All right, brother, let's go
to the Lord in prayer. Father, thank you for your providence. Thank you for the means we have
to still communicate between brethren and proclaim your gospel,
whether it not be in person. Thank you for the means you've
given us, Lord. Thank you for this time. Thank you for your
Son. Keep us looking to Him at all
times. No matter what we face, allow us to know that You've
hedged us about, Lord, and that You'll keep us. It's in His name
that we ask. Amen. Alright, brethren, if we'll
begin opening to Galatians chapter 5, I would like to remind everyone
as they listen from home, either watch the video or listen to
the audio recordings in this time when we're confined, I would
encourage you to get up, get dressed, do what you normally
do, brush your teeth, get out of pajamas, not out of routine
or requirement, but out of respect. It'll get your mind ready and
prepare you to hear the importance. We need to get ready for this
worship service. I want to remind you, too, the
purpose of the book of Galatians. Why it was written. Why did Paul
write it? Men came in saying they believed everything that
these faithful brethren in Galatia believed. But they had to do
something. They had to be circumcised. It
was a work that they added to the grace of God. That gave them
something to do. And these false teachers, they
were troubling the children of God in Galatia. These brethren,
they were in times of trouble. We're in times of trouble. Right
now, we see, don't we? We think so. So the title of
my message today is Faith During Trouble. I want us to look at
what faith is, a couple different aspects of faith, and how it
differs when we're in times of trouble or when we're not. But
many right now say our nation's in a time of trouble. And worldly,
that's correct. There's a lot of hard times for
people right now that's happening, and it may get worse. Maybe harder
times to come. Worldly. But the true trouble,
the lasting trouble, possibly the eternal trouble, isn't just
the economy. It's not what this illness is.
It's not what's happening in our city. It's not what's happening
in our homes. That's not the true trouble that
we face, our true concern, our true worry. The true trouble
we face is what happens in the souls of men and women when they
face the Lord in judgment. We all will die, whether it's
now, during this time, this pestilence the Lord sent on this earth,
or be it another means. No one lives forever. That's
a known fact. 10 out of 10 people die, don't
they? The Hebrew writer said, it is
appointed once unto men to die, but after this, the judgment.
We all know we're going to die. And inside, we may snuff it out. We may push it down as hard as
we can. We know there's a judgment. We understand the current troubles.
Maybe you've tried to go to the store. You needed to get some
groceries, a stocky pantry, you got children that are hungry.
All of a sudden, your worries aren't what basketball game got
canceled. That doesn't matter, does it?
No, them children are hungry. You got to feed them babies.
We prioritize. You got to love when it needs
medicine. You don't worry what TV show is going to be free tonight,
what TV show is going to come on tonight. You're worried about
getting that medicine for your loved one, ain't you? We understand
these things. People walking down the street
understand that. But in time of troubles, we set our priorities,
don't we? We see what our priorities are. I pray today the Holy Spirit
would put in our hearts and press on us the true trouble we face. The trouble we have if we come
to God's holy throne of judgment in ourselves, in our own works,
in our own hands. If we come there without a mediator,
If we try to approach Him by any other means than His Son,
men and women will face eternal judgment. And on that day, there
will be two outcomes. Either you'll be judged in your
merit and your worth, and you'll come up wanting. You'll perish
eternally. Or you will be seen in the merit
and the worth of Christ, and you'll enter into eternal bliss.
with Him and be made like Him. That's the two things will happen.
We'll be judged in our nature of Adam or we'll be judged in
the nature of Christ. But you will be judged or you
will be found to already have been judged. You will try to
explain yourself to God or God will already be satisfied with
everything that you've done through Christ on Calvary. what he accomplished
on this earth. Dear, in troublesome times, is
your faith in yourself? Do I trust me? Or is your faith
in something you've done? Is your faith in something you've
experienced? Or is your faith in God's darling
Son? Is it in the Lord Jesus Christ? The trouble that was given to
these Galatians is no different than the true trouble we face
today. Looking to anything other than Jesus Christ alone is serious
and it is a deadly trouble. Paul warns these believers there
in Galatians 5 and verse 4. He says, "...Christ has become
of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law Ye are fallen from grace. If you look to your works,
you are fallen from grace. Christ is no effect to you. It
says in verse 5, for we through the Spirit wait for the hope
of righteousness by faith. Through the Spirit, that's where
we get this faith from. We wait. Faith waits, doesn't
it? Waiting on the Lord. And we're
waiting for the hope of righteousness. What's our hope for righteousness?
Is it hope I get righteous? Is it hope I get better? Give
me a little more time so I can work harder? Or is there hope
in Christ's righteousness? I hope we can see that today.
But first, what is faith? There have been a thousand books
written on this. And they've all, I think most of them have
danced around it and never hit the nail on the head. But the
definition of faith is believing and trusting and having allegiance
to something. That's the dictionary's definition. The true definition of faith
in Christ is believing Him, not just believing that He was believing
in Him, but believing Him. Trusting Him for all things,
not just some things, not just some areas, we trust Him in everything.
And having total allegiance to Christ. Not just some allegiance
and some to yourself. I'll serve Him when it's convenient
for me, but I want to do these things. We have total allegiance.
We commit ourselves to Him. That's called saving faith. Paul
wrote in Galatians 2.16, knowing that a man is not justified by
the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. We are justified in the sight
of God the Father by faith. The faith that is of Christ. His faith. I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful I don't have to
work, and I'm thankful in my believing and my faith and my
trusting, that's not required of me either. What else is faith? Faith's a
gift. Ephesians 2, verse 8 says, For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by
works, lest any man should boast. It's a gift. A gift is given
and not earned. In our day, we have which may
change in the next year or two, we have things so comfortable
here, I think of a gift, I think, well, that's something I could
take, I hope I like it, and if I don't like it, I'll give it
back to them or I'll get a return receipt. I'll take it back to
the store and trade it out for something I want. That's not
how gifts are. It's something that's given to
you. There was times my dad gave me physical correction. He took
that belt off. I didn't say, no, I just choose
not to have that today. I received that gift. Faith is
a gift. We receive it. If the Lord gives
it to us, it's ours. Put in us. Faith is also the
proof of who we hope for. A Hebrew writer said, now faith
is the substance, that means the ingredient, the basis. Faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. This gift that's given to us,
that's our proof. That's our proof, it's of the Lord. If you
have true faith, and I know how weak my faith is, what little
faith I have, it's a gift. I didn't muster that up. It didn't
come from me. Where does it come from? It's
from our God. He gave the gift. He's the author
of it, and He completes it. It means He's the beginning of
our faith, and the ending of our faith. He's the source of
it, and He's the finish line. Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. What
does our faith do? Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1. Wherefore, seeing we
also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us." What are we to do to run that race? Everyone's
concerned about running races in this world. Oh, I've run a
good race. He ran a good race. How do we
run that race? Hebrews 12 verse 2, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Faith isn't something I come
up with. I didn't author my faith. Christ Jesus authored my faith.
I don't sustain it. He sustains it. I don't keep
it to the end and finish it. He finishes it. When does faith look to Christ?
During that race, what's that race consist of? We look to Him
in the beginning when we first heard the good news, don't we?
That's all we saw. That was our joy, our peace,
looking to Christ. I don't know what faith is, but
I'm going to look to Him. During good times, we thank the Lord. We come to Him in prayer, praise
Him. Lord, thank you. You gave us
such a wonderful Place to live. Gave us a wonderful family. You
fed us. Everything. All the good times. We'd have
faith. We'd look to Christ during those
times of trouble. Lord, get me through this. Give me the grace
to look to You for this. We'd pray to Him then. And we're
thankful for those hard times. That could be for, like we looked
at today, for correction, for His land, or for His mercy. That's
the Lord being merciful to us. And we look to Him for eternal
security. We look to Christ to finish it.
Not for me to finish it, for Him to finish it. And until what? That faith's going to go away.
It will be finished one day. Those that believe on Christ
alone, someday you won't have faith. Why? Faith becomes sight. We don't have to hope for nothing,
we'll have Him. We won't have that picture to look to, we'll
be able to touch Him. Listen to Him. Hear His voice. Sit with
Him. Have Him teach us. Spend eternity
with Him. Back to our text in Galatians
5. Galatians 5 verse 6 says, For
in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth, means it benefits anything,
nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. Faith
worked by love benefits. It avails something. It benefits. Do I have to love to get faith? No. But if you have true faith
you will love. If you are given the faith on
Christ alone, you will have it in love. You will love God for
His mercies and you will love your brethren who Christ also
died for. You will see Christ enduring
on that cross for you and what that actually means and you will
be overcome with love. You start understanding, if I
understand who I am, I have to start understanding something
about what He paid. You will have substance. That's
almost tangible for us. The proof of the thing hoped
for, to be made like Christ and to be with Him. That's what we
hope for. Let children of God have faith
in Christ, they have faith from Christ, they have faith through
Christ, through His person and His work. Both. Have a little bit of confidence,
belief, or trust in anything other than Christ that's deadly.
You can't mix works and grace. The two don't go together. Paul
tells us that in verse 9, Galatians 5, 9. A little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump. If you have faith in Christ but
you add something else to it, it'll do you no good. You'll
leaven the whole lump. But why is Paul talking about
bread making? Why would he reference that?
Turn over Matthew 16. Leaven is sin in the Bible. Yeast,
that's why we eat unleavened bread at the Lord's table. To
have a little bit of false doctrine concerning Christ mixed in there,
it will kill the whole lump. It leaveneth the whole lump.
And to add a little bit of work to faith in Christ is damning. Or Matthew 16 verse 5, And when
His disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten
to take bread. And Jesus said unto them, Take
heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves,
saying, It is because we've taken no bread. The Master is mad at
us. We forgot to bring bread with
us. Verse 8, which when Jesus perceived, He said unto them,
O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves? Because
ye have brought no bread. The next few verses He asked
them to remember. Don't you remember all those
miracles? Those thousands and thousands fed with just a few
loaves and a few fishes. He wasn't talking about physical
bread, was he? Look here in verse 11, Matthew 16, 11. How is it
that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning
bread, but that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and of the Sadducees? And then they understood how
they had bade them not to beware of the leaven of bread, but of
the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. That leaven
was the doctrine of them. What was that doctrine of the
Pharisees? We're justified by the faith of Christ alone. Nope. That wasn't it, was it? They
had to do something. It was okay, you could believe
in Christ, that's fine. But you better do something.
They didn't want a substitute, they wanted to do it themselves.
They didn't want to be sinners that are in need of being saved
because they only saw good in themselves. I might be kind of
bad, but I'm not that bad. They keep seeing these good things
in themselves. They were offended at the cross
of Christ. True children of God have faith
to believe in the person of Christ and they're given the faith to
believe in the work of Christ. His person, what is that? He
is God Almighty. He's holy without blame. He loves
righteousness and He hates wickedness. and His work. What was His work? He effectually saves, calls,
regenerates, and He will resurrect His sheep. He's done all of it. That is what is needed. Men and
women need to know Christ and they need to know what He did.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, for I determined not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The
person and the work of Christ. Turn back to our text here, Galatians
5. In times of trouble and in times of blessing, we need to
be given faith in the person of Christ, who He is. Not only
to believe in Him, but to believe Him. In times of trouble and
times of blessing, we need to be given the faith to believe
in the work of Christ, what He accomplished on the cross. Galatians
5.11 says, and I brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why
do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased. Paul's asking them, if I'm preaching works like everyone
else, why am I still persecuted for it? Why is everybody still
ganging up on me? Has anything changed? In this
day, all the faithful men I know that preach Christ is all, Christ
is all our righteousness. He's all of our hope and salvation.
He's all of our sanctification. He's everything. They are called
false preachers. They're ganged up on. All the preachers that tell you
to do something, the preaching works, they get along pretty
good. Get along well together. They'll team up for a cause,
won't they? We'll fight abortion together,
fight us together. And I say, oh, that's my brother. that they do not call the true
preachers of the gospel brothers. They condemn us. Is that historical
in the true church? The Lord asked us, shall the servant
be above his master? In doctrine and in practice,
the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, they all differed
greatly from each other, but they all received one another.
They were all offended by the same cross. And who preached
the cross? They offended them. When Paul
was solved Tarsus, he was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was offended
at the gospel. He persecuted the church. He
was right along with those other religious friends he had, didn't
he? They were in agreement. But when Paul was converted,
as soon as he began preaching the cross to Christ, that finished
work, that accomplished work, His old friends were offended
in him. They chased him, they persecuted
him. Paul asked these Galatians, am I still being persecuted?
They are, aren't they? They're coming after me. So then,
has the offense of the cross stopped? It hasn't. They're still
offended. That's why they're mad. They've
got something to be mad over. And it won't stop. It didn't
stop for Paul and it won't stop for us and future generations.
If the Lord sees fit to keep this earth here until His last
sheep is called out, those people will be persecuted. They'll be
ganged up on. Natural man will fight against
it. and they'll fight against it continually by any means they
can. But this work of Christ that
we have faith in, what does it declare? What does the cross
of Christ declare? First off, I've got four points
for you. First, the cross of Christ, the work of the cross
declares all men are totally depraved. How we treated Christ
on that cross reveals what we are. He was holy, perfect, and
without blame, and we hated Him. What we did to Christ reveals
our nature. And this is important. What God did to Christ on that
cross reveals our nature. Because He was us. He was you. And that was the punishment that
was dealt. He bore the punishment I deserved, that you deserved.
To have all your faith in and of Christ is to proclaim you
deserve to be removed from the presence of God. If I say Christ
accomplished it all, that's to declare that I'm nothing, that
I deserve that. Secondly, the work of the cross
declares God's absolute sovereignty in salvation of sinners. The
death of Christ was planned by God, not by men. People said,
oh, the Romans nailed him to the cross. The Lord did that.
He allowed it to happen. And it came to pass as he planned.
He was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
Before those Romans were ever born, this was planned. Isaiah
53 says, it pleased God to bruise him. God hath made his soul an
offering for sin. He bruised Him. He made His soul
an offering for sin. It was executed by God. It was
planned by Him and executed by Him. Our Savior said, My God,
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Those men didn't even know
He had a soul. Those ones that nailed Him to
the cross, the Lord forsake Him. And it was accepted by God. That's
our hope. How do we know that? How do we
know He accepted it? He brought Him from the tomb, didn't He?
He raised Him from the grave. It was planned by God, executed
by God, and it was accepted by God. Christ took my place. He became me and was punished
for it. The Father was satisfied and
raised Him. That means I was raised with Him. That means you
were raised with Him. The whole Old Testament shows
God declaring who would die for sinners. It shows how He would
die, where He would die, why He would die, by whose hand He
would die, and for whom He would die. That's what it declares. Thirdly, the work of the cross
declares full and sufficient atonement. The whole debt was
paid. It was finished. Christ's high
priestly prayer there in John 17. He says, I have finished
the work that thou hast given me to do. Nothing needs to be
added. It's finished. If it's complete,
you can't put nothing else in it. On the cross, he yelled,
it is finished. Can't add anything to it. People
agree that Christ died on that cross. People agree that He arose. They agree that He sits at the
right hand of God. But then they add something to
it. You must be baptized. You must make a profession of
faith. You must tithe. You must something. You must
believe on Christ. That's it. Not anything else. But if you're given true faith,
you will be baptized because you're declaring 2,000 years
ago when John the Baptist baptized my Savior, that's when I was
baptized. I was buried with Him. I was baptized in Him. I rose
with Him. If you're giving true faith,
you don't just give 10%. You give all of yourself. Turn
myself over to you lock, stock, and barrel. What do you need?
You need my time, my prayers, hugs. You want me to cry with
you? Anything. Food? Why would we do that? Christ gave all of Himself for
me. If you're given true faith, all you can profess is that Christ
accomplished everything for me. And you say, he finished. Fourthly,
the work of the cross declares Christ as all. In Acts 4.12 it
says, neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved." There's no other way. There's no other way to God other
than through Christ. He's the door. What did He tell
those people? He said, anybody that comes into
this paddock for these sheep, if they come any other way than
the door, they're false. They're thieves and robbers.
And in case there was any confusion about two verses down, He says,
I'm the door. It'll take a lot of research
and studying to see what he was meaning there, doesn't it? But
there's no other way to God. There's no denomination that
will get you there. People say, well, I'm Baptist.
It doesn't matter. Do you believe Christ? Do you look to Him? Do
you depend on Him? Do you have faith in Him and
from Him? I'm Catholic or Episcopalian
or a bunch of other stuff I can't hardly pronounce. It won't do
you any good. There's no righteousness but the obedience of Christ.
So I'm getting better. You have to get as the seed describes
in the Pharisees, don't you? No atonement but the blood of
Christ. There's nothing I can give to
save myself but the blood of Christ. There's no hope except
the grace of God by Jesus Christ. That's the only thing I have
hope in. And there's no faith except the faith of Christ. As we look through these laws,
we've been through that quite a bit, haven't we? We keep looking
at the law, looking at the law. It's what we don't turn to. We
see what's required of God. He requires perfection, righteousness. Do you want your own righteousness?
Do you want to come to Him? If He requires faith, do you
want your faith or do you want His faith? That's the difference
between a bicycle Airliner. What do you want? I don't want
mine. I want His. Give me what you
have. There's no other way. It says,
no man can come to me, to my Father, but by me. He's it. That's the person and the work
that we have hope in. That's what we have faith in.
We cry out like those apostles in Luke 17, Lord, increase our
faith. Lord, I believe. Help thou my
unbelief. In times of trouble, is our faith different than when
we first believed? Has our faith changed? Has our
hope changed when things get rough? Is it different in times
of joy? Our hope has not changed because
Christ has not changed. He said, I'm the Lord and I change
not. He's all. That's our comfort. You'll hear
a lot about faith the next Probably now, if you listen much to anything
going around, especially over the next few months, my faith
was strong. There'll be stories about it
once everything gets back to normal. My faith got me through
it. Your faith didn't. The Lord might have let you come
through it. And right now, this doesn't concern
me. When that judgment comes, my faith won't get me through
it. Christ's faith will. Look to Him. Believe in Him.
Come to Him. If you haven't, come to Him today.
Alright, brethren, let's pray together. Father, thank You for
Your Word. Thank You for that cross that
You provided, that You planned, that You executed, and how grateful
we are, Lord. That's our acceptance. You've
accepted Him. Thank You for Your Son. Give us a heart to trust Him.
In good times and bad times, when we're asleep, Lord, keep
us always. Lord, forgive our sins. Forgive our prayers. Let the
Spirit make intercession for us and other things that we can't... I don't have to translate it
for us, Lord. Keep us always, as you promised
you will. Keep your people. Be with our brethren everywhere,
Lord, as they meet during these difficult times, as they watch
from home, and as they gather in their homes and living rooms.
Encourage them, Lord. Give them eyes for Christ alone.
It's in His name that we ask. Amen.