith is trusting God.
I had a man tell me one time,
he said, William, I believe God's leading me
to do something, but I really questioned whether
it's God or not because what I'm, what
he wants me to do, I mean, I
can't do it.
I don't have the talent.
I don't have the ability.
I mean, it's going to be impossible for
me to do this.
Surely God wouldn't call me to do something
that I'm not capable of doing.
I said, that's exactly what he'd call you
to do.
My friend, as long as you can do
it, God will let you do it.
As long as you can do it with
your talent and your ability and your energy,
why in the world would God get in
on it?
Man, God gets in on the impossible stuff.
When you've done all you can do, work
as hard as you can do, done everything
with your talent and your ability, when you
step out there in that no man's land,
in that impossible situation, buddy, that's when God
shows up.
You must step out on the water if
you want God to intervene in your life.
Oh, Peter did the impossible.
He walked on the water and we know
it's impossible to walk on the water except
by faith.
And then old Peter did something else.
After he walked on the water and did
the impossible, he did the conceivable.
In verse 30 it says, but he saw
the wind boisterous.
He saw the storm.
Oh, here's old Peter, man.
I've got to give him credit.
Had a boy stepped out on the water
at least.
Amen.
I mean, he's out there on the water
and the other old boys are, they're hanging
over the side of the, of the ship,
probably sick as dogs, you know, and old
Peter's out there walking on the water.
He's walking to the Lord, but he took,
what he did is he saw the storms.
Now, how did he see the storms?
He took his eyes off Jesus.
Hey, he was watching Jesus and walking on
the water.
But when the circumstances began to overwhelm him,
he took his eyes off God and he
looked at the problem.
He looked at the circumstances.
That's what a lot of you do.
Hey, you're out there serving God, man, love
God, living for God.
Everything's good, but hey, all of a sudden
you lose your job or something, some problem
comes up.
Oh, and you know what happens?
You began to doubt God.
And when you doubt God, you know what
happens?
You do the next thing, what old Peter
did.
He did the natural thing.
In fact, when he saw the wind boisterous,
he was afraid.
He feared destruction.
There are some of you men here tonight,
you're afraid about losing your business, afraid about
losing your job, afraid about losing your health.
You're afraid that you don't have enough money
put back for retirement right now.
You're afraid of what your kids are going
to do, marry the wrong person.
Fear dominates your life.
And the Bible says you cannot have faith
and fear at the same time.
One of those two will dominate your life.
And if you are controlled by fear, you
cannot have faith.
And the reason you have fear in your
heart is because you have taken your eyes
off Jesus.
You're looking at the circumstances, but the Bible
says greater is he who is in you
than he who is in the world.
You see friends, as long as you're watching
Jesus, as long as you're sold out to
Jesus, as long as you're committed to the
things of God, you can walk on the
water, friend, you can have that supernatural miracle
working faith.
But when you take your eyes off of
the Lord and you start looking at your
problems, the old devil will come into your
life.
He'll cause doubt.
He'll cause fear.
And when doubt and fear come into your
heart, there is no faith because whatever is
not faith is sin.
And when you have fear and doubt, because
you are controlled by the circumstances, the Bible
says that's sin.
And that caused old Peter to sink.
The Bible says he did the expected thing.
Verse 30, it says, but when he saw
the wind boisterous, he was afraid and beginning
to sink.
He began to fail.
I guarantee you, you're gonna fail without Jesus.
Listen, I've been there, done that.
I bought the t-shirt, friend.
I'm telling you, you're gonna fail without Jesus.
You go out there, you work hard, you
do all you want to do.
You live without God.
You're gonna fail.
You're gonna sink.
You're gonna die and go to hell.
Or if you're born again, you're gonna live
a defeated and discouraged life.
Peter walked on the water.
I see it all the time, friends.
I see folks who really get born again.
They really trust God.
They live for God.
But you know what they do?
They quit witnessing to other people.
They quit reading the Bible, memorizing Scripture.
They quit praying for any length of time.
They quit being filled with the Holy Spirit.
They quit doing the things of God.
And that flesh begins to dominate that spirit.
And when the flesh dominates the spirit, it
causes your eyes to be drawn off Jesus,
to look at the worldly circumstances.
It causes you to doubt.
It causes you to fear.
It causes you to fail.
Friend, I want to tell you, if you
want to get your life under control, you
got to get that flesh under control.
Some of you right now, and I'll tell
you how you need to do it.
You need to, number one, you need to
get honest with God about your life.
What you need to do is you need
to put that flesh under subjection to the
Spirit.
You need to go on, you need to
go on, number one, what the Bible says,
by prayer and fasting.
You need to go on a fast.
I suggest you start a fast at 6
p.m. Go to the next night at
6 p.m. That's a Jewish 24-hour
day.
Fast with water and juices.
And you, during that 24-hour, you know
why you fast?
You fast to put that flesh under subjection
to the Spirit.
You let the flesh be the dominant force
in your life.
Then you need to get alone by yourself.
And like David say, God searched me, tried
me, show if there's any evil in my
heart.
Get alone with God.
Take a pen and a piece of paper
and let God speak to your heart and
list all those things in your life that
are unconfessed.
Then one by one, go back and repent.
And I will tell you, when you clean
up your heart, clean up your life, put
your flesh under subjection to the Spirit, it
will give you power.
It will give you faith to keep your
eyes on the Lord, to let you have
victory and joy.
Hallelujah!
You got to have faith, but you got
to do it God's way, sir.
Faith.
Old Peter began to sink, but then he
did the right thing.
Verse 30, he said, when he saw the
wind boister, he was afraid and beginning to
sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
Old Peter finally came to his senses.
Peter finally realized that without Jesus, he was
doomed and damned.
Some of you are doomed and damned tonight.
Some of you tonight, if you were to
die tonight, you'd go straight to hell.
Right now, you're up to your neck in
the water and you're sinking fast.
And what you need to do tonight is
you need to call on the Lord like
Peter did.
He said, Lord, save me.
You see, you don't understand your situation, sir.
You're a sinner against God.
You're a rebel against God.
You've lived a selfish and self-centered life.
You've ignored God with your life.
Oh, you may have your name on a
church role, but you've not given your heart
to God.
And because you are a sinner, a rebel
against God, at this very moment in the
eyes of God, you are doomed and you
are down to a place called hell.
There's no hope for you.
There's absolutely nothing you can do to save
yourself.
You cannot be good enough, give enough, do
enough, read your Bible from cover to cover.
You're doomed and damned.
You're sinking in the water right now.
And the water's up to your nose.
But the Bible says God loves you.
He wants to save you.
But you are a sinner against the most
high God.
Your sin debt must be punished.
So what God did was God sent his
son, Jesus, and Jesus has come.
He's taken our sin.
He's gone to a cross.
He's taken our place.
He paid our sin debt.
He died so that we could live.
He suffered hell so that we could enjoy
heaven.
And the Bible says for whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved.
Peter, walking on the water, took his eyes
off Jesus.
He began to see the circumstances.
He began to doubt.
He began to fear.
He began to fail.
But hallelujah, at the moment of crisis, he
said, Lord, save me.
And some of you tonight need to do
the very same.
Because when Peter called on the Lord, you
know what the Bible said?
It said in verse 31, and immediately Jesus
stretched forth his hand and caught him and
said unto him, O thou of little faith,
why did you doubt?
Friend, I tell you what, tonight God stands
ready to save you.
Your circumstances are about to overwhelm you.
Your heart's empty.
You've tried it all.
You've done it all, but you're failing.
You're sinking in the water.
And right now tonight, God's going to give
you the greatest opportunity you'll ever have to
be saved.
Because my friend, you'll never be in another
service like this again the rest of your
life.
You're never going to feel like you feel
tonight ever again.
God's never going to call you again like
he's going to call you tonight.
It's the opportunity of a lifetime.
You're sinking.
You're overcome with the circumstances.
You're doomed and damned.
But if you'll call upon the name of
the Lord, immediately he'll save you.
You know what he'll do?
He'll forgive you of every sin you've ever
committed.
He'll cleanse your heart.
He'll purify your life.
He'll change the way you think, the way
you talk.
He'll put his Holy Spirit in your heart
to guide you and direct you.
He'll write your name down in the book
of life, the record book of everybody who's
going to heaven.
You know why he'll do it, sir?
Because he loves you.
He loves you.
And I want to tell you, you've done
absolutely nothing to cause God to love you.
In fact, you've done everything to cause him
not to love you, but he does love
you.
And he'll save you if you'll come to
him.
Then Peter did, you know what he did
after Jesus grabbed him?
He did the impossible thing again.
Have you ever thought about this in verse
32?
It said, and when they were come to
the ship, the wind ceased.
How did they get back to the ship?
They walked from the water back to the
ship.
You see, that's where the victory is.
The victory is, yes, there's a God in
heaven.
And if you'll go to him and keep
your eyes on him, you can do impossible
things.
You can live an abundant life.
You can live a victorious life.
You can live that overcoming life.
You can walk on the water, but you
got to keep your eyes on the Lord.
You got to keep fear out of your
heart.
You can't be dominated by the circumstances.
You've got to put your hand in the
hand of Jesus and your life will be
super naturally changed.
Tonight, there are many of you here that
need to come to Jesus.
You see, I didn't always believe in God.
I wasn't one of those boys that was
raised up always believing in God.
Oh, when I was 12 years old, I
walked an aisle like most boys do, and
I prayed a prayer and was baptized like
most boys do when you're from the South.
But I didn't have God.
I didn't have God.
I was selfish and self-centered.
I lived only for myself.
When I was 16 years old, I got
a car.
I didn't go back to church once I
was 16.
I went off to college on a football
scholarship, lived in a dorm.
I drank, I partied, I ran around, lived
like the devil.
Never once did I go to church.
But if you were to ask me, was
I a Christian?
I'd say, well, sure I'm a Christian, because
when I was 12, I walked that aisle,
but I didn't have God.
I didn't have God.
There are some of you tonight just like
that.
You've walked an aisle and joined the church,
but you haven't joined Jesus.
You've been baptized in some water, but hey,
you've not been born again.
You have your name on a church roll
somewhere, but God has not written it down
in heaven in the Lamb's Book of Life.
You know how I knew I was not
saved?
My life didn't change.
But the Bible says the proof that you
are really born again, it changes your life.
And men, when it changes your life, it
changes it this way.
When a man really gets saved, it produces
righteousness in his life.
It produces godliness in his life.
It produces holiness in his life.
It produces a passion for the things of
God.
And men, tonight, I love you, but listen
to me.
If tonight you don't have godliness in your
life, if you don't have righteousness in your
life, if you don't have Christ's likeness in
your life, you are not saved.
If tonight you do not have a passion
for the things of God, you don't know
God.
You need to come tonight and repent and
be born again before it's everlastingly too late.
The whole story of the Bible is, yes,
God loves you, but you've sinned against Him,
and you've got to come back and repent.
When I was 36 years old, men, I'd
lived a life without God.
My wife was praying for me.
She prayed for me for eight years to
be saved, and I was a sorry case.
I'm telling you, on Sunday morning, she'd get
up to go to church, and I'd sit
in the living room and read my paper
and drink coffee.
I didn't have time for church.
That was for sissies and little children.
I didn't want to go and be around
that.
Church was boring and dull, I thought, man.
I didn't have time for that.
I was a man.
I wanted to make money.
I wanted to do manly things.
I didn't have time for that sissy religion
stuff.
I was a businessman for about 15 years
on my own business.
Became very successful, but there came a day
when I had tried it all and done
it all, and I had that empty spot
in my heart.
And a man sat me down, a man
who had a lot of courage, and he
said, William, what you've got is religion.
He said, son, religion will kill you.
He said, you don't need no more religion
in your life.
What you need is Jesus to come in
your life.
And I didn't know much about this Bible,
but you know what, men?
I knew I was empty on the inside,
and I knew I was just sick and
tired of being sick and tired.
I was weary of being weary, and I
wanted God to change my life and save
my soul.
I had a little faith, man.
And the preacher told me the story about
how I had sinned against God, and I
knew that.
Hey, he didn't have to convince me I
was a sinner.
I knew I was a sinner.
I knew I was a rebel.
I knew I was prideful.
I knew I was self-centered.
I knew I had lived for myself and
lived without God.
He said, William, you've rebelled against God.
I said, that's the truth.
I've rebelled against God.
He said, William, God loves you, but that
rebellion is sin, and God says the wages
of sin is death.
He said, at this very moment, you're doomed
to hell.
There's no hope.
He said, but the good news, the gospel
is even though you're a rebel, even though
you're a sinner, God loves you, and he
has sent his son to save you.
And Jesus took your sins, William.
He went to a cross.
He died on that cross.
He's paid for your sins.
You don't have to pay your sin debt.
You can be forgiven.
And I said, well, preacher, I believe that.
I mean, I've heard about Jesus all my
life.
I'm a good Baptist.
Listen, men, here's what he told me.
He said, William, you can believe in Jesus
and go straight to hell.
You say, you're here tonight, you believe in
Jesus?
Well, you're no better than the demons of
hell.
The Bible says you believe in God.
Well, congratulations, the demons in hell believe in
God.
Hell's going to be filled up with people
who believe in Jesus.
You can believe in Jesus.
You can believe in your church membership.
You can believe in your baptism.
You can believe in all.
That's not how you get there.
To be born again by the spirit of
God, number one, you must repent.
And that word repent means you must get
honest with God tonight.
See, God knows what you are.
It's like when Adam and Eve sinned in
the garden of Eden and God came looking
for him and God said, Adam, where are
you?
Hey, buddy, he knew where Adam was.
He wanted Adam to know where he was.
He was lost from God.
You've got to know you're a sinner.
You've got to admit you're a sinner.
See, God knows you're a sinner.
God knows you're lost.
He's waiting for you to get a hold
of that.
Then you must repent.
That means you've got to turn from that
sin.
Sir, you can't come to Jesus with sin.
That old alcohol's got to go down.
That fornication's got to go down.
That lying's got to go down.
That rebellion against God's got to go down.
That drug, it's got to go down, buddy.
You can't come to Jesus living like the
devil.
You've got to say, God, I've come and
I lay my sins down.
I leave the world.
I want to come and give my life
to you.
Buddy, I want to tell you, if you
haven't committed your life to Christ, you've not
been born again.
It's not walking an aisle and praying a
little prayer.
It is giving your will up to let
God's will come into your heart and forgive
you and save you.
On Thursday night, October 24th, 1983, I was
36 years old and I got on my
knees and I prayed, God, I know I'm
a sinner and I know I'm lost and
I know there's absolutely nothing I can do
to save myself.
But God, I believe you love me.
I believe Jesus died on that cross just
for me to pay my sin debt.
I believe he was buried.
I believe he was raised from the dead.
And God, I don't understand everything about it,
but with my heart, I believe.
I stepped out on the water.
And that night, man, God did something in
my heart that I can't even explain tonight.
But that night, God came into my heart
and he filled that empty spot up.
And God washed away my sin, took that
guilt of sin.
He put my feet on a solid rock
that night.
He pointed my eyes toward heaven.
He supernaturally changed me.
I have never been the same.
And from that Thursday night until this Friday
night, friends, it has been 15 years.
And I'm telling you, I love Jesus more
tonight than I loved him then.
I have more of a passion tonight than
I had then.
And I'm telling you, God came into my
heart.
He turned my life around.
He put my eyes on him.
He gave me faith to trust him and
to love him.
He forgave me and saved my soul.
But what about you?
What about you?
My friend, I want to ask you, if
you were to die tonight, do you know
for sure that you'd go to heaven?
You say, William, I believe I'd go to
heaven.
Let me ask you this.
Why do you believe that?
What makes you think you're going to heaven
when you die?
You say, well, when I was a young
boy, a young girl, I walked that aisle
and I made a profession of faith in
Jesus.
Got baptized, been in church ever since.
Ma'am, that doesn't mean you're a Christian.
A profession of faith does not mean you're
a Christian.
A profession of faith merely means you say
you're a Christian.
Now, how do I know that?
Because Jesus said it.
Jesus said, there are many people in Mississippi
who profess me with their mouth, but with
their heart and their life, they deny me.
See, a profession of faith means nothing, sir,
unless your heart lets go of sin and
is converted by the Holy Spirit.
You say, well, I prayed a prayer and
asked Jesus to come into my heart.
Well, there's only one problem with that.
The Bible never says pray a prayer and
ask Jesus into your heart.
We made that up.
The Bible says, repent of your sin and
be converted by the Holy Spirit.
Friend, I want to tell you, I'm asking
you this.
I'm not asking you, did you walk an
aisle?
Did you pray a prayer?
I'm not asking you, do you believe in
God?
I'm asking you this.
Right now, can you go back to a
moment you remember when the Holy Spirit of
God spoke to you and God revealed to
you that you were a sinner against God,
that you had broken God's law, you had
broken God's heart, you were a rebel against
God.
You know why you remember it?
It was the most desperate moment of your
life.
Why?
It felt like the weight of the world
was on your shoulders.
Your heart began to beat fast.
The palms of your hands began to sweat.
You had sinned against the most high God.
You were condemned to hell.
What were you going to do?
And then somebody took a Bible and told
you about Jesus, how he had died to
pay for all your sins, how he'd been
buried in a tomb and raised, that you
got on your face and you said, Oh
God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
And that night you gave your life to
Christ and you stood up and after praying
that little childlike prayer, something inside of your
heart that night, it changed and you've never
been the same since.
Have you been born again?
Do you know for sure that if you
were to die tonight, that you'd go to
heaven?
That's my ranch.
You've been listening to the From the Pulpit
in Classic Sermon series.
This week you heard William Blackburn with his
message, How to Have a Miracle-Working Faith.
Tune in next week for another powerful message
from God's Word on From the Pulpit and
Classic Sermons.