God be pleased to bless us together
this evening as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
epistle of Paul to the Galatians and chapter 3 and we'll read
verse 11. The epistle of Paul to the Galatians
chapter 3 and reading verse 11. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. For the just shall
live by faith. It's a very simple and relatively
short verse, but it is very important that we should all understand
and realize the great significance of it that we cannot be justified
by the law in the sight of God. And that is so clear. And of course it was that which
was set before Israel when Moses wrote to them in his day set
before them the great truths of the gospel and in the book
of Deuteronomy and the 27th chapter there was that situation where
The Lord brought before the people through Moses all the many curses
They did not do something. They would be cursed They did
not do something else they would be cursed. It was a very solemn
and a very direct statement. And then, as it came down to
the very end of that 27th chapter, we read, Cursed be he that confirmeth
not all the words of this law to do them, and all the people
shall say Amen. The problem was, the people were
not able to do them. The same today. We're not able
to do them because of sin. Because if we had no sin, we
would not need any salvation. If we were able to keep the law
of God as spoken so clearly by Moses, we would not need a saviour
because we would be correct and right in our own life. We would
have done everything in accordance with the law of God. Now of course,
the law of God is a holy law. It's a righteous law. Nothing
wrong with it. It's us, the people, who fail. And of course we do fail. And we will fail. And the reason
is that we are fallen creatures. And by Making that statement
of fallen creatures I mean, we go back to Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden when they fell. And what do they do? They disobeyed
God. And that sin of disobedience
has followed the whole human race and will do down to the
end of time. And of course the one great and
glorious exception to that is none other than God himself in
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we must know and be
taught and shown that we in and of ourselves are not righteous.
We are unrighteous and we are sinners. We are wretched sinners. We are undone sinners. And as
we look to ourselves there is no hope of salvation. There is no hope. of eternal
life. We are lost, as the hymn writer
says, lost and ruined in the fall. That's our condition. And so here we have this statement,
but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God,
because we are all failures. We cannot keep the law of God. And so we're all on equal and
common ground. Every is in that situation. Well, the verse goes on to say,
it's evident because of that, for the just shall live by faith. Now, the deep significance here
is that if you and I were able to keep the law ourselves, there
would be no glory to God, because we would be the ones that were
doing it, and we would and consider ourselves to be very great. And
of course, even in that there's sin, because it's pride, and
pride is sin. So you see, mankind is fallen. There's no hope for mankind. And yet, what do we have? This statement, the just shall
live by faithful. Who are the just? No one left
to themselves is just. We're all unjust. brought unjust. So those who are just are those
for whom Christ has died, for those for whom Christ has justified,
for those who Christ has made just. And it's very important
for us, is it not then, to be blessed with this favour. to know that God has justified
us. Now I'm sure a realisation of
that will be very humbling and it will be very humbling because
as the Holy Spirit may show to us that we are unholy and that
we are unworthy of any mercy, of any favour, of any blessing
and then to realise that this word is truth, the just, those
who are made just by the death of the saviour, those for whom
he's died. What a mercy it is tonight if
you and I are able to trace out in our little lives that we are
amongst those who are indeed the just that shall live by faith. This is a phrase which comes,
of course, from the Old Testament, from the prophecy of Habakkuk. And in his day, there was the
opposition of the Chaldeans. And it was a difficult age in
which he had to write. And yet he was faithful. And in the second chapter, we're
told, behold, his soul, which is lifted up is not upright in
him. And you see that was the Chaldeans,
their souls were lifted up. And of course, the Israel were
also, and by nature, that's where we are. Behold, we must, our
soul is lifted up, is not upright in him. And then we have these
great words, but the just shall live by his faith. And as we
read together in that 11th chapter to the Hebrews, we've seen how
God gave. He gave to all those patriarchs,
those men of God, living faith. Faith to believe in the Lord
God. Faith to believe that he would
give them that help and that wisdom and that strength and
give them the ability to make right decisions. And so we see
throughout that chapter, God gave faith. We today, in our
lives, we need the same faith. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. So if you and I have no faith,
we shall never please God. Now, our faith is not that which
we've produced ourselves. It's that faith which God gives.
And if God has given us faith, like he gave all those patriarchs,
the result will be that we will realise it's that which God has
given to us. Not something that we worked
up ourselves. Not something that you and I could produce. No,
it was that which God gave. And therefore, as God gave faith,
what would be the result? God will take and God will have,
rightly so, all the honour and all the glory. And how very beautifully
really the Apostle Paul picks up this theme when he wrote the
epistle to the Ephesians and he commenced the second chapter
with those well-known words, and you hath he quickened, that
means you hath he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and
in sins. Well, it is all of grace. The
free unmerited favour of God, not something that you and I
could produce ourselves. And again, that's a very wonderful
consideration. We look back in our lives and
observe that it's what God has done. And you hath he quickened. The Lord has done it. The Lord's
made us alive. And he explains what we were
like. And again, it's good to be able
to see what we were like in time past. Now what a mercy if you
and I have a time past in our lives. A time when there's been
a change. A time past. It's a blessing
of God. A time past when ye walked. How did we walk? Paul tells us. according to the course of this
world. We followed the world. We followed
the way of the world, according to the prince of the power of
the air, the devil himself. That's who we were really following.
And at the time, we didn't appreciate it. We didn't realise it. What
a mercy, what a blessing, when the Spirit of God's come and
shined into our hearts and shown us where we are, where we're
going. It's all of His grace. The spirits that now worketh
in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation, all of us, none of us exempted. What a blessing
then today, if you and I can trace out in our little lives
the blessed work of God, the hand of God upon us, the hand
of God stopping us in our mad career, the career which was
taking us to hell. God came and stopped us, stopped
us, came and spoke to our hearts. showed us what we were doing. And what was it? We were at enmity with God. And
then to realise he put forth his hand and stopped us. And so, as Paul goes on, in time
past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath
even as others, but God What? But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he hath loved us. Now it's only
his love which has brought us into the light. It's not of works. It's not of our flesh. It's not
because we've kept the law of God. It's because of our God
who is rich in mercy for his great love where Withy has loved
us. Now that's very humbling. As
you look around and see the millions of people who are carrying on
in a lost condition, walking in the broad way, pleasing themselves,
enmity to God, enemies of God, and yet, through the mercy and
love of God, he has made us spiritually alive. And as the apostle says,
even when we were dead in sins, dead spiritually, no real desire, we may have pretended perhaps
to be a Christian. Lots of people pretend to be
a Christian. Lots of people go to church and chapel pretending
to be a Christian, but they're as dead as the seat they sit
on. There's no life, there's no light. But what a mercy of
God has shown us. Even when we were dead in sins,
hath quickened us together with Christ. What does that mean?
It means that we've been brought to union with Christ. Yes. He then is our friend. He's the one who's been so wonderfully
gracious to give us the gift of eternal life. And as the Apostle
comes on to say, that in the ages to come, he might show the
exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through
Christ Jesus. My friends, consider the words. They're wonderful words. They're
glorious words to think that he shows us the exceeding riches
not natural riches, not worldly riches, the riches of his grace,
the unmerited favour toward us through Christ Jesus. Then he
says, for by grace are you saved through faith, this living faith,
this necessary faith, this essential faith which God gives. He tells
us what it is. Through faith, and not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God. Well, tonight, are we able to
acknowledge that God has given us faith? He gave those people
that we read of in that 11th chapter of Hebrews, he gave them
faith. It wasn't their faith that they
suddenly developed. God gave them faith to believe
in God. That God was able to help them
and to strengthen them and to guide and direct them. We have
the same God today. This same God. And therefore
may we know that the Lord has given us faith. His gift. And the apostle tells us the
reason why it's a gift. Why it's a gift. Not a works. The works of the flesh. Lest
any man should boast. We would boast if we were able
to produce this and say, well this was me, I've done this.
No, God you see is a sovereign God and God brings these things
to pass and God gives us this living faith and the apostle
describes it in the first verses, or the first verse rather in
the 11th chapter when he says, now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith, you
see, is not something that is, we might say, tangible to our
natural mind. No, it's something which is invisible. But it's that which God gives.
And I'm sure we have the realisation that we've been given this faith
when the Lord has enabled us to walk by faith. The Lord has
heard, the Lord has strengthened, the Lord has helped, the Lord
has touched our hearts. We then realise, God gave me
faith. How humbling when so many are
left to think that God gives us faith. Faith is a substance
of things hoped for. the evidence of things not seen. Living faith is a great and a
wonderful blessing to believe in God. Now what a mercy today
if God has given you and me living faith to believe in God. So we're able to understand what
the apostle said when he wrote this to the Galatians And he
said this great statement, the just shall live by faith. It's the evidence of the life
of God in our souls when we do live believing in God, that he
is able to do all that you and I need, all that is necessary. The Lord knows what is necessary
for us and how the Lord will appear and does appear. We just
got today, didn't we, the Friendly Companion. And I just glanced
and read some of it. And one of the little pieces
in there, you may have read, or if not, you can read it. It's
about George Muller. George Muller, I hope most of
you know, was a very wonderful man in the 19th century who brought
about so many homes for children. And he was on a journey. And
I think it was across the Atlantic in a steamship in those days,
and it was very foggy. And the captain hadn't left the
bridge for 24 hours. It had been so foggy. And he
was there, and he had a tap on his shoulder, and it was George
Muller. And George Muller said, Captain, I need to be in Quebec
for Saturday. I have an appointment to keep."
And the captain said, well, I can't do anything and the fog just
will stop us and we won't be able to get there. So George
Munna says, well, I think we should pray about it. So he went
down to the cabin, shut the door and George Munna prayed to God
that the fog might be lifted and that he might be able to
fulfil the engagement which he believed God had given him. And
then the captain said, well, now I'll pray. And George Muller
said, no, you don't pray. You don't need to pray. Why not? He said, because God has heard
my prayer. And he said, you will find the
fog has lifted. And he opened the doors of the
cabin, and the fog had lifted. George Muller was able to get
to Quebec and take the appointment that God had granted to him. What do we see there? Wonderful,
simple faith. George Muller said, on that occasion,
God has heard my prayers for 57 years and he will hear the
prayer now. So there was this man praying
in faith. And what was it? It was God given
faith. God gives faith. And what did
God do by the answer to that prayer? He brought honour and
glory to himself. Yes, it wasn't George Muller's
ability, it was God's gave him faith to pray to his Father in
heaven. What a blessing that is. And
you know, we still today have a Father in heaven who hears
and answers prayer. And I believe we've seen in our
age, in a similar way, in the case of James and Elsie Gudgeon
in Kenya, we've seen how the Lord has heard their prayer of
faith, heard their prayers of faith. I've been a witness to
it myself with James. Simple prayer. We don't have
to come to God with a complicated prayer. Because if we did, we'd
think we prayed very nicely. Just come to God simply in prayer. Just in faith. God given faith. And what's the result? The result
is when God hears those prayers and answers those prayers, what
happens? He receives the honour and glory. Well, may we always be encouraged
to know that The Lord God is still alive. And the Lord God
is still the same. The Lord God still hears and
answers prayer. But let us always remember, our
prayers need to be in faith. Believing. They need to be in
accordance with God's will. So that his name will be honored
and glorified. And you and I will be very humble
and very small. We're able to bless God for his
goodness and for his mercy toward us. So here we have this statement
then. The just shall live by faith. That surely indicates to us that
our life is one of faith. It's not something that we say,
well, now God's delivered me from that situation and now I
can just carry on and forget about God. God keeps his people. He brings us into situations
where we have to continually pray to God. He would appear
for us. Yes, I mean that's in every walk
of our life. At school, at university, at
work, at home. We'll need God to help us. We'll
need faith to pray to God that he will help us. And more than
this, of course, more than this, We all need God to show us, show
us very gloriously that he has died for us to take away our
sins. And you and I, my friends, will
need faith, living faith to come to our God, pleading for his
mercy, pleading for his mercy. He won't turn us away. He won't
turn us away. We're told, the hymn writer has
a very nice little couplet. The door of His mercy stands
open all day and night to the poor and the needy. That's not
the arrogant, that's not the self-centred, it's those who
are poor and needy. Those who realise no help in
themselves, no help at all, looking out of themselves to the Saviour.
What a mercy then when the Lord comes and does indeed grant us
his favour and grant us his blessing. In that 11th chapter of the Hebrews,
we read this very wonderful verse, the 6th verse in that 11th chapter.
But without faith it is impossible to please him. If you and I don't
have faith, it's impossible to please God. For he that cometh
to God must believe that he is and that he is a reward of them
that diligently seek him." Well may we pray that we may be given
the grace to come to God diligently and to come to God believing.
The Word of God tells us, doesn't it? The evil heart of unbelief. Oh what a pain that is, isn't
it? We come and we pray, we mock God really. We don't pray in
faith. And yet you say if God gives
us faith, faith to believe, yes, to believe then as we come to
God, we must believe. We must believe and my friends
we have so many evidences in the word of God to encourage
us. Just read the 11th, Hebrews again. Go home and read it. If you feel
you lack faith and see how these men and women were blessed by
God. Without faith, remember, it is
impossible to please Him. And yet God comes and God gives. He gives this faith. And what a wonderful thing it
is when He gives us faith because we are At that situation then
sometimes, where we're ready to give up, ready perhaps to cast away our
religion and think, well, there's really no hope for me, God doesn't
hear my prayers. Perhaps we haven't prayed in
a right way. Perhaps we've been expecting
some wonderful blessing, some wonderful revelation. And then
you know if we analyse that prayer, what do we want that wonderful
revelation and that wonderful blessing for? And it may be so
that we may be able to boast of what God has done for us,
that we are a kind of somebody special. The Word of God tells us this,
a little that a righteous man hath is better and the treasures
of many wicked. And my friends, if God has given
us a little faith to pray for a little blessing, and the Lord
answers that, how encouraging, how strengthening, how comforting
to know that the Lord God has been gracious in giving us faith
to believe, to come to God in our prayers. Yes, what a blessing
it is to know when God comes and gives us this true and wonderful
faith. And you know, again we read in
the Corinthians these words, we walk by faith and not by sight. Naturally, our old nature, we
like to have everything nicely sorted out. Very clear, very
defined, everything nice and we can tick all the boxes and
say, well that's good and I'm here and there. Aye friends,
God doesn't have it that way. No, you and I walk by faith. You remember that, those accounts. What happened to Abraham? He
went out not knowing whether he went. He didn't know. He obeyed God. What did Moses
do? He forsook the cupboards of Egypt. He went out doing God's will. Don't expect God to agree with
your plans. Don't expect to come and think,
well, I need this and I need that. You may not. You may not. Again, the Word of God tells
us, a little that a righteous man hath is better than the treasures
of many wicked. If God has given us a little,
a little indication, a little help, a little encouragement,
and it's come from God, shall I tell you, I'll take you to
heaven. You may perhaps have thought
God will give you some wonderful revelation. Sometimes God does,
but generally such revelations come when we least expect it. So we can't say, well, of course
I knew God would come and give me this wonderful blessing. I've
been praying for it for a long time and here it is. And what
are you doing? You're taking praise yourself.
You're taking praise yourself. No, we have to pray to God in
faith and leave an issue with Him that He will appear, that
He will bless us. He will do that for us, which
will be indeed right and good and proper. The Lord knows how
to deal with you and me. And He will give us that which
we really need, not that which we think we need, and there's
a big difference. a big difference in our lives. Yes, the Lord gives
us what is good for us and what will bring honour and glory to
his great and holy name. We have a most gracious God,
a God who has a far better plan for you and me. than we can ever
think of ourselves. What a mercy that is to realise
that this is the God that we come before and that we worship. In the fourth of Romans we have
an account of course of Abraham and what we are told is this,
who against hope believed in hope that he might become the
father of many nations. Again, if you trace out the life
of Abraham, he was given that promise, wasn't he? That he would
be the father of so many people and there didn't seem to be any
way of that coming to pass. He didn't even have a son. And
there were years that passed by and eventually he had a son. And they had to offer him up. the Lord intervened, as we mentioned
this morning. But you see here, he who against
hope believed in hope, living hope. Faith, as we've read together,
you mentioned just now in that 11th chapter to the Hebrews,
in that first verse, the apostle gives that definition when he
says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence
of things not seen. So God gives us living faith
which is hope. And so here we have this word. And being not weak in faith,
he considered not his own body, now dead, when he was about a
hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb,
he staggered not, at the promise of God through unbelief. And
that, my friend, is one of the things that we still suffer with
today, unbelief. And yet we have so much evidence
of the goodness of God. But we're strong in faith, giving
glory to God. And that's what will happen in
our lives. When God hears our prayers, glory to God, it'll
be. And being fully persuaded that
what he had promised he was able also to perform and therefore
it was imputed to him for righteousness. God gave him faith and because
of that it was imputed, given to him for righteousness. And the apostle goes on. These
are encouraging words. Now it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also, for
you and me today. What a mercy, isn't it? A wonderful word of God we have
to encourage us today. But for us also, to whom it shall
be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord
from the dead, who was delivered for our offences and was raised
again for our justification. Well, may God tonight, my friends,
give us the evidence that he's given us faith to believe, to
believe on him, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what a blessing it
is. How necessary it is. Oh, we need
this living faith. What a blessing it is as we can
look back in our lives and see that God has indeed given us
faith to believe. Faith to believe. Not something
that you and I would have produced ourselves. And it's a very humbling
thing to have it revealed that we possess living faith. And as that living faith has
been given to us, it's been imputed to us, And therefore we then
see, our eyes are open because what's happened is we've been
blessed with life and light, just like we refer to, and you,
Hathi Quicken, who were dead, been made spiritually alive. Well, let us look into our hearts. It's always a good thing to look
into our hearts and to see whether you and I possess the life of
God. And if we possess the life of
God, one thing is certain, we will be drawn to the Lord Jesus
Christ because we will realise our hope is based on nothing
less than the Lord Jesus Christ. There's our hope. Our faith is
in what He has done, not what we've done, not what we've done,
what the Saviour has done. And it will be very humbling
to realise, yes, we have such a great and glorious Saviour
who has not dealt with us as our sins. We'll have to acknowledge
that. We're guilty, we're filthy, we're
wretched, we're undone. The Lord has looked upon us and
therefore we come to Recognize the truth of these words, the
just, not our being just, what Christ has done, made us just,
imputed, his righteousness is given to us. The just shall live
by faith. And that's how we do, day by
day. Faith, faith. You and I need
faith today. We need faith tomorrow. We need
faith every day. And we'll need faith to die.
We'll need faith to die. But the Lord has said this, I
would never leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say,
the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man should
do unto me. What does that mean? Faith in
God. God given faith. to look out
of ourselves to what the Lord Jesus Christ has done and to
rejoice in his sin-atoning sacrifice. Real religion leads us to Christ. Real religion humbles us as we
realise what has been revealed to us. Real religion makes us
rejoice in what Christ has done. And real religion gives us that
good hope that it's well with our soul. And real religion gives
us that gracious anticipation that one day we shall be in glory
with our Saviour because of that faith which he has given us. We shall say glory to God. Amen.