I'm going to actually take my
text out of 1 Thessalonians 1, verses 2 and 3, but I'd like
to read before a portion out of Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11. I'd like to read starting in
verse 23. And read through verse 27. Hebrews
11, starting in verse 23, By faith Moses, when he was born, was
hid three months of his parents, because they saw that he was
a proper child. And they were not afraid of the
king's commandment. By faith, Moses, when he was
come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. esteeming the reproach
of Christ, greater riches, and the treasures in Egypt, for he
had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not
fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him
who was invisible." Let's pray together. Our Father, again this morning we ask Your
blessing upon the Word. Speak, we ask You. Lord, You
said that Your sheep hear Your voice. May we hear Your voice
this morning, line upon line, the Holy Scriptures. Teach us according to Your eternal
purpose in goodness and mercy for Christ's sake. Amen. For the sake of time, because
I want to preach on the subject of faith that justifies, I'm
not going to go back in the first part of Exodus and read the account
of when Moses slew one of the Egyptians and fled because a couple of
Hebrews came up to him the next day and said, You're going to
kill us just like you killed that Egyptian. And he thought about it, and
he fled. He left, thinking about Pharaoh. Scripture. He speaks here in
Hebrews 11. He said, not fearing. Counting the riches of Christ. Faith. Faith is what Almighty
God says it is. Oh, the miracle. I'm going to
preach this morning on faith that justifies. Faith justifies. I want to start 1
Thessalonians chapter 1. Remember the subject, faith that
justifies. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. I'd like to read the second verse
and the first phrase in the third verse. We give thanks to God
always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering
without ceasing your work of faith. You know, in Isaiah 40, the Lord
gave preachers teachers, ministers, I'm sure especially. I'm sure
all believers, but especially those that proclaim the unsearchable
riches of the Lord Jesus Christ, comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,
saith your God. The Lord's people, they're saved
sinners. aware of their infirmities, comfort
them. Tried they have struggles within
and without, comfort them. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
the new Jerusalem, and cry unto her." This is how she is going to comfort
her. Her warfare is accomplished.
Oh, isn't that good news? We're not trying to work out
our own salvation. We're not trying to maintain
it. Comfort her. The battle is over.
Thanks be unto God that giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. We're not at war. We're not at
war with God. Battles over. Let me tell you what else to
tell them. Her iniquities pardoned. All of the sins past, present, future blotted
out, atoned for by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God said, I'm not going to
remember them anymore. Now, that's comforting. That's
comforting. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. Boy, I tell you, that's an amazing
phrase right there. And I'll be the first to admit,
I don't know the fullness of it, but I'll tell you what I
do know about it. All that was required His blood answering. I know that. Now to be comforted, truly comforted,
I must be able to believe what I'm hearing. Here's the Word
of God. Here's the Holy Scriptures. God's Word, written Word. For me to have any comfort, any
comfort outside of myself, I have got to be able to believe. I must. I must be able to believe
and to be able to believe God Almighty has got to give me faith. I didn't even know that before
He called me out of darkness. I didn't know that. I thought
I did believe. God must give me faith. Paul said, you read the Scripture,
that first phrase, that third verse, remembering without ceasing
your work of faith. You know, Paul mentioned in that
verse, labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
And when I first started looking at this, I thought what I would
do is I thought I was going to take verses maybe 1 through 6. And I was going to deal with
verses 1 to 6. And then I looked at it again and I thought, no,
no, no, no, no. I think what I'll do is I think I'll just
deal with verses 2 and 3 completely. And then I looked at it again
and I thought, no, I think I'll just deal with just the first
phrase of the third verse. remembering without ceasing your
work of faith. Faith. Faith that is toward Christ,
that receives as truth the testimony that God has given concerning
His Son. I'll tell you this, it's an amazing
thing when we think and consider faith, faith powerfully blessed
that leads us to depend upon the Lord Jesus Christ and to
apply to Him for all of our needs, casting all of your care upon
Him. He careth for you. I want to do that. Don't you? I want to. Casting all your care. Do you know, boy, just the sound
of that Scripture, that has a sound to me of such relief. Relief. Casting all your care
upon Him. One of my kids called me up and
said, You know, so-and-so, so-and-so. I said, I'll take care of it.
I'll bet you a hundred bucks they're not going to give it
a second thought. They're going to, you know, my dad said, I'll
take care of it. Don't worry about it. Dad, could
you call so-and-so? He said, yeah, I'll call him. What relief. Faith. By faith, I know this. I know
that faith looks to Christ, comes to Christ, trusts Christ. But
you know, I've tried, in my heart, I've tried to define, define
faith. I'm going to read Hebrews 11,
1 just a second. Everybody says, well, there's
the definition of it, you know. Well, we'll look at it in just
a second. I've tried to define it. But I find that the Scriptures
describes rather than defines faith. It describes it. It reveals what faith is by what
it does. You see the evidence of it. You
try to write that down. I'll give you a description.
How do you describe faith? I just read back in Hebrews 11 what God Almighty said concerning
the faith of Moses. He didn't fear the king, and
I went back and I read in Exodus, and I read that account again,
and I thought, wow. It appears, though, to me
that he did struggle, that he did have some struggles. And
I realize this. Faith is what God says it is.
And I try to describe it, define it, define it, try to define
it. Let's take our Bibles. OK. All
right. Let's turn over to Hebrews 11.
Let's go ahead and look at it. Hebrews 11. I'll tell you up at the top of
my Bible, you may have in your Bible, here's that heading up
there. Headings are not expired. Headings placed up. It says the
nature of faith illustrated by examples. That's what mine says.
And that seems to me to be probably so. The nature of faith illustrated. Listen to this. Now, faith is
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. Faith is the confidence of things expected. I can tell you based on Scriptures
I can tell you what the Scripture says it does, but to be able
to sit down and define it, define life. Oh man, I just, you see
what I'm saying? I mean, these things are so high. We talk about faith. the substance, the confidence
of things that are expected, eternal salvation, glory and fellowship with Almighty
God. Faith absolutely is the evidence
of that which was done eternally. You say, define faith for me.
I can tell you this. I can tell you what it does for
me. I believe when Almighty God said
before the foundation of the world, He chose a people. And He gave them to His Son.
And there in that everlasting covenant of grace, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, Jehovah God, one God, that the Son, the eternal surety
of the sheep, is going to answer. I can tell
you what faith does. Faith absolutely is the confidence
of things that are expected. are done in time, the evidence
of things not seen. Did He really, upon that cross,
was He actually made sin? I was talking to Larry a few
minutes ago, and I plan to deal with this, Lord willing, in the
Gospel according to John 14, 15. I don't think there's any
greater picture, no greater type of what happened at Calvary. When Scripture says, He had made
him sin. No greater type except when Moses
was commanded by God to take some brass and make a brazen
serpent. Remember the story of serpents,
fiery serpents that were biting the people, poisonous snakes
that were dying. He said, You take a piece of
brass and you make it in the shape of one of those snakes
and you pick it up. You look at that and you say,
what is that? You say, that's a brass snake. What is that? That's a snake. That's a snake. What was biting the people? Sin. Spiritually, what was biting
them? Sin. No greater picture of Christ being made sin than
that brazen serpent. at Calvary, was He truly made
sin? Somebody said, explain that to
me. I can't do that, but I'll tell
you what it does. I believe that. I believe that
when He died on that cross, Paul said, I was crucified with Him.
To find faith, I can tell you what it does. A man, a woman,
believes that when He died, they died with Him. died with Christ,
in Christ. I was crucified with Him. And
if Paul was, all believers, all the elect, were crucified with
Him. Judgment of God acts absolutely,
positively, without a doubt. Faith is the substance of things. Hope for us is the evidence of
things that are not seen. What happened in those three
hours of darkness? What happened between twelve
and three on that day? The sixth or the ninth hour?
What happened? It was dark. Almighty God absolutely shut
the sun off. What happened? God was doing
something. As Brother Scott says for himself, Before he ever did anything for
anybody, he did something for himself. Faith. Let's just look at a few verses
here. Hebrews 11, verse 3. Through faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which
are, or which are seen, were not made of things which do appear.
By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts,
and by it, he being dead, yet speaketh." Let me tell you something.
There was no difference in those boys, humanly speaking, the grace
of God. One of them believed God, brought
an accepted sacrifice, that which pictured Christ. By faith, Enoch, verse 5, translated
that he should not see death, was not found because God had
translated him. For before his translation, he
had this testimony that he pleased God. But look at this, verse
6. But without faith, it is impossible
to please him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him. Now, without faith, And all without faith are without
Christ. I tell you that. Those without faith are without
Christ. Therefore, it's impossible. Please God. A man without Christ
is without faith. God-given faith satisfies two
imperative demands. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is, what does that mean? One God, Father, Son, Spirit,
holy, sovereign, unchangeable, merciful, just. And secondly,
that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. That
is, that He will fulfill every promise and every purpose toward
His elect in Christ. God is sought only in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God gives what Christ has
purchased by His blood. I know this. There's much that
can be said concerning faith. We read these things of faith.
Remember the title of this message, Faith That Justifies. There's a lot of illustrations. We're going through the book
of Hebrews. And we'll look at the 11th chapter
in fullness. I'm just touching on a few of
these verses. But I want you to look at verse
13 of Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11, 13. He's talking
about these, Abraham and Noah and different ones, Sarah. These
all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having
seen them afar off and were persuaded of them, embraced them. and confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Look
at some of those words. These all died according to faith,
in faith, not having received the promises but having seen
them, persuaded of them, embraced them,
confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on this earth. Faith. That's what we've been
talking about, faith. I know this according to Philippians
1.29, that faith is given. I know it is. Faith is given. I know that faith is actually
possessed by a believer. That woman with the issue of
blood, the Lord told her in Matthew 9.22, daughter, be of good comfort.
My faith has made thee whole. I know that faith blessed by
God Himself grows. Luke 17, 5, And the apostles
said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. But of all of these things that
I know about faith, here's one thing that I do know. We never look to the real, true
faith that we have. We never look to our faith as
having anything toward us that has made us righteous before
God. There's absolutely no way that
any man, any woman can look to their faith as a reason for their
hope in Christ. No. No. Everything that I've
said up until this point is to establish one thing. God's people
do have faith. They do have faith. They do. They possess it. God gives them
faith. But there is no confidence whatsoever because of your faith. I'm going to show you something.
concerning faith that truly justifies. The faith that truly justifies. And let me tell you this, it's
not yours. It's not yours. Do you have faith? Yes. Is it yours? Yes. God gives a man faith. Daughter,
thy faith. Does it grow? Yes. Lord, increase
our faith. Is it weak? Yes. wherein lies my hope." That's where we're going right
now. Let me read Romans 1, verses 16 and 17. Paul says, I quoted
this a while ago, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. In the gospel, therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. Now, we've already established
that God gives His people faith to believe Him. We've established
that there's no believer that finds any comfort in their ability,
their faith, is not the faith that justifies. Their faith is
not the faith that justifies them. There is absolutely no confidence
that any believer has in their own ability. I don't claim to understand the
fullness part of the Scripture that says the righteousness of
God is revealed from faith to faith. But this thing I do know. Number one, I know that God's
righteousness is revealed. It says the righteousness of
God is revealed from faith to faith. I know this, the righteousness
of God is revealed. And I know that it's revealed
from faith to faith. I looked that up. It's revealed out of faith towards
faith. That's what it says. That's what
it means. And to understand something of
this blessed truth, we must realize that the Scripture speaks of
faith in two ways. We read in 1 Thessalonians 1,
in verse 3, Paul spoke to the church at Thessalonica. He said,
remembering without ceasing your work of faith. So I do know that
there is faith called the faith of God's elect. It's true faith. It's real faith. It's God-given
faith. Titus 1.1, Paul a servant of
God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's
elect and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness. This is God-given faith. It's faith. It's faith. Hebrews 11, absolutely. Read them again. These by faith,
by faith, by faith. The substance of things hoped
for is the evidence of things not seen. By it, the elders obtained
a good report. They believed God. It was real. It's real faith. There is the faith of God's elect. And then the Scripture speaks
of the faith of Christ. The faith of Christ Himself. Listen to this Scripture, Galatians
2.16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the
law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed
in Jesus. Now there were two areas right
there that were spoken of concerning faith. His faith and our faith
in Him. His faith. Our faith in Him. Listen to this Scripture. Knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by
the faith of Jesus Christ even, we have believed in Jesus that
we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the
works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. Whose faith justifies? His. His. Not ours. Not ours. Not ours. We are justified by the faith
of Christ. The faith of Christ. He came into this world. The
Word was made flesh. made like unto His brethren.
And as our federal head and our surety and our representative,
the Scripture sets forth that He walked before God Almighty
in absolute obedience. The Father said concerning Him,
This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. His faith. His faith. His faith. The faith of Christ
speaks of our Savior's actual obedience before the Father.
As our surety, as our Redeemer, the faith of Christ is the actual
faithfulness by which He Himself personally accomplish the Father's will.
It is by His faith that the objects of God's mercy are justified,
declared to be righteous. Our justification is accomplished
totally outside of ourselves. You look to your faith and you're
looking to the wrong source. You look to your obedience and
you're looking to the wrong source. Do you know what our faith does?
We are weak. Weak. Frail. But it's true faith. It's the
faith of God's elect. And we look to Him who is the
absolute obedient one before God. The faith that justifies
is the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. We have no confidence in ourselves.
We believe God. That boy that didn't leave the
Father's house, he said, Oh, I've been faithful all these
years. Not in yourself you haven't. How do I know anything concerning
what Almighty God has done for me? How do I know? By the faith of God's elect. That Syrophoenician woman that
came to the Lord, my daughter is grievously sick. It's not
fit that I should give the children's bred dogs Lord, I'm a dog. I know I'm a dog. But I'm telling
you, he was the only hope she had. That's faith. That's faith. Faith, it's the
actual substance of things hoped for. But I'm telling you, it
is not by my faith and it's not by your faith. We have faith,
but that's not the faith that justifies us before God. It's
the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Christ Himself. Paul said, I
am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith, true faith, to faith. There is the righteousness of
God revealed. He gives His people faith to look to His Son, the
faithful one. It's revealed from faith to behold
faith. Our faith, true faith, God-given
faith. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Who pleased Him by His own personal
faithfulness? Who pleased God by His own personal
faithfulness? Who? Christ. And every believer
knows it. Who believes God and looks to
the Son as the only justifier of sinners? The regenerated saint. They look to Him and they realize
that in Him, this is all of my hope. My faith would never save
me. We don't look to our faith. What
believer in here would ever say, I look to my faith? Faith looks to Christ. That brazen serpent that I was
talking about a while ago, you know that that was a picture
of Christ. You know that it was. What were they commanded to do?
Look. Look. You raise up this brazen serpent,
and whosoever looks is going to live. I've said before, people
say, well, that seems so simple. I said, yeah, but when you spiritually
realize that man by nature is blind, how is a man going to
look unless God gives him eyes to see? How is he going to look? But I tell you this, if God gives
a man eyes to see Christ, if God gives a man faith to believe
Christ, true faith, he looks to the source of all of his hope,
the faith that justifies. It's the faith of the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. Isn't that good news? Isn't that
good? And I tell you what, I don't want to hear anything that tries
to puff me up. There ain't nothing in myself
to puff up. It just grates on me. You know,
I think of me. Oh, but to behold Him, that He's
altogether lovely. He's altogether wonderful. He's
altogether precious. We're not justified by the deeds
of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. May God be pleased
to teach us something of this for Christ's sake. Amen.