I did choose thee. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nibert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nibert. In Hebrews 10, verse 38, we read,
now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my
soul shall have no pleasure in him. That is one of four times in
God's Word that statement is made, the just shall live by
faith. It's found in the Old Testament,
in the book of Habakkuk, in chapter 2 verse 4, It's found in Romans
1, verse 17. It's found in Galatians 3, verse
11. And it's found here in our text. The just shall live by faith. What does that mean? There's no doubt it's of critical
importance. God has it quoted in his word
four different times. What is meant by that statement,
the just shall live by faith. I want to know, and I hope you
want to know as well. The just shall live by faith. Now I have three very simple
points to this message. The first is the just. The second is shall live. And the third is by faith. And then in closing, I want us
to go to the four different places where that is stated and see
the emphasis in each different place. Now, the just. That's my first point. The just. This word is found 81 times in
the New Testament. 41 times it's translated the
righteous. 33 times it's translated the just. Five times it's translated the
right. And two times it's translated
meet, the just. Now do you know that there are
only two kinds of people in this world? The just and the unjust. There's no in-between. There's
no intermediate. When God looks at me, he sees
me as someone who's altogether just, altogether righteous, without
sin, or altogether sinful, with no righteousness whatsoever. There are two kinds of people
in this world, the just and the unjust, the righteous and the
wicked. In Matthew 13, verse 49, we read
the Lord's words, so shall it be at the end of the world, the
angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just
and shall cast them into a furnace of fire where there shall be
wailing and gnashing of teeth. the just, the righteous, who
will spend eternity in heaven, beholding the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and the unjust, who will spend eternity in that
awful place called hell. We have no idea of how bad sin
really is, but God has made hell for every sinner to spend eternity. Now, if you wince at that, I
understand. I wince at it too, but it's because
we don't see things from God's perspective. Sin is an infinite
evil, and hell is a part of the justice and judgment of God,
the righteous. the righteous, the faultless,
those who have a perfect standing before the law of God. That's
who's spoken of when it's talking about the just. They are righteous. That means before God's law,
they have never sinned. It's what the Bible calls justified.
You remember in Luke 18, verse 13, that man who cried, God,
be merciful to me, the sinner. And Christ said, with regard
to that man, I say unto you, that man went down to his house
justified. having never sinned. Now, how did these people get
that way? Because the fact of the matter
is, is I have sinned, and you have sinned. And to deny that
would be just a complete lie. There wouldn't be any truth to
it. So how can somebody like me or you who are sinful, I'm
not talking about make mistakes every now and then, I'm talking
about sinful, full of sin. I've never had a proper motive.
I've never had a proper thought. I've never kept God's law once. Not in its fullness and in spirituality. When I am nothing but sin, how
can it truthfully be said that I'm righteous? And it's not an
exaggeration. It's not God treating me as if
I were righteousness, when in reality I'm not. How can that
be? Now listen to this scripture,
Romans chapter four, verse five, says, to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. Now let's stop there
for a moment. What if a judge had a criminal
before him that was guilty and said, I'm declaring you just.
That would be unjust. That would be wrong for the judge
to do that. We'd get rid of that judge. He
has no business being a judge. So listen to the scripture. To
him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly."
Now how can that be? How can an ungodly man be just
and righteous before God? How can that be? Well, let me
give you another scripture. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. For he, speaking of God the Father,
hath made him, speaking of God the Son, for he hath made him
to be sin. For us, who knew no sin, he never
sinned, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now the fact of the matter is
I have sinned and God took my sins. and he placed them in his
son. That's what happened when the
Lord drank that cup in Gethsemane's garden. He was drinking the cup
of his people's sins. The scripture says, he bore our
sins in his own body on the tree. God took the sins of the elect
and gave them to Christ, and he became guilty of the commission
of those sins. No, he never sinned in his own
person. But when he took my sin, it became his sin. And the perfect, just, holy,
righteous God gave him what sin deserves, and God killed his
son. God's no respecter of persons.
God put to death His Son because of sin. Now, what about the fact
that He knew no sin? What about the fact that He never
sinned? That perfect righteousness that
He worked out in His time here upon earth Just as He took the
sins of those people and died for them, His perfect righteousness
is given to His people so that it is actually theirs. God made a way to be just. and justify the ungodly, so that
every believer stands just before God. Now, the state we're in
when we die, either righteous or wicked, is the way we will
spend eternity. Listen to this scripture from
Revelation 22, verse 11. He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still. And he that is filthy, let him
be filthy still. And he that is righteous, let
him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him
be holy still." Now, you and I are either going to die unjust,
unrighteous, and filthy, and stand before God in our sins,
or we're going to die righteous and holy. and how we die is how
we will spend eternity. All of the righteous will be
in heaven. David said in Psalm 17, 15, ask for me. I will behold
thy face in righteousness. I'll be satisfied when I awake
in thy likeness. That's the future of every believer. All of the wicked And I hope
I'm saying this in fear. All of the wicked will be in
hell. The Lord said the wicked shall
be turned into hell. Now, how I want to be of this
number called the just and the righteous. The just, the righteous
before God. Oh, that's what I want to be.
Let me die the death of the righteous and let my end be like his. The just. The just are those
who are righteous. Righteous before God. Justified
by God. They stand before God without
guilt because of the work of Christ in their behalf. Christ
is all of their salvation. They get none of the credit for
this. He gets all of the credit. The just. The justified. Oh, I want to be in that number,
don't you? The justified. Here's my second point. Shall
live. The just shall live. And this is not speaking of existence,
but this is speaking of life before God. Eternal life. The life of God in your soul. Now let me read you a scripture
from Romans chapter 14 verse 9. We read, To this end Christ
both died and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead
and the living. Now, does that mean that the
Lord is the Lord of the people who are in their graves already
dead and no longer have physical life, and he's also the Lord
of the people who have not died yet and are still alive? Well,
he is Lord of all, but that's not what that's talking about.
When it says he's Lord of the dead, that's talking about those
who are dead in sins. When he talks about being the
Lord of the living, he's talking about those who live by faith. They've been given spiritual
life. Now, before we consider life, we've got to consider this
thing of being dead in sins. He's the Lord of the dead. Now,
what does dead mean? They're not physically dead.
Their souls aren't dead. They still think, they still
talk, they still walk, they still breathe. What is this thing of
being dead? Well, when the Lord warned Adam
of eating the fruit, he said, in the day you eat thereof, that
very day, that very moment, you shall surely die. Now when Adam ate of that fruit,
he didn't die physically, his soul didn't die, but he died
spiritually. And he's now dead in trespasses
and sins. Now what can a dead man do? He
can't perform the functions of spiritual life. A dead man can't
hear the gospel. A dead man can't love God. A
dead man can't believe the gospel. A dead man can't exercise repentance
toward God. He's dead. He knows nothing of
these things. Dead in trespasses and sins.
If I'm dead in sins, that means the only way I can be saved is
if God sovereignly saves me. The only way I can have life
is if God raises me from the dead and gives me life. If God leaves me to myself, I
will die and go to hell because I am dead in sins. That's what the scripture says.
Remember in Ephesians 2, 1, it says, And you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. This is one of the reasons
why the idea of free will is just ridiculous. People try to
present the gospel, well, it's up to you, up to an act of your
free will. A dead man's dead. A dead man doesn't have a will.
He's dead in trespasses and sins. If I'm dead in trespasses and
sins, my only hope is for God to give me life. Now, the just
shall live. This is the life of God in the
soul where He gives you spiritual life and you live. Have your
senses. You see the beauty of Christ. You hear the gospel. You feel his presence. You taste that he is gracious. All your spiritual senses are
alive. You have life before God. The just shall live. Oh, the life of God in the soul
of a believer. We were born of God. That's where the life comes from. Birthed into the kingdom of God
of His own will begat He us through the Word of Truth. This is a
supernatural thing. Only God can bring this about.
The just shall live. Oh, what a glorious thing to
live before God, to see His glory, to love Him, to communion with
Him through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The just shall
live. This is eternal life that they
might know thee. This is what the Lord said. This
is life eternal that they might know thee. The only true God
and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. The just shall live spiritual
life. And here's the third point. The
just, the justified, the righteous before God shall live by faith. Not by works, but by faith. The just shall live by faith. Now what in the world is faith? What does the Bible mean by this
word, faith? The just shall live by faith. Simple answer, it's believing
God. That's what faith is. It's believing
God. It's not just believing in the
existence of God. The devil believes in the existence
of God. It's believing God. It's believing
his word. The first time it's mentioned
is in Genesis chapter 15, where God said to Abraham, when Abraham
had no children, he said, you see the stars, so shall your
seed be. You're going to have that many
descendants, more than can be counted. And the scripture says
Abraham believed God. He didn't have any evidence other
than the word of God. He didn't have any children.
His wife was barren. But Abraham believed God. And it was counted to him for
righteousness. What about in John chapter four,
where that man came to the Lord and said, sir, come down here,
my child die. And the Lord said to him, thy
son liveth. thy son liveth." And the scripture
says he believed the word spoken by Jesus. He had no evidence
at that time that his son lived other than the word that the
Lord said, and he believed the word that Jesus had spoken. Now, that's what faith is without
any evidence other than the word of God. Paul put it this way
in 2 Timothy 1.12. He said, I know whom I have believed,
and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've
committed to him against that day. Now, Paul says, I've committed
the entire salvation of my soul to Him. If He doesn't do it all,
there's no hope for me. I've committed it to Him that
on that day of judgment, I will be found without fault because
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, the writer to the Hebrews
had anticipated the question that began in Hebrews 11, 1,
faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of
things not seen. And I love his simple answer
to what faith is. It's the substance. It's the
ground of things hoped for. It's the evidence of things that
are not seen. What's my hope? Well, my hope
is that on judgment day, I will stand before God without guilt,
perfectly righteous, one who has never sinned. And I have a hope that everything
that happens between right this minute and then is working together
for my good and His glory. That's my hope. Now, what's the
evidence of that? Faith. It's not something I can
see. I can't see that I stand before
God without guilt, without sin. I can't look into my heart and
say, yep, no sin there. No, I see nothing but sin in
myself. But I believe I stand before God without guilt, and
I believe that everything is working together for my good,
although I can't see how it is, but I believe it is because God
said it. Faith is the evidence of things
hoped for. the ground of things not seen. I'm relying on Christ and this
is what proof I have that this is going to be for me. We walk
by faith and not by sight. Now, like I said, this passage
of scripture is quoted four times in the scripture. First in the
Old Testament in the book of Habakkuk. We read in verse four,
chapter two, behold his soul which is lifted up. not upright
in him, but the just shall live by his faith." Now what that
lets me know is faith is completely contrary to human pride in any
respect. The soul that's lifted up, swollen
with a high view of his ability and self-importance is not upright
in him. That's wrong. Pride is the most
ridiculous, groundless thing there is in the world. What do
you have that you didn't receive? Who made you to differ from somebody
else? Faith is opposed to all human pride. It looks to Christ
only and nowhere else it excludes pride. Where is boasting, Paul
said? It's excluded. I can't boast
in my salvation in any way. It's what God did for me. It's
what Christ did for me. It's not what I've done for God.
It's what he's done for me. I have no ground of boasting. He did it all. And it began back in eternity,
when I was given to Christ before the world began, and Christ became
my surety and took complete responsibility for my salvation. I have no ground
for pride. Faith excludes human boasting. Now, the second place the scripture
is found is in Romans 1, verse 16. Paul says, for I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, For it is the power of God unto salvation
to every one that believeth to the Jew first, and also to the
Greek. For therein," it's talking about
in the gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith as it's written, the just shall live by faith. It's only faith that has the
righteousness of God revealed to it. You know, if you're an
unbeliever, you don't have any understanding of the righteousness
of God. You just don't. You're dead in sins. But if God
gives you faith in Christ, this thing becomes real to you, the
righteousness of God. God's righteous. He'd be righteous
in my condemnation. If He sent me to hell, He'd be
giving me exactly what I deserve. But He's righteous in my salvation
in the sense that He put away my sins. He gave me the righteousness
of Christ. And now I see that Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Faith
apprehends the righteousness of God. Faith understands that
promise in the scripture. This is the name we're with.
He shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. Have you ever
understood that? how that Jesus Christ is actually
your righteousness before God. That's what faith apprehends.
Now, the third time that this is mentioned is in Galatians
3. Paul said in verse Ten, for as many as are of the
works of the law are under the curse. For it's written, Cursed
is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it's evident. For the just shall
live by faith. Faith is completely opposed. It's the enemy to salvation by
works. Faith excludes salvation by works. Listen to me. You and I cannot
be saved by anything we do. If it's up to us to do something
before God can save us, we're toast. This is the conclusion. Faith is opposed to any part
of salvation by works. The just shall live by faith,
looking to Christ only and looking nowhere else. And finally, we
have here in our text, in Hebrews chapter 10, the just shall live
by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure
in him. We continue to live by faith.
If we draw back from faith, if we graduate from faith, if we
find something else, we find something bigger and better,
God says, my soul shall have no pleasure in that person. That
person has never really believed. The just continue. They persevere
by continually looking to Christ and nowhere else. The just shall
live by faith. the just, those God has justified,
the righteous before Him. They shall live. God's given
them life and they live. And the way they live is by faith
only. Have you ever in your life looked
away from everything else and looked to Christ only as everything
in your salvation. May God give you and me the grace
to do just that. The just shall live by faith. To receive a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to todd.neibert at gmail.com. or you may write or call the
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