Well, we're going to look at
that passage that Brother Mark just read for us in Hebrews chapter
10 and 11. And I want to talk to you this
morning about real faith. The reason I call it real faith,
obviously, what I'm talking about is biblical faith. You know,
everybody says they have faith in something or someone. I remember
back when I was younger, we'd go to see a movie at the local
movie theater. Before they would have the previews,
they'd come on and they'd say, worship this Sunday in the faith
that you choose. And I said, I know now that's
the worst thing you could ever do, the faith that you choose. In other words, there's this
faith, there's that faith, there's all kinds of different faiths.
But you know, the idea that people have is, well, we're all going
to this, we're praying to the same God, we believe in the same
God, we're going to the same place. The faith that man by
nature chooses is not real faith biblically. It's just a heresy. You know, the word heresy means
a choice. Did you know that? In other words,
people who do not believe God's word, but they believe what they
choose to believe. And that's heresy. The Bible
says that faith, real biblical faith, comes by hearing. And
hearing by the word of God. And of course we understand what
does the Bible say about faith? What is faith? Here in verse
38 of chapter 10 it says, the just shall live by faith. That's
an important thing. That's something you can't get
away from. Because if you're not living by faith, you're not
living at all. Now I'm not talking about physically.
You understand that. You can live without faith physically,
but your time's going to be limited. And then when you die, you perish
in condemnation. But what he's talking about here
is the living that is a spiritual living. It's a godly life. It's eternal life. We read in
John 17 and verse 3 where Christ said, this is life eternal that
they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent. And you know that verse there,
the word faith, the Greek word that's for faith is not even
in that verse, but you know that's what faith is. This is life eternal
that they might know thee. You know the root word of faith
is knowledge. But it's a revealed knowledge,
a knowledge that God reveals to his people, whereby in the
power of the Holy Spirit, they are convinced of the truth of
it and they live by it because they've been given life from
the dead in the new birth. The Bible talks about those who
receive Christ. Faith, real faith is receiving
Christ. That means that you lay hold
of him, you believe in him, you rest in him, you submit to him
as your righteousness. Romans 10 and verse 4 speaks
of that. Those who are trying to establish
their own righteousness before God, they're failing because
man cannot do that. That's a task. I mentioned this
in the earlier message. It's a burden that man cannot
bear by works of the law. It's not by anything. Faith does
not come by the free will of men. You don't naturally have
faith in you, it's a gift from God. And so it says in Romans
10 for that, that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. That faith is connected to Christ
and his righteousness alone. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made. When
he talks about just here, the just, who's he talking about?
Well, he's talking about those who are justified before God. Now, the just shall live by faith. How do I know if I'm justified
before God? Well, what does that mean? It
means, number one, I'm forgiven of all my sins on a just ground. Now, I say that so much on our
television program because people today are ignorant of these things.
They're ignorant of God's righteousness, his justice. And that's the first
and foremost issue in the salvation of a sinner. Somebody say, well,
it's love. Well, love must be on a just
ground. Mercy must be on a just ground.
That's why mercy and truth, as the psalmist say, have kissed
each other in Christ. Righteousness and peace are brought
together. And so what is it? To be justified
before God is God forgiving me of all my sins on a just ground. Now, if you leave out the just
ground, you don't have justification. And if God forgives your sins
on anything other than the just ground that he has appointed
and provided, it's a false God. Do you understand that? Our faith
is to be in God, the true and living God, as he reveals himself.
And so what is the just ground upon which God forgives me of
all my sins? And I mean all of them. Now,
not part of them. You know, there are religions
that teach, well, up until the time you, as they say, accept
Christ as your personal savior, as they say it, which is not
a biblical way of putting it, in other words. But they say,
up until that time, all your sins, past sins are forgiven,
but you have to do something to be forgiven from then on.
Some say you gotta be baptized. Some say you gotta confess. I
heard it on a program yesterday. I can't even remember what it
was now. A little boy was asking about his sins being forgiven. And the mama told him, she says,
well, the sins you confess are forgiven, but those you don't
confess are not forgiven. Well, my friend, if that's the
case, where does that leave me and you? Of all people most miserable. So to be justified is to be forgiven
of all my sins on that just ground. And what is it? It's the blood
of Jesus Christ. Faith in His blood, Romans 3
tells us. That means His death. That means
His redemptive work. That means His propitiation.
What is that? That's satisfaction to the justice
of God. The price is paid. We sang that
in that hymn. It's already paid in full. Paid
in full. You ever gotten a document from
a loan company or a bank that says paid in full? Aren't you
glad to see that? Well, this is a document in God's
work. And who paid the price? Christ
did. You didn't pay it. I hear people
talking about it all the time saying, well, you gotta pay for
your sins. Well, if you do, you'll never receive that document that
says paid in full. Because it'll never be paid.
You can't do it, I can't do it. So to be justified is to be forgiven
on a just ground by the blood of Jesus Christ. What can wash
away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And then there's another aspect
to it. To be justified before God is to be declared legally,
really, substantially righteous. in his sight on a just ground. Don't leave that part out. God
reveals himself in justice and what is that just ground? That's
the righteousness of God, the righteousness of Christ. Remember
what Romans 1 says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it's
the power of God and salvation everyone that believeth to the
Jew first and the Greek also, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith. Now what does that mean? That
means knowledge that God reveals to his people. I know whom I have believed.
This is life eternal. They might know thee. See, it's
all wrapped up in that knowledge that God reveals to his people.
And he doesn't reveal it to us because we're smarter or better
or anything than other people. He reveals it to his people because
he gives them life from the dead. So it's from faith to faith. That's faith receiving Christ. Believing in Christ. So any notion
of any faith that is removed from the glorious person and
finished work of Christ is not real biblical faith. You understand
that? Many people today, we've said
this before, have faith in their faith because they believe they
were saved by a choice that they make, by a decision. I think it was Billy Graham who
wrote that book on how to be born again and basically what
he promoted was what we call decisional regeneration. You
make the choice and then you're born again. That is not biblical. That's not faith, that's against
faith. Because faith believes what God's word says. And it's
a gift from God. You don't have it in you, I didn't
have it in me by nature. Faith does not come by your free
will choice. The Bible is clear on that. If
left to ourselves, we will not receive Christ. We will not believe
if left to ourselves. The natural man, the unregenerate
man, and woman receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
neither can he know them." In faith, real faith, you know something. The justified shall live by faith. This is how we live. Over in
Hebrews 12 and verse two, it puts it this way. He says, we
walk and run the race of grace, looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. So he says in verse 38, the just
shall live by faith. He says, but if any man draw
back, my soul shall have no pleasure in it. Now that drawing back
is a reference to what we refer to in the Bible as final apostasy. Now what does that mean? It means
that they deny totally and completely forever what they at one time
claimed to believe. In other words, it's like a person
who claimed to believe the truth and then draws back from it for
whatever reason. And there can be several reasons.
It can be persecution over the word, lack of popularity, lack
of feeling right, whatever. It could be the riches and the
cares of the world that cause a person to apostatize. Totally draw back from it and
deny it. Now what does the Bible say about
such people? Well, it says plainly they never
were saved to begin with. They never had real faith, biblical
faith. And that's what Paul writes here.
I believe Paul was the human instrument to write Hebrews,
but some people disagree. It doesn't matter, it's God's
word. But look at verse 39. But we are not of them who draw
back unto perdition, destruction. In other words, if we're justified,
and if we have God-given faith, excuse me, that's my fault. If
we have God-given faith, there's no way we can draw back. Why? Because we're preserved by the
grace of God. Christ will not let you go. One old preacher used to say
it this way, he says, he has you on a leash. And that's pretty much what it
is. A true believer, a justified person, whose sins are forgiven,
which means he or she cannot be charged with sin, they cannot
be held against you, God will remember them no more, that's
what that means. God will not impute our sins to us, he imputed
them to Christ. And Christ bore them away. And
so a truly justified person who has been declared righteous in
God's sight, You can only go so far. And if you go so far
and then God takes that lesion, he brings you back. And that's
a lifelong process until we die. Somebody gets upset and leaves
or whatever. If you're one of God's children,
you won't stay that way. He'll draw you back. Somebody
say he'll jerk a knot in your tail, something like that. And it's not because he's punishing
you in order as payment for the sin. That's impossible. In Hebrews
chapter 12, it tells us exactly what's going on there. It's called
chastisement. Like you discipline your children.
Well, God disciplines us. We're his children. And we need
a lot of discipline. We sure do. But he says in verse
30, we're not of them who draw back unto perdition, but we're
of them that believe to the saving of the soul. That's perseverance.
That's continuation. Paul said, I know. Now there's
that knowledge again. I know whom I have believed,
and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. And what have I committed unto
him? My whole salvation is committed to Christ. How about yours? Have
you committed part of it to Christ and part of it to yourself? You're
in trouble. That's not real faith. Well,
he goes on in chapter 11, he's in now faith is the substance. Now that word would be like a
confidence. It's the confidence of things
hoped for. What is hope? It's a certain
expectation of some blessing or blessedness based on a proper
ground. And what is that ground? Well,
he says it's faith. It's not how much I believe or
that I have perfect faith. It's the word of God. How do
I know it's true? God said it. That's real faith. Somebody might say it this way.
They say, well, how do I know it's true? Oh, because I believe
it. Well, that's a very shaky foundation. I mean, you can believe
large greasy or not. A lot of people believe things
that aren't true. How do I know it's true? Because
God said it. That's real faith. You understand? If God says he saves sinners
this way, and I believe it, then I have a proper foundation, the
substance of things hoped for because God said it. It's like
I preached last week, God's way or no way. And if your faith
is in a God that saves you any other way than by his grace through
the blood, the righteousness imputed of the Lord Jesus Christ,
you have faith in an idol. Now, is that not true? That's
right. And he says, not only is it the
confidence of things hoped for, it's the evidence, and that word
would be like conviction of things not seen. That conviction. Real
faith is a conviction. It's a gift from God. It's a
revelation from God based on his word. What God reveals to
me, I can find in his word. Whenever a preacher or somebody
who claims to be a Christian says, well, God revealed something
to me, My friend, if you can't find it in God's Word from Genesis
to Revelation, don't believe it. So it's not real faith. It's a false faith. This faith
is the conviction of things not seen. Now where does that conviction
come from? Well, turn back to John chapter
16. I've preached on this quite a bit. In verse seven of John
chapter 16. The conviction is what we might
call Holy Spirit conviction. You know, salvation is of the
Lord, Father, Son, and Spirit. The Father is the source and
originator of salvation. God the Son is the foundation
and ground of salvation. And God the Holy Spirit is the
applier of salvation. God the Holy Spirit in the new
birth applies to God's people what God purposed before time
began and what Christ purchased on the cross in his obedience
unto death. And so it's the Holy Spirit who
is sent from the Father and the Son to raise a sinner from spiritual
death to spiritual life and that's called the new birth. You must
be born again. Or you cannot hear. Remember, faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. You must be born again or you
cannot see. You gotta have spiritual eyes
and spiritual ears. Remember what Christ told the disciples
in Matthew chapter, what is it, 13? When they asked why you speak
in parables, he said, because they seen, they see not, hearing,
they hear not. But blessed are your eyes for
they see. Blessed are your ears for they
hear. That's grace, that's a gift. so look here, it's a conviction.
Verse seven, when Christ speaking to his disciples about his death
and he says, nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is expedient
for you that I go away. It's necessary for you, that's
what he's saying. It's needful for you that I go
away, Christ is saying. Well where's he going? Well he's
going to the cross and ultimately to the grave and ultimately be
raised again and go unto the Father. That's what he's gonna
do. I gotta go away for you to be
saved. And he said, for if I go not
away, the comforter, that's the advocate, which is speaking of
the Holy Spirit, will not come unto you. In other words, if
Christ doesn't do his work on the cross in dying for our sins
and redeeming us from those sins and establishing the perfect
righteousness, which God has imputed to us, If he doesn't
do that, there's no life. There's no work of the Spirit
is, there's no new birth. Because Christ is the ground
and the foundation of our faith, of our life, our spiritual breath.
And he says, he won't come if I don't do my work. But he said,
but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he has
come, verse eight, he will reprove or convince or convict the world
of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Now the world that
he's talking about is his elect all over the world out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. How do you know? Well, he's gonna
convict them. They're gonna be convinced by
the Spirit through the word of God. And hearing it from a preacher
communicated the communication of the gospel, whereby the Holy
Spirit brings us under the gospel And he gives us life from the
dead, spiritual life. Gives us ears to hear and eyes
to see. And every one of you who have
that real faith, you've experienced this, haven't you? You can probably
look back, like I can, on a time when I heard the gospel, but,
now I was kind of, I hated it when I first heard it. You may
not have thought of it that way, but it meant nothing to you.
But there come a time when it means everything. And that's
when you're convinced of the truth of it. And that's real
faith. He says, I'm going to convince you of sin, verse 9,
because they believe not on me. give you a preview of this verse.
Without faith, it's impossible to please God. I'll tell you
another way to say that, if it's real faith. Without Christ, it's
impossible to please God. Without Christ. So he says, because
they believe not on me. If you don't believe on Christ,
you know, it's all sin. It's all falls short. And then
he says, verse 10, of righteousness, because I go to my father and
you see me no more. What did he do? He went to the
cross, he went to the grave, he was raised from the dead,
he went unto the Father. He's now at the right hand of
the Father ever living to make intercession for us. Now why
is that? That's all based upon the righteousness
that he accomplished in his obedience unto death as our surety, our
substitute, our redeemer, our life giver, our preserver, all
of that. our intercessor. And then, verse
11, of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. In other
words, Satan, who is the accuser of the brethren, he can no longer
accuse us in any way, because who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Our sins have already been, we,
I'll put it to you this way, we who believe, we who have that
real faith, which is the gift of God, do you know we have already
been judged for all our sins and pronounced righteous? You say, well, how did that happen?
Christ went to that cross as my surety. My sins were laid
on him. My iniquity was laid on him.
My sins were charged to him. And he died. He satisfied justice
for me. And he brought forth a righteousness
that God has imputed to all of his people. And that's why. You say, well, when we come to
judgment, God is going to judge us for what we've done. No, he's
not. Read the Bible. Real faith believes
God's word. We'll go back to Hebrews 11.
He says, verse 2, for by it the elders obtained a good report
or good witness. That's the elders in the faith.
And he says in verse three, through faith we understand that the
worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are
seen were not made of things which do appear. You young people,
when you go to school and you go to college, you're gonna hear
about evolution and all of that. Now here's what I, let me put
it to you very briefly. I don't believe that nothing
created something. How's that for a deep scientific
knowledge? I don't believe nothing created
something. I believe creation came about
by a prime, intelligent being, prime mover, and the only explanation
the Bible gives us in real faith is God alone. God made this world. And let me tell you something
about scientists and science teachers. When they start going
into origins, how things were created, they're out of their
league. Now they can look at things as
they are and they can scientifically show you the makeup of it, the
chemical makeup and the physical things, they can talk about that.
But how it all began, when they start doing that, they stop becoming
scientists and they try to become theologians and they miss it
every time, unless they're a believer. So understand that. Be on your
guard. You don't have to make a spectacle
of yourself in the classroom and all of that. But this didn't
come out by evolution. It came out by creation. And
God did it. And that's what his word says.
And real faith believes it. So he says, these things that
we have now, they weren't made by things which don't appear.
Nothing didn't make something. All right? And then he uses Abel,
he uses Enoch, but I want to get to verse six before I conclude.
Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice. What was Abel's sacrifice? The blood of a lamb. And by that testimony, he obtained
testimony that he himself was righteous. Why? Because he was so sincere and
dedicated and good? No, he was a sinner who came
to God through the blood of the lamb. That's a picture of Christ. And then Enoch, he walked with
God, the scripture tells us, he was translated that he shouldn't
be found unto death, and he said he pleased God. That's all we're
told, that Enoch pleased God, but look at verse six. But without
faith, you can't please God. And as I said, that's the same
as saying without Christ. If I come to God in any capacity,
prayer, worship, praise, obedience. If I'm not coming to God on the
ground and basis of the blood of Christ that washed away my
sins and his righteousness imputed, it's all of no avail. It's all
false faith. He says, for the he that cometh
to God must believe that he is. Now that's more than saying you
must believe that God exists. The devils in hell believe that.
But what it means is this, that he that comes to God must believe
that God is who God says he is. And where do we find out about
what God says he is, who God says he is? In his word. Why do I believe the God of sovereign
love and election and predestination. Why do I believe that? Because
it's in his word. I've told you the story about
the man who called me years ago, heard me preaching on TV, and
he called me and he said, you know, he said, I've liked your
preaching up until now. I said, well, what is it you
don't like about it now? He said, well, you're talking about predestination.
He said, I don't believe predestination. I said, you don't? He said, no.
And I said, you don't believe the word of God? Oh, I believe
every word. I said, well, you don't believe that word, because
it's in there. Well, it don't mean what you say it means. Well,
it's in there. What do you think it means? Predestination. It
means God's in control. It means God works all things
after the counsel of his own will. It means God, he never
changes. And he knows all. He determined
all. You got a problem with that? Take it up with God. That's what
Romans 9 says. But the issue has to do basically
is that God predestinated his children to be made like unto
his son. And that involves the gospel
message of salvation by grace. You must believe that God is
who he says he is. And that he is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him. Now what is that reward? It's
the reward of grace. The Bible's so clear on that.
When we think of reward, we think of something we earn. But the
Bible's clear that this reward, this reward of salvation, is
not what we earn. But it's a reward that we obtain
by an inheritance that was brought about by the work of Jesus Christ.
That's clear. And that's what real faith believes. And then he brings up Noah. Noah
moved with fear. That's a godly fear. Godly fear
is worship. Godly fear is real faith, believing
God. And he built the ark. And by
that, and Noah the whole time, 120 years they say it took, and
he was preaching the gospel of righteousness, the righteousness
which is by faith. What is that righteousness? That's
the righteousness of Christ. That's the merit of his obedience
unto death to justify and save his people from their sin. That's
what Noah preached. He was called a preacher of righteousness.
And he preached that all that time. And by that, he condemned
the world. How did he do that? Preaching
that Christ is the only way of salvation is a pronouncement
of condemnation of all who refuse to believe and live in that until
death, die in unbelief. And that's what real faith does.
And then he brings up Abraham. And you know the story of Abraham.
We won't go into all that. But Abraham believed God. Well,
what did he believe? He believed what God said. Abraham
was not saved because he believed. He was saved by the grace of
God in Christ. And as a result, he believed.
And that's real faith. It's a gift from God. It's a
revelation from God. And it always, without fail,
brings a sinner to know and trust and be convinced of who Christ
is and what he has done and why he did it and where he is now,
submitting to him as the Lord our righteousness to the point
that we cannot deny it, we cannot ignore it, and we cannot leave
it. That's real faith. Okay.