Go with me if you would to Hebrews
chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. I want us to look at just one
phrase here in Hebrews 10. One phrase. It's Hebrews 10 verse
38. Now the just shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith. I kept repeating that to myself. So many things sink in the more
you repeat that and enter in with the mind and the heart to
what it's saying. The just shall live by faith. By faith. Our Lord said that
four times in this word. The same thing. Four times. He said it in Habakkuk chapter
2. Romans 1, Galatians 3, and right here in Hebrews 10. Four
times, the just shall live by faith. And that one line tells
us everything we need to know about salvation. He said the
just. The scripture plainly points
out that there are two types of people in the world, the just
and the unjust, right? Turn over to Matthew 5 with me. Matthew chapter 5 verse 45, that you may be the children
of your father which is in heaven for he maketh his son to rise
on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and
on the unjust. The just are good, the unjust
are evil in God's eyes. Two completely different sets
of people in God's eyes. Turn with me over to Acts chapter
24. Acts 24 Verse 14 says, But this I confess
unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship
I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written
in the law and in the prophets, and have hope toward God, which
they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection
of the dead, both of the just and unjust. David kept mentioning in the
Psalms, the righteous and the wicked. Our Lord kept referring to sheep
and goats. So salvation is for the just. Those who have been justified,
declared to be not guilty. Not guilty. How were they declared
to be not guilty? Job said, how should man be just
with God? How can a man be just with God? Solomon said, there is not a
just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. So how
is that possible? How is that possible? Well, the
just shall live The word shall means they start out not living,
but they're all going to end up living. They're dead just
like everybody else, but life comes to them. And how does that
life come to them? By faith. By faith. Faith of something, faith in
something, faith unto something. The just shall live by saving
faith. Now, let's lay the foundation,
all right? We're going to lay a foundation,
and then we're going to build something on it. You know a little
bit about foundations, don't you? We're going to lay a foundation,
and then we're going to build something on it. I assume that
every person in this room knows where faith comes from. But that
does not make assuming an okay thing to do. Can I backtrack and say that
again? I honestly do. I assume that every person in
this room, even our children, I assume that everybody in here
knows where faith comes from. But assuming is a terrible thing
to do. All right, so let me show it
to us. Go to Galatians 2. Galatians chapter 2. Galatians 2 verse 16 says, 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
Christ 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. Saving, life-giving, justifying
faith comes from God. It comes from God. It's the faith
of Christ. No sinner can just conjure it
up. It is given, it has to be given by Him. It's performed
by Him. It's given by Him, it's performed
by Him. It's God which worketh in us
both to will and to do. And that causes a sinner to believe that his faith was given to him
by God and performed in him by God. That's what we believe. We believe in the faith of. We believe in the faith of. Now
we do believe. We do actually believe. We believe in the faith of. It's
given as a gift to us and we do believe. But it starts with
Christ, it is performed by Christ, and all the glory for it goes
to Christ. All right? Now what does it accomplish? This faith that God gives to
his people, this faith that gives life to his people. What does
that faith accomplish? The answer is justification.
Justification, verse 16, let's read it again. 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 Christ, 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. justifies us. Faith in what? His blood. Faith in His blood. We're justified
by believing that His blood justified us, which is something that is
impossible for a person to do unless God gives and performs
that faith. Something that seems so easy
is impossible with man. But believing His blood justifies
us is what justifies us. Look with me at Galatians chapter
3 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. And the law is not faith. But
the man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for
it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." Faith
in the blood of Christ, faith in the death of Christ justifies
a sinner. Now, who gets the glory? Who
gets the credit? Who did it all? Verse 24 right
here in Galatians 3 says, Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ. Hebrews 12 says he's the author
and the finisher of our faith, right? Christ. That we might
be justified by faith. Justified means declared not
guilty. Not guilty. God said, bring a
lamb. And here's, we're going somewhere
with this. I told you we're going to lay
a foundation. This is the foundation. Isn't that right? This is the
gravel and the rebar and the concrete of a child of God. We do believe God. I mean, we really do. We really
do, and this is the emphasis I want to make. I believe this
will make sense. God said, bring a lamb. Cain brought the fruit from his
garden. Abel brought a lamb. Which one was justified? The
one that believed God. All right, now let's do it again.
Who gets the credit for that? Who gave that part to do that? Who performed that work? Where
does all the glory go? God did it. God did it. All right, but he gave it as
a free gift to Abel. And with that free gift, Abel
believed God. I mean, he believed God. And because of that, he was justified. God did it, God brought it, God
gave it, and God said, well done. God said to Noah, when the time
came after 120 years, he said, Noah, it's time, get in the ark. Noah got in the ark. He didn't
tell people, there's salvation. Salvation is being in that ark
and then stand outside with everybody else. Noah got in the ark. He believed God. This is what
God said to his people. I want you to put blood on your
doorpost. They put blood on their doorpost. They believed God all through
the New Testament. The Lord kept saying, thy faith
hath saved thee. Didn't he say that? Thy faith
hath made thee whole. Now, Gabe, are you saying that
we're saved by something other than Christ? No, it's the faith
of Christ. It's the gift of Christ, it's
the work of Christ, it's the object of Christ. The just shall
live by Christ. It's a work He did. It's a faith
in that work He did, a faith in His blood and the just live
by Christ. Everything He did for and in
a sinner. And when He does something for
and in a sinner, that sinner knows it and that sinner responds
to it. He believes in and he believes
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And he does it from that moment
on. He does it from that moment forward. And that's what I want us to
get a hold of. All right, that's what I want us to get a hold
of tonight. The foundation now has been laid. All right, that's
our foundation. Let's build something on it.
Those of us that God has caused to believe, God gets the credit,
God gets the glory, God just chose us. Those of us that he
has caused to believe that faith is of him, faith is absolutely
necessary for justification, do we believe that without faith
it's impossible to please him? Yes. That's what he said. For those of us that he has put
this faith into, I want us to enter into something that is a real blessing to me. It's
an encouragement to me. It's a great exhortation to me. And I want us to enter in what
it is to truly live by faith. All right? If the Lord is willing. And I'm
aware of the fact, I thought about this last Sunday morning
for our Bible study. I used as the illustration for
the Bible study this new TV broadcast. If the Lord is willing, we're
gonna start this TV broadcast. And I'm not gonna use this TV
broadcast as our illustrations from here on out. It's just heavily
on my mind right now, so bear with me. But if the Lord is willing,
next Sunday we're going to start this TV broadcast. And that is
an additional expense on this ministry. All right? That's an additional
expense on this ministry. Being somebody who is a part
of the decision making here. I don't make all the final decisions.
We are a family. And we set these opportunities
out and we pray about them together and we think on them together
and we see how the Lord moves our hearts together. And either the Lord is in some
of these things or not in some of these things. But as somebody who is also making
a decision about some of these things, I cannot help but worry
about the burden that it's going to put on this ministry. Every
time something like this comes up. So I walked over to our financial
statement that's very faithfully put in the foyer there. Anybody can go see what it is?
And I look at that financial statement to see, do I believe
God has provided for us to be able to do this? You know, is
this something that's going to hurt? We are the ministry. You know, this is us. Has the
Lord provided? Is He in this? And the answer
is yes. Yes. Yes. Now, this is the one thing
that I deeply, deeply am begging the Lord to convince all of our
hearts as we walk out of here. This message is not about asking
for money. God's ministries do not ask for
money. God provides for what God is
in, and then God removes what He's not in. And we know if He's
in it because He provides for it. Does that make sense? If He does not provide for it,
then we can say, well, I don't believe the Lord is in this.
We don't go around saying everybody needs to dig in and give a little
bit more. Question is, has God provided for us to do this? I
believe with all my heart the answer's yes. I don't believe
we need another dime. I don't believe we need another
dime. But I also believe it's gonna take everything we have
today to start this. I don't believe it's gonna leave
anything for tomorrow. Does that make sense? Now, a
person who has any business sense at all, or just a person who's
used to paying their bills on time, not getting behind on their payments,
a person who is like that at all will say, if it's going to
take everything you have, don't do it. Isn't that right? If it's literally going to take
all you have Don't do it. Don't do it. You've got to set
aside. You have to prepare for the what-ifs. You have to. And when it comes
to this world, that is exactly right. That's exactly right. When it comes to the unjust,
when it comes to the wicked, they need to prepare for the
moment that they could lose it all. be forsaken, begging bread,
right? But for the just, for those that God has made righteous
in the blood of Christ. He said, that's not how I want
you to operate. That's not how I want you to
live out the rest of your days on this earth. The just shall
live by faith. By faith. They are going to actively
believe me. They are going to actively trust
me. If God has given us a heart for
Christ, if He gives any of us a heart for Christ, He gets the
glory for it, right? He gets all the credit for it,
and if He has given us a heart for Christ, our life is the ministry
of His Word. It's our life. We know that it
will be the life of any other sinner He calls out of darkness. Our life is Christ. Our life is Christ. Isn't that
right? Our life is His glory. Our life is His message. Our life is the ministry of His
word. That's what He has given us in
this collective group. He has given us the ministry
of His word. And this is what He said. He
said, Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness
And all these things will be added unto you. Isn't that what
he said? Seek ye, you know, I started this by saying, I repeated the
gesture I lived by faith in my mind and I thought about it.
You think about that. You repeat that in your mind.
Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness
and all these things shall be added to you. Seek ye first the
kingdom of heaven and his righteousness. Everything else will be taken
care of. He said in this word, give your first fruit. Isn't
that what he said? Give your first fruit. You know,
if we were to give all of our fruit for the gospel, the glory
of Christ, for the declaration of Christ, if we gave every single
bit of it, we would have every other thing that we need. every
other thing that just shall live by faith." David said, I have
been young, I now am old, and I have never seen the righteous
forsaken or his seed begging bread, never. Elijah, I love
this, Elijah asked that woman to make him a cake. You remember
that story? Elijah asked that woman if she
would make him a cake to eat out of oil and corn, oil and
meal. And she said to him, I only have
enough to make one more cake. Not two. One, that's all I have,
and she said, I'm gonna make that for myself and my son, and
then after that, everything is gonna be gone and we're just
gonna sit here and wait to die. Elijah said, you make me a cake
first. And after you make me a cake,
whatever's left over will be for you and your son. She did it. You think about that. Put yourself
in her shoes. One son. Her child. Her child. Bring that into the
reality of life. Bring that into your home. Bring
that up to 2017. Bring that into living in the
Kingsport. She did it. I mean, she did it. That was God's prophet. And again, I hope I'm clearly
setting forth this is not about giving. That man had the gospel. It was
the ministry of the word. And she did it. And she didn't
know how the story was going to end. We do. Her oil and her
meal never ran dry. Never ran dry. Now, listen to the command of
faith, okay? Here's the command of faith.
Turn with me over where we read a minute ago to Ecclesiastes
11. Ecclesiastes 11 verse 1. Cast
thy bread upon the waters. Now is he talking about material
bread or spiritual bread? Both. The Lord, this opportunity is
a wonderful opportunity. to spread this gospel. This is
a wonderful opportunity. And we are going to spread seed
if the Lord is willing. A sower went forth to sow. By
God's grace, we are going to cast spiritual seed, spiritual
bread as far as we can cast it. But we're going to have to cast
our material bread to make it happen. Look what faith cries to the
just. Verse one says, cast thy bread upon the waters for thou
shalt find it after many days. It's not going to return void.
It will not go forth for nothing. You will not suffer loss. Verse one, he said, cast thy
bread upon the waters for thou shalt, and don't you love shouts? Thou shalt find it after many
days. Give a portion to seven. And I love what Spurgeon said
about that. He said, if that's the perfect number, seven is
the perfect number. He said, if that's the perfect
number, keep on giving. Verse two says, give a portion
to seven and also to eight, just keep on giving it. He said, give
to more than you can afford to give to. What that means is,
use it all. You can't give what you don't
have, can you? If you don't have it, if we don't look at that
and we say, I don't believe God has provided for that, well then
God hasn't provided for that. Apparently he's not in it, because
whatever God's in, he provides for it, doesn't he? But if he
has provided it, what do we do with it? Use it all. Use it all. Whatever God has
provided for us today, today. Spurgeon pointed out that our
Lord said, give to every man that asketh of thee, every single
man that asketh of thee. Verse two, he went on to say,
for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. Sin
abounds everywhere. He said, you throw grace on it
and see what happens. You know what our Lord said would
happen? Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. Verse three,
if the clouds, this is precious right here, if the clouds be
full of rain, They empty themselves upon the earth. They have all
that rain. God put all that rain in them.
And here they are holding all that rain. And what do they do?
They just empty themselves on the earth. If the tree fall toward
the south or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth,
there it shall be. They commit. That's what he's
saying. Buddy, they commit. Total, total commitment. Verse
four, he that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth
the clouds shall not reap. If we try to interject man's
rationale into this, it will ruin the whole thing. It will
absolutely ruin the whole thing. If we say, well, it looks a little
too windy. I don't know, a little too turbulent
to cast seed right now. We better not cast any seed right
now. We better not cut that hay. It looks like rain is coming. He's saying if we wait for the
moment that man's rationale thinks is the right time, it will never
happen. It's always going to be turbulent.
It's always going to be windy. It's always going to look like
rain. Just walk out into the world.
It's just soggy with rain. Right? Sin and darkness. He that observeth the wind will
never sow. He that regards the clouds will
never reap. And a pastor very wisely told
Brother Tony, after it was clear the Lord had raised up a ministry
here, He told him, don't wait till you have the money to call
a pastor. Call a pastor. If you can pay him today, if
God has provided you with the money to pay him for one day,
how long you had your pastor? One day. How long are you going
to have your pastor? At least one day. Yeah, I pastored Kingsport Sovereign
Grace Church for one day. Preached the gospel for one day.
You call that man and you pay him for one day. If God has provided
that, and if God doesn't provide, we don't give what God doesn't
provide, do we? But if God has provided, he said,
you don't wait until you have the money to pay him what you
think his salary ought to be. You call him, and they did, and
God has. I was physically called on the
telephone in October. I didn't move here until December,
but I drove here every Sunday. And I was paid what we pay a
man to come fill the pulpit. We don't pay a salary for a man
to come fill the pulpit. And during all those months,
not one time did we ever talk about money. Not one time. Sold the business, packed it
up, moved everything down here, never talked about money. It
was so much love, it was bliss. Just like two people falling
in love. We're going to go get married.
Where are you going to live? Who cares? We're just coming
together. And from day one till this day right
here, 11 years this has been going on now. There was no big
trust fund sitting there to support this place. From day one till
this day today, this ministry has operated on faith. Everything we have done has been
on faith, and it is never gonna change. If God tarries and allows
this ministry to be here in 30 years, we will still be operating
on faith, and the reason is because Our God said that just shall
live by faith. He's never going to change that. The just shall live by faith. Verse 5 says, As thou knowest
not what is the way of the Spirit, nor how the bones do grow in
the womb of her that is with child, even so thou knowest not
the works of God who maketh all. In the same way that we have
no idea how or when God sends a soul to a body, and in the
same way we have no idea how bones are formed and grow in
the womb in that same way as we take this ministry in hand.
And I'm just excited to be a part of it. I'm so excited to be a
part of it. As we take this ministry in hand
and we spread this seed that God gives us, we most likely
will not see or will not understand how God is going to support the
whole thing. We're signing a year contract
on this deal. How's God going to provide for
it? If God's in it, God will provide for it. Isn't that right? If he opens a door, and if he
lays it on our hearts to believe this is what God would have us
to do, God is going to provide for it. And if the time comes
where he would have us to do something else, and we see his
hand in that, we'll do something else. But for right now, verse
six says, in the morning, sow your seed. And in the evening,
withhold not thy hand. For thou knowest not whether
shall prosper either this or that or whether they both shall
be alike good. He said you sow it here, you
sow it there, don't hold back. Sow it. Sow it. He said you don't know which
one the Lord will prosper or whether he's gonna make both
of them prosper. Should we be on the radio or on television? If God provides the money, let's
be on both. Really, let's be on both. Should we upload to Sermon Audio? Have you guys seen our Sermon
Audio bill? It's pretty big. Should we be on Sermon Audio
or just put it on YouTube? If God provides the money, let's
be on both. Let's sow to both. We don't know which one the Lord
is going to bless. We don't know if He might bless
them both. I pray, I sincerely pray, you
know that song says, send a revival and start the work in me. I pray
the Lord would give me a heart. I really do. And I pray the Lord
would give all of us a real heart, a real fervent heart to press
toward the mark. God has convinced our souls that
we got one mark. We all have things in life that
we're looking to and we're pushing for and such on and so forth.
But really and truly, we have one mark. May God give us a heart
to press toward the mark. And if he provides, I pray he'll
give us a heart to say, let's do this. Let's do this. If God has opened another door,
if he opens another door, what if he opens another door? What
should we do? If he provides the money, let's
do it. Let's do it. I pray God will give us a heart
to say, let's just do it. Is the money there? It is today.
Not sure about tomorrow, but it is today. Let's do it today.
What if God opens up somebody's eyes next Sunday? And then the
whole thing, that's it. No more. Let's do it. May God give us a heart to live
out the rest of our days truly in faith, actively believing
Him, actively trusting Him. Let's just believe God. Let's
believe God. By His grace, by His work, we
will. All right, let's stand together
and turn to hymn number 255.