Thank you very much. Good morning to those just joining
us and welcome back to those who are here for the first hour.
We're going to open this hour with the hymn that's on the back
of your bulletin. Let's all stand. God's own eternal Son, Christ
the Anointed One, hung on the cross. Servant of God was He,
dying on Calvary to set His people free from endless loss. Our sins on Him were laid. By Him our debt was paid. What wondrous grace! Infinite wrath He bore. Who can such love explore? God can demand no more. Christ took our place. Justice was satisfied when Christ
our Savior died. By God's decree, risen he reigns
on high. To God he brings us nigh. On him our hopes rely eternally. Please be seated. Brother Grett, I'm glad to be
here. So thankful. What a message. In keeping with
the same spirit of hope and comfort, would you turn your Bibles for
a scripture reading to Matthew 14? Matthew 14. And we're going to read from
verse, starting at verse 22. This is a message of hope and
comfort, the only message of hope and comfort. And straightway,
immediately, Jesus constrained his disciples to get into the
ship and to go before him unto the
other side while he sent the multitudes away. Unless the Lord
constrains us this morning, we will be as those multitudes sent
away. And this is his ship right here.
This is his vessel. This is his body. And when he
had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart
to pray. And when the evening was come,
he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst
of the sea, tossed at waves, for the wind was contrary. Now
Logan read in the men's prayer Mark 6 verse 48 and you don't
have to turn there now but I encourage you to go there because there's
a wonderful version of it in verse 48 where the Lord saw them
from the mountain toiling and rowing contrary to the wind. Isn't that a picture of us? Our
flesh warring against the spirit, spirit against the flesh, and
there's the Lord vigilantly just watching. He sent the storm,
he sent his disciples. Don't you know his disciples
said, didn't the master send us on his ship? Where is he?
We're going to die. And in the fourth watch, which
is the darkest period of the morning before sunup, don't miss
this, Jesus went unto them walking on the sea. And when the disciples
saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is
a spirit. They cried out for fear. But
straightway, there's that word again, immediately, Jesus spake
unto them saying be of good cheer it is I be not afraid you see
the truth is we see a lot of things we come here we understand
all the things that are being said but until the Lord speaks
and that's my prayer Lord speak to my heart speak to my heart
and when he did Look what Peter said, and Peter answered him
and said, oh Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee under water.
Now you notice, and this is our prayer. He didn't say bid me
out into the ship that's about to sink, Lord. Get me out of
my troubles. Bid me to come unto thee. And
that's our cry, Lord. My circumstances will come and
go. My trials will come. That will always be true. But
Lord, I want you. And he said, come. And when Peter
had come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go
to Jesus. Scripture says that the just
shall walk by faith. This is a picture right here,
looking to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. But
here's my confession, and I pray it is yours too, but we walk
way too much by sight. And look what happens. But when
he saw the wind, boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning
to sink, he cried, oh, Lord, save me. That's my prayer this
morning. Lord, save me. Lord, I am so
unbelieving. And immediately, straightway,
Jesus stretched forth and said, aren't you glad he's that close?
He just, there he is, just, and caught him. and said unto
him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And
when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. And brother Greg, the Lord gave
me this. He, I believe this with all my heart, that the only place
of true worship is in the sea. Because it's only in the sea
when the Lord comes to us He exposes everything about us,
our unbelief, our hypocrisy, our idolatry. But this is all
the same place where the object of our faith, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is highly exalted. Because this is where He comes
to us. And we bow, we cry out. That's
true worship. Look at the next verse. Then
they that were in the ship came and worshipped Him, saying of
a truth, Thou art the Son of God. Heavenly Father, we come to You with that desire,
knowing that our Advocate, who is seated on the right hand of
the Majesty on High, Jesus Christ the Righteous, whoever liveth
to intercede for us, is our only hope, Lord, I pray, Lord, that you'd visit
this ship this morning. Lord, it's your body. You are
our head. Lord, bid us to come. Expose our unbelief, Lord. Expose
about how vile we truly are and how righteous and holy and exalted
you are. Pray you would do that. Pray
that you'd bless your word to our hearts. Pray that you'd bless
the message you place on our pastor. Lord, give us ears to
hear and enable us to see you. To your glory, for Christ's name's
sake, amen. Number 58 from the hardback timinal,
number 158, 158. Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
With all thy quickening powers, Kindle a flame of sacred love
In these cold parts of ours. Look how we grovel here below,
fond of these earthly toys. Our souls, how heavily they go. In vain we tune our formal songs. In vain we strive to rise. Hosannas languish on our tongues
and our devotions. Dear Lord, and shall we ever
live at this poor dying rate? Our love so faint, so cold to
Thee, and Thine to us so great. Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
with all thy quickening powers, come shed abroad the Savior's
love, and that shall kindle ours. Please be seated. The just shall live by faith. I think that Martin Luther tells
in his testimony of conversion that that was the truth that
the Lord used to convict him of his need for a Savior. The just shall live by faith. That phrase, that verse, is quoted
four times in God's Word. Four times. The context of the
first time that it's used is in Habakkuk, and it's in reference
to divine revelation. The context of the second time
that it's used is in Romans, and it's in reference to regeneration. The context of the third time
that it's used is in Galatians chapter 3, and it's in reference
to justification. And the last reference is in
Hebrews chapter 10, and it's in reference to perseverance. So those are my four points this
morning. It'll be easy to follow. If we're
to have the truth of the gospel revealed to our souls, it will
be only by faith. If we're to enjoy the miracle
of the new birth, it will be only through faith. If we're
to stand before a holy God completely justified, it will be only through
faith. And if we are to persevere, In
this pilgrimage, it will be only through faith. The just shall
live by faith. Now faith is the evidence of
things hoped for. It is the substance of things
not seen. Faith is the only thing that
the believer has to connect him to Christ. Faith is never enough
for the natural man. He's always looking for something
more. He's always got to have some
other evidence other than faith. But for the child of God, faith's
all he's got. And it's all he needs. It's all
he needs. Because it's that gift that God
has given him to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that convinces
his soul that everything the Lord has said and done is true. and the only hope of his salvation
is bound up in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Faith is the gift of God. Now, before we look at these
four passages of scripture, and you can be looking for the book
of Habakkuk, it's on page 1161. The book of Habakkuk, one of
those little minor prophets, not minor in message, but minor
in space, in the amount of pages that it takes up. Habakkuk, chapter
2. And while you look for that,
let me try to make one point very, very clear. And that is
that we're not interested in putting faith in faith. It's not your faith that saves
you. It's Christ that saves you. It's the faith that God gives
you that enables you to discover what it is the Lord Jesus Christ
has already accomplished. Faith is the gift of God. It's
not some stalwart character trait by which we pull ourselves up
and say, oh, I'm a great man of faith. To the contrary, faith
is, the Lord made it clear, unless you have faith as a little child,
you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Faith is simple
trust. It's reliance upon, it's resting
in who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what he's done. Faith
is our humiliation. It's not our boasting. It's not something we boast,
oh, I've got faith. No, it's an admission of our inability
to do anything for ourselves. The only hope I have is who He
is and what He's done for me. That's all my faith. It's all
my hope. I've got no place else to go.
All right, you'd find the book of Habakkuk chapter 2 at verse
1, I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower and
will watch to see what he will say unto me and what I shall
answer when I am reproved. And the Lord answered me and
said, write the vision and make it plain upon tables that he
may run that readeth it. This is the revelation of the
gospel. The natural man cannot receive
the things of the spirit. They are spiritually discerned.
And the prophet says, I'll stand upon the mountain and I'll wait
to see what he's gonna say. And here's what the Lord says,
write it down. And that's what he's done. He's written the gospel
in his word. It's the only place we have to
go. And make it plain upon the tables, that he may run that
readeth it. Anyone that reads this revelation
of the gospel is going to run to Christ. If you're able to
read it with faith, you're going to run to Christ. For the vision
is yet for an appointed time. Habakkuk's writing in the Old
Testament, and he's speaking of that which would be accomplished
when the Lord Jesus Christ came from glory and succeeded in saving
his people. But at the end it shall speak
and not lie, though it tarry, wait for it, because it will
surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted
up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. Now the word just here is also
translated in the Bible righteous. It means to be guiltless before
the law of God. It means to be innocent in the
sight of the law. It means that the law of God
has been silenced and can find no charge to make against you. It means that you have observed
every jot and every tittle of the law of God. You've kept the
law of God perfectly. That's what it means. The just
shall live by faith. Oh, here's the way the Lord describes
justification in Romans chapter 2. He says, for it is not the
hearers of the law that are just before God, but the doers of
the law shall be justified. You've got to be a perfect doer
of the law of God in order for God to consider you to be just. How can it be? How can it be
that sinners That sinners who have never been able to keep
one of God's laws one time could be considered by God to be righteous,
to be just, to be guiltless before the bar of God's justice, to
have satisfied all the demands of His law. How can it be? It's
the only hope we have. God's not pleased with your best. He's not pleased with doing what
we can. He's pleased with perfection.
And Habakkuk goes on to tell us that his eyes are too pure
to look upon sin. The just. The just. How are we going to be just?
Shall live. Live! Now every single one of
us in this room, and anyone else listening to this message, I
know something for absolute certainty about you. You were born in this
world spiritually dead. Spiritually dead. Separated from
God. At enmity with God. no understanding,
no light, no life, spiritually separated from God. That's how
we come into the world. And if the Lord doesn't do something
about that, we will remain spiritually dead. We're blind to the truth. You say, what does it mean to
be spiritually dead? Well, think about physical death.
Can a physically dead corpse see? No. Can't see a thing, can
it? Can it hear? Nope. Can't hear
a thing, can it? Can it speak? Nope. Can it get
up and do anything? No. And just as a physical body
is unable to do anything, so a spiritual soul that is separated
from God cannot see, it cannot hear, it cannot speak, it cannot
worship, it cannot pray, it cannot know God. God has to breathe
life into, that's called regeneration. We've got to be made alive. No man can come to me unless
the father which sent me draw him. If we're going to be born
again, God's going to have to cause us to come unto him. The
prophet said, cause me to come and I shall come. Oh Lord, cause
me to believe and I'll believe. Cause me to repent and I'll repent.
Lord, you're going to have to do it. I'm dead. I'm dead. I can't, I can't do anything
for myself. The Lord does it. He'll do it
through the preaching of the gospel for faith. This thing of faith
comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word of God. The
Lord Jesus Christ said, I have come that you might have life
and have it more abundantly. Abundant life, God's life. That's what the Lord came to
give. And then scripture says in John chapter one, in him was
life. And the life was the light of
men. Usually we think of light being
necessary for life, but the Lord Jesus Christ said, I am the life
and in me is light. You can't have any light until
you have the life. You can't have any understanding
of the gospel until the miracle of the new birth has been performed
by God's grace. The just, those that are perfect
before God, shall live, live in the spiritual sense. I'll
put it like this one, Christ who is our life. Sometimes I hear people say,
well, you know, the Lord is the most important thing in my life.
Don't talk like that. If you know him, he is your life. You have no life outside of him.
And He's not honored by you putting Him at the top of the pile of
all of your concerns and interests in this world. Apart from Him,
you have no life. Christ, who is my life, and when
He shall appear, we shall be made like Him. There's no life
outside of Christ. He is the way, the truth, and
the life. The life. I was talking to a friend this week,
82 years old, going through a great trial with his wife dying. This man is a man's man. I think he has a purple heart,
doesn't he, Tom? Hand-to-hand combat in Korea. Can't imagine
what that'd be like, killing people with a bayonet hand-to-hand
in war. And 82 years old, and he said to me,
he said, I'm going to survive this. I'm a survivor. I'm going to survive this. And I said, well, Wayne, I said,
the thing that we need to survive is death. That's what we need
to survive. And he didn't know what I meant.
He just sort of looked at me with a confused look and he said,
well, yeah, I am hoping that I'm going to die in my sleep.
I said, oh no, Wayne, that's not what I'm talking about. I
said, you need to survive death. The only way to survive death
is to have life. You're not going to survive death
without Christ. I don't care how many trials
and troubles you've survived in this world. I don't care how
big of a survivor you are. And I know few people that are
the kind of survivor that my friend Wayne is. But unless the
Lord gives us life, we're not going to survive that last enemy. The just, those that are perfect,
those that are righteous, those who are considered by God to
have kept the law perfectly, shall live, shall live by faith. Now you noticed in our passage
that, look at verse three again. For the vision is yet for an
appointed time, but at the end it shall speak. I know you've
heard me say this before, I just have to say it again. I'm not
here to prove to you anything. I'm not here to prove to you
that this book is the word of God. I'm not here to prove to
you the very existence of God. I'm not here to prove to you
the truth of the gospel. I can't prove any of that. Why? Because these things are believed
by faith. By faith. If the Lord's pleased
to give you faith, you won't need anybody to prove them to
you because the Lord Himself will have taught you. They shall
be all taught of God. We're here to proclaim what God
has said. This is the Word of God. We know it is. We know it is. It's God-breathed. It is the
revelation of the gospel of God's free grace in the accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you don't believe that,
the Bible says that you're a fool. The fool has said in his heart,
no, God. To stand in judgment, look at
verse 4. Behold, his soul, which is lifted
up, is not upright in him." This matter of faith is necessary
for the revelation of the gospel to be made true to your heart. The prophet said, I looked down,
I wrote it in a tablet, here it is, and the soul that's lifted
up within itself, what's that? That's the man who is so proud
and so arrogant that he actually has the nerve to hold up this
book and say, I don't believe it's the Word of God. I don't
believe it. The proud, the arrogant is lifted
up. His soul is not right within
him. What does faith do? Do we understand everything that's
recorded in the Word of God? No. Do we believe it? Yes. Sometimes people say, well how
much of God's Word do you have to believe in order to be a believer? Every word of it. Every word
of it. Whether you understand it or
not, you know it's the Word of God. You just know it is. The Pharisees stood in judgment
of the Lord, and they asked the Lord, Are you saying that we're
blind? You see, the natural man is blind.
He can't see the gospel. He can't believe it. He can't
receive it. And the Lord said, if you were blind, if you were
blind, then your sins would be forgiven you. But because you
say that you can see, therefore your sins remain. If you could come before God
and say, Lord, I don't know anything, I can't see anything, I can't
do anything, I don't understand anything, I am completely dependent
upon you. That's faith. If God gave you
the grace to do that, then you could see. See, the natural man
says, I believe what I can see. And the spiritual man says, I
see. I believe. I believe. Therefore, I see. God's given
me faith to believe. He's given me faith to believe.
And therefore, I see it. I just believe the record that's
been made. The just shall live by faith. The gospel recorded
in the word of God is the manna that has come down from heaven.
The proud, the self-righteous, the arrogant call into question
the word of God. And the believer just simply
says, what saith the scriptures? What saith the scriptures? It's
amazing to me how many people depend on their own subjective
experiences to hear the word of God, the voice of God. You know, they read a license
plate, or they saw a movie, or they saw this or heard that,
and they came to conclude what God was saying. The source of
authority that the child of God has is the Word of God. Turn with me to Romans chapter
1. The revelation of the gospel,
according to Habakkuk, can only come to the just who have been
given life through faith. In Romans chapter 1, verse 16,
for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, the good news. The good news, what is the good
news? Isaiah put it like this, comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
speak ye comfortably to them. Tell them that their warfare
is accomplished. Tell them that their iniquity
has been put away. Tell them that God has given
them a double blessing for their sin. He's imputed to them the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. God made Him who knew
no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. How am I going to stand before
a holy God having kept the law of God? Only by being found in
Him. not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that righteousness which is by the
faith of Jesus Christ." That's the gospel. That's the gospel. Christ Jesus the Lord is the
gospel. He's the good news. The just,
those who are righteous before God, those who have kept the
law perfectly, are found in Christ. Christ, who is their life, presents
them before God. And so he says, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God. There's
no other name given among heaven, under heaven, whereby men must
be saved. It's the power of God. All authority has been given
unto me in heaven and in earth. Therefore you go. Preach the
gospel. I'll be with you. Why? Because my power is the effectual
power of the gospel. This gospel is not empowered
by your will, it's not empowered by my preaching, it's empowered
by the Spirit of God. It's not by might nor by power,
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation. Unto salvation to everyone that
believeth. to the Jew first and also to
the Greek. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter
what you've done or what you haven't done. Doesn't matter
where you've been or where you haven't been. Doesn't matter
who you are. Doesn't matter. There's no difference. Same gospel. We don't preach one message to
one group of people and another message to another. The same
message applies to every descendant of Adam. Every child of Adam,
this gospel speaks truth to their hearts. It's the power of God. And you can just take the word
believe and insert the word faith. It's the same thing. God's given
you faith, then you believe. And you can't not believe. And let me just say that that's
the best evidence that you have that you're a believer. Don't
look for anything else. Don't look for evidence in your
life. Don't look for an improved life. Don't look for things you're
doing or not doing to get assurance of your salvation. Ask yourself
this, is it possible for me not to believe? If God's made you
a believer, you can't not believe. You just can't do it. You're
constantly trying to, but you've been made a believer. That's why faith is the evidence
of things hoped for. That's your evidence. That's
your, you just have to keep coming back to Christ. You've got no
place else to go. You say with the apostles, I
know and I'm sure that thou art the Christ, the son of the living
God, and we've got no place else to go. I didn't choose you. You
shut me up to yourself. I've got no place else to go.
That's the only evidence I have. If I look to my life for any
other evidence, I'm going to be discouraged. For therein, the gospel, verse
17, is the righteousness of God revealed. Now Paul goes on in
Romans chapter 10 to say that the religious have a zeal for
God, They're very religious, but it's without knowledge. Why? Because they're going about trying
to establish their own righteousness, being ignorant of the righteousness
of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes. So, there's our
hope. There's our hope. This is the
righteousness of God. Christ is the righteousness of
God. He's the one who makes us just
before God. Look what he says. For therein,
in the gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed from faith, from
the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Aren't you glad
that next little word isn't the word for It's not from faith for faith. God doesn't reward you with salvation
because you decided to believe. It's from faith to faith. Where am I going to get that?
God's going to have to give it to you. The righteousness of
God is revealed from faith to faith. Faith is the receptacle
by which we receive Christ. That's all it is. And God has
to give it to you. He has to give you a believing
heart to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. So the righteousness
of God is revealed from faith to faith for as it is written,
and Paul is of course referring to that passage in Habakkuk,
the just shall live by faith. So in Habakkuk, the Lord is clear
that the only way to see, the only way to hear, the only way
to believe the revelation of the gospel is by God-given faith. And now here in Romans chapter
1, the only way to be born again, the only way to be regenerated,
the only way to have the righteousness of God is by faith. Galatians, I'm sorry, Galatians chapter three, Galatians chapter
three, verse 10, for as many as are
of the works of the law are under the curse." Now, what the Lord's
doing in Galatians chapter 3 is he's interpreting for us Deuteronomy
27 and 28. If you go back to Deuteronomy
27 and 28, do it sometime, and read what the Lord commanded
Moses to do. The Lord told Moses to instruct
Joshua when the children of Israel get into the promised land, take
six of the tribes, and he identified them by name, and put them on
Mount Gerizim. And build an altar on Mount Gerizim
and make a sacrifice. And then write and plaster the
altar. He said, when you build the altar,
don't put your hand to it. It's very clear, Deuteronomy
27. Don't put your hand to it. Use rough stones right off the
ground. Don't put a tool to them. Don't
try to fashion them. Just stack them up and then put
plaster over them and write every word of the law of God on that
plaster. And make sacrifice on that altar.
And then take the other six tribes and put them over on Mount Ebal.
No altar on Mount Ebal. And the six tribes on Mount Gerizim
are to pronounce the blessings of God for obedience. And the curses of God are to
be pronounced from Ebal for disobedience. And the scripture is very clear
in Deuteronomy 27-28. Obedience is interpreted by God
as perfect obedience. Not half-hearted obedience, not
sometime obedience, perfect obedience. Every law that's written on that
altar has to be obeyed perfectly. So the blessings of God from
Gerizim are with the altar and the sacrifice. And the law of
God's written on plaster, which I looked it up, it means to be
whitewashed. Isn't that what we do? We just whitewash tombs, aren't
we? We can't keep the law of God. I heard somebody preach
from this recently and they said, this proves that if you obey
God, you'll have his blessings and if you disobey God, you're
going to have his curses. Now, no question about it, there
are consequences to sin. If you disobey God, you're going
to suffer. We saw that with David, didn't we, recently. There's
going to be consequences to sin. But that's not what Deuteronomy
27 and 28 is about. It's the curse of judgment, and
it's the blessing of life. And the only way that the law
can be kept is through the sacrifice. And the blessings of God are
pronounced upon those who are found in Christ. And the curses
of God are found in those who are not in Christ. And that's
exactly what Paul is interpreting here in Galatians chapter 3. Because these verses are quotes
from Deuteronomy 27 and 28. Look what he says. For as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. God didn't say do your
best. He said obey the law perfectly
or you'll be cursed. The just shall live by faith. But that no man is justified
by the law is evident. God never justified anybody by
the law. The Old Testament saints weren't
justified by the law. They were justified by the same
thing you and I are justified by, the sacrifice that was made
on that altar that fulfilled the law of God. They made that
sacrifice in faith. Believing that there would be
one who would come that would fulfill the picture, the type
that had been made in the Old Testament. We, as they look forward,
we look backwards, don't we? We see the fulfillment of the
promises of God in Christ. All the promises of God are yea
and amen in Him. In Him. The blessings of God. Now don't misunderstand. Believers
hate their sin. If we could, we'd never sin again.
We'd never sin again. We're not advocating a disobedience. But we also know that there's
a presence of sin in our old man that never goes away. And
this gospel doesn't justify it. It doesn't excuse it. It explains
it. It explains it. Here's the two
mountains, the blessings of God for life through the sacrifice
and the curses of God for death. And that's exactly what Paul's
interpreting when he makes these quotes. No man is justified by
the law on the side of God, it is evident. For the just shall
live by faith. And the law is not of faith,
but the man that doeth them shall live in them. The law is not
of faith. You can't keep the law by faith. Faith is what embraces you to
the law keeper. to the law keeper. And all the
blessings of God are in the heavenlies, in Christ Jesus, for the believer,
through faith. Through faith. Four times this verse is quoted.
The last one is in Hebrews chapter 10. The first one has to do with
the revelation of the gospel, and that can only come by faith.
I don't care how much education you have. I don't care how high
your IQ is. I don't care how spiritual or
religious you are. If the Lord doesn't open the
eyes of your understanding, you'll not see the gospel. You'll not
see it. You're spiritually dead until
he makes you alive. Regeneration. Romans chapter
1 is by faith. Justification, Galatians chapter
3, is by faith. And those of you who have seen
and been regenerated and are trusting Christ for all your
justification, you go, oh, how am I going to remain? How am
I going to persevere? How am I going to make it to
the end? Here it is. Look at verse 35
in Hebrews chapter 10. Cast not away therefore your
confidence. Where is your confidence? We are the true circumcision
which worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the
flesh. rejoicing in Christ Jesus. There's our confidence. Cast
not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of
reward. For you have need of patience,
that after you have done the will of God, you might receive
the promise. For yet a little while, and he
that shall come will come, and he will not tarry. Does that
sound familiar to Habakkuk chapter two? He's not going to tarry. He's going to come and be sure
of it. Now the just, those that are
righteous, those that are perfect before God, those that have been
given spiritual life shall continue to live. I know I added that
word continue, but that's, that's the implication here. In other
words, we never get beyond faith. We never get beyond faith. We
just, as you receive Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk ye in Him.
How did you receive Him? You received Him as a mercy beggar. You received Him as a little
child. You received Him as one who didn't
know anything, couldn't do anything, didn't have anything, completely
unable to save yourself. As you received Him, so walk
ye in Him. We never get beyond faith. The
just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul
shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw
back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of
their soul." Faith. Faith is the only means to perseverance
that we have. It's the only means. continuing,
continuing to trust Christ. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we ask that you would make your gospel and your word effectual
to our hearts, and that you would bless us with faith. Lord, increase our faith, for
we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Brother Tom. Number 64
in the Sopach Temno, let's stand. Faith is the gift of grace alone,
my God, how can it be that you should choose in saving love
to give that gift to me? A fallen, guilty sinner, I deserve
eternal wrath. Helpless, I would not come to
Christ, could not escape my death. Great God, you sought this sinner
out. You called and now I live. You gently forced me to your
Son and caused me to believe. A sinner saved by sovereign grace,
my praise I cannot hold. Hail, sovereign, free, unchanging
grace, salvations of the Lord. So do I need to ask them?