Alright, let's open our Bibles
back to Hebrews chapter 10. Brother Danny read for us. Beginning
there in those last two verses of Hebrews 10. Now this morning
and this evening, I'm going to preach on the subject of living
by faith. Living by faith. Seems like that's
been a theme of the messages here for the past few weeks.
A couple weeks ago I preached on a primer on faith. Scriptural faith. And I talked
about the faithfulness of Christ, which is the ground of our salvation. Not our faithfulness, but His
faithfulness to do what the Father sent Him to do in the salvation
of His people. That is the total ground of our
salvation. And our works and efforts cannot
enter into that situation, because all we do is corrupt it. But
Christ was faithful in all things to obey the law and suffer unto
death for the salvation of his people. And we must see and understand
and speak much of his faithfulness, because that is the heart of
the gospel and our salvation. But then I also spoke of the
faith, the faith of the gospel. Now that is the revelation of
Christ. God revealing Himself, revealing
His truth, who Christ is. God revealing who we are in the
Word, this mirror that exposes our sinfulness and our depravity
and our impotence to show us our need of His grace, our need
of Christ and the salvation that God freely and sovereignly provides
through His Son. We must understand and hear the
Word of God by the power. We must be taught of God. And
God teaches us by His Spirit, through His Word. And then I
spoke of faith in Christ. That's the gift of faith. Several
things that Brother Ron Trabant brought out in his messages dealt
with that subject. And then Brother Don Fitzer last
Sunday evening spoke of that in Ephesians chapter 2, verses
8 and 9, where it says, For by grace are you saved through faith.
We're saved by grace. But there is an instrument, there
is the means of faith. And even that faith is not of
ourselves. If you've paid attention while
Brother Danny was reading there, in Hebrews 10 and Hebrews 11,
you'll notice that it describes faith as the substance, verse
1 of Hebrews 11, the substance, and he said it right, the ground
or the confidence of things hoped for. And then it says, the evidence,
or that means the proof of things not seen. God grant us the faith
to cling to Christ. Christ who is the ground of all
things that we hope for. You cannot separate faith from
Christ. And that's the problem with people.
You see, faith is not just wishful thinking. It's not just a leap
in the dark. Faith has an object. And when
God gives us faith, it's not the product of our power, or
our goodness, or our choice, even. You see, as I've said before,
faith in Christ is not a choice you make. Faith in Christ is
a persuasion that God brings you to. And you'll notice that,
you know, when the Bible speaks of Abel and Enoch here, and Noah
and Abraham, how he was persuaded. Who persuaded him? God did, by
his preachers, by his word, God persuades. But it's by grace,
through faith, and that's not of yourselves. It's the gift
of God, lest any man should boast. It's the gift of God. And so
we have nothing in which to boast. If we today Believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We sang that hymn, trusting Jesus. And that's all. And I love what
you said in your message, Don. Talked about simple faith. Because
so many times we complicate it up. We muck it up, you know. We just get things in there that
just leave people with doubts and fears that they shouldn't
have. Now, think about this. You see, our faith is not in
our faith. And I like that line in that
hymn that said, even when my faith is small, trust in Jesus. That's all. That's it, isn't
it? Because there are going to be times when our faith is weak.
Brother Danny prayed, you know, we're people of faith, but sometimes
when those trials come, we don't exemplify faith very much, do
we? Huh? I've told you all probably a
hundred times since I've been here, I said, you know, when
God sends a trial to my way, I never come out of those trials
feeling good about myself and how I acted during the trial.
I always come out feeling ashamed. But you know what? Thank God
He doesn't leave me there. Because I also come out of those
trials trusting Jesus, trusting Christ, thanking Him more and
loving Him more for bringing me through. And that's the issue
of faith, saving faith, they call it. Well, that's okay. Some
people don't like that term because they say it implies that it's
not Christ that saves us, it's faith that saves us. But that's
not so. And I've stopped trying to look
for the perfect language that men cannot confuse. I've just
given up on that task. And I think that's a good thing.
I think it's good for you. I know it's good for me. But
I'm going to tell you something, if they can take the word of
God and twist it and tangle it and confuse it and misunderstand
it and abuse it, they can surely take my word. And I'm certainly
not wiser than God, so that's okay. When we speak of saving
faith, we're not talking about that sinners are saved by their
believing. When we speak of saving faith,
we're speaking of that faith which lays hold of Christ, who
saves us by His power and His grace. And that's what we're
speaking of. But look back here at Hebrews
chapter 10. Now, verse 38 says, Now the just, or the justified,
either way would be proper, shall live by faith. Now that term
there, that phrase, that sentence, is a very, very important sentence
in the scriptures. In Hebrew, in the original Hebrew,
that it comes from the Old Testament, it's quoted from the book of
Habakkuk. The Old Testament prophet Habakkuk. And he's what they call one of
the minor prophets. Now, when you hear that term,
minor prophets, it doesn't mean that their message was minor.
It just means that the book is short. That's all it means. Isaiah
and Jeremiah, they're longer. But Habakkuk only has about,
what, four chapters, I think, and that's why they call them
minor prophets. But their message was very serious, very important,
very grave, and very, very major. The message of Habakkuk, the
message of the Word of God, however long it is written out or however
short, is important and vital. But that's where it's found in
Habakkuk 2, chapter 2 and verse 4. The just shall live. And it says this back at 2 and
verse 4, it says it this way. It says the just shall live by
his faith. His faith. And a lot of people
don't like that terminology because they say, well, that implies
that the faith is yours. Well, now, let me put that to
rest if I can. My friend, if you believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ this morning, it is your faith. If I believe
it is my faith. And I'll tell you why it's yours,
and I'll tell you why it's mine. It's because God gave it to you.
And He gave it to me. It's not mine because I'm the
source of it. I wasn't the source of it. If
faith was the result of a freewill choice that I made, then I do
have room to boast. I have room to get up and brag.
I can say, I believed, and so-and-so didn't. I can honestly say if
that were the case, and it's not, but if that were the case,
I could honestly say that I was less rebellious, less obstinate,
less stubborn than those who wouldn't believe. Isn't that
right? But you know that's not the case. I can say it's my faith,
not because I'm the cause of it or the source of it. I'm not.
If God had left me to myself, I would not have this faith. I'd be an unbeliever. Isn't that
right? If God left any of us to ourselves,
where would we be? We would be total rebels, without
faith, without hope, without God in the world. But it is our
faith, because God gives it to us. It's the fruit and the result
of the life that Christ wrought out and worked out in His righteousness
on the cross of Calvary. Righteousness demands life, the
scripture says. Sin demands death. The soul that
sinneth must surely die. Where sin abounded, you see,
for as by sin death reigned, as sin came into the world. And
so sin demands death. Now, that's why Christ had to
die on the cross for his people. He said, I come to lay down my
life for the sheep. Because he was going to take
their sins to his account upon himself. He was going to bear
their sins to the cross. But as a result of his death
comes forth the very righteousness of God. And just as sin deserves
and brings death, righteousness deserves and demands life. And
part of that life is faith. Just like part of physical life
is breathing. You stop breathing right now
and see how long you can hold it. You can't hold it very long
because you see life, if there's a principle of life within you,
it's going to struggle to bring itself out, to manifest itself
in that breath. And if you stop long enough,
what happens? That principle of life is extinguished. And that's the way it is with
eternal life, spiritual life by the Spirit of God. If you've
been born again by the Spirit of God, if He's given you spiritual
life, then that's going to manifest itself in faith that God gives
you. Faith is not the cause of your
salvation. It's not the ground of your salvation.
It's the fruit of what Christ accomplished on Calvary. And
so we know that. But He says here, now, that just
shall live by faith. And as I said, that's a very
important phrase in the Hebrew back in Habakkuk chapter 2. The
important part of the verse has only three words, but it's translated
out in these phrases. And here are the phrases, the
justified man, the just, the justified. And it says, by his
faith, that's the second one, will live. And that's the way
it is with the people of God. They don't live by anything but
faith. And what that means is this,
they live their lives looking to and following Christ. Now
tonight, but this morning, I want us to look at some things generally.
For example, this phrase out of Habakkuk is quoted three times
in the New Testament. Right here's one of them, obviously,
Hebrews 10, 38. It's also quoted in Romans chapter
1 and verse 17. You remember in verse 16, Paul
said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to
the Jew first, to the Greek also. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed, as it is written, from faith to faith. That is,
from the preaching of the gospel, empowered by the Spirit, to faith. That is, it's going to be believed
by those whom God gives faith to receive it. And he says, as
it is written, the just shall live by faith. That's emphasizing
The justified man. How do you know who's justified
before God? What is it to be justified? Hold
on, I'll get to that in just a second. But how do you know
a sinner is justified before God? I'll tell you the first
evidence. He believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. He trusts
in Christ. And that brings repentance of
dead works and idolatry, of sin. He looks to Christ and to Christ
alone for his whole salvation. He rests in Him. He's not looking
to the law. He's not looking to his devotions.
He's not looking to his works. He's not looking to his experiences.
He's not looking to his feelings. And he's not looking to his circumstances. He's looking to Christ. Simple
faith. Isn't that right? Looking to
Christ. He's my all in all. All my eggs are in one basket.
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I trust in Him who He is. I trust
in what He accomplished on Calvary to save me from my sins through
the shedding of His blood. And I trust that I am justified. That means this. I have a right
standing before a holy God. A perfect standing before a holy
God. In the obedience and death of
Christ. In what He accomplished at Calvary. That's our faith. Now some people have faith in
other things. Some people have faith in their faith, faith in
themselves, faith in their church, faith in their family, faith
in the preacher. But that won't do. That's not
the faith that the justified shall live by. The faith that
the justified, that one for whom God chose from the foundation,
That one whom Christ died on that cross and kept the law for
and redeemed and justified, that one whom the Holy Spirit regenerates
and gives life, life more abundantly, that one will live his or her
life looking unto Jesus, the author and completer of their
faith. Isn't that precious? And that's simple, isn't it?
Let's not complicate it with the works of man. Another time
this phrase is used is in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 11. It says,
the just shall live by faith. And there it's a commentary on
the Christian life. Not only do we begin by faith,
but we continue by faith. And I'm going to tell you something.
We'll finish this life in faith. The Bible says, blessed are those
who die in the Lord. And they die in the faith. We
read there in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 13. Look at that. It
says, these all died in faith. We begin it. We continue it,
and we'll conclude it in faith. Now, what does that mean? We
begin at looking to Christ, we continue at looking to Christ,
and we'll end at looking to Christ, by His grace. Some say, well,
what if you begin it, and you don't end it that way? Well,
you never had it to begin with, the Scripture says. But I'll
talk a little bit more about that tonight. But think about
this. If you're declared right before God, approved of God,
the Justified, that's what He's talking about here. He says you
live by faith. So here's the issue. If you're
living under the law of works, the laws of conditional salvation,
if you're living under that, you give no evidence at this
time of having been justified. But I implore you, and I beg
you, and I plead with you, look to Christ. If you haven't done
it before today, do it the very first time today. You say, well,
preacher, you're talking like it's we can do it of our own
free will. Oh, no, I'm not. You just can't get your mind
off of that. Is that right? You look to Christ. Do you believe
He's able to save to the uttermost them that come unto the Father
by Him? I do. Because I know if He doesn't,
we're all goners. If He's not able, we're goners.
Isn't that right? Now, you may fool yourself into
thinking you can do it, but you can't. But you know what? I think it's significant to look
at a little bit of the background in the book of Habakkuk. You
don't have to turn there. It's just four chapters if you
want to read it. But you know, Habakkuk was a contemporary of
Jeremiah. He preached in Judah. That was
the southern kingdom of Israel. The northern kingdom had already
been obliterated, taken away, called Israel, by the Assyrian
Empire. But here's the southern kingdom of Judah. And in that
southern kingdom of Judah, that's where Jerusalem was. That's where
the temple was. It was all rebellion, idolatry. There was religion without heart. Remember Isaiah said that. Our
Lord quoted in the book of Matthew. He said, they draw nigh with
their lips, but their hearts far from me. Isaiah described
it in chapter 1. There's religion and ceremony
and prayer and worship. But it was empty. It was vain.
It was worthless. They didn't know the true message
of God in the law of Moses. You know what the true message
of the law of God in the law of Moses that God gave? You know
what the true message of that law is? It's this. You're a sinner
and Christ is the Savior. Simple thing. You're a sinner. You can't save yourself by your
works. You cannot be justified before
God. You cannot be made holy by your
works and your efforts. And your only hope is to look
to God's grace in Christ and His blood and righteousness alone.
Now, that really sums up the whole message of the Law of Moses.
Six hundred and some-how many laws. We've been studying the
book of Leviticus, and there's those laws listed. Well, the
summation of all of them, as far as the salvation of a sinner
goes, is we're sinners and Christ is the only Savior. Look to Him. You've got no hope but Him. No
help. No way out but Him. But there Habakkuk was preaching
to Judah about their rebellion and their sin. And he knew God
was going to bring judgment upon the land, but he just could not
understand why God was delaying. And so he had a question. And
it's a question that's been around since the fall of man when it
comes to God's ways and God's will and God's providence. And
you know what that question was? I'll tell you what it was. It's,
why? Why? Why don't you do this, God? Why don't you just destroy that
bunch? Why don't you bless this bunch? Why don't you take care
of them? Why don't you do it now? Why
are you waiting?" And that was Habakkuk's question. And God
told that prophet, he said, well, you publish those questions.
He said, get them out there publicly. And he said, I'm going to answer
them the same way. I'm going to do it publicly. And the next
question Habakkuk had, when he found out that God was going
to punish the children of Israel, the southern kingdom there, with
an idolatrous Heathen nation, Babylon. The Babylonian Empire. That's how God was going to take
the Babylonian Empire. Now, who was Babylon? They were
idolaters. They weren't the children of
God. They were heathen. They were pagan. And God was
going to take that nation, that empire, that idolatrous, God-hating
empire, and He was going to use them as an instrument of judgment
against His people. And you know what Habakkuk said?
Why? Why would you do it that way?
I mean, if I was going to do it, I'd do it some other way.
A better way. A better way than God's way?
And that's what Habakkuk was wondering. Why are you going
to do it that way? And then he saw the wickedness
in the land getting worse and worse. Worse and worse. And he
asked that question again. Why? Well, that's when this sentence
reigns forth. And he tells Habakkuk, and he
tells the land through the prophet, now listen to me, the justified
shall live by his faith. Now what does that mean? Well,
it means a lot of things, but it means you listen and I'll
talk. That's what God's saying. I'll
do the talking, you do the listening, Habakkuk. And he said, you depend
on me. I don't depend on you. And it's
like he told Isaiah, I think it was in Isaiah 55, my thoughts
are higher than your thoughts. My ways are higher than your
ways. Whatever God does, let me tell you something. Whatever
God does, it's the right way to do it. It's the only way to
do it. It's the best way to do it. Whether we agree with it
or not. But let me tell you something.
You might be baffled. You might be befuddled. You might not understand
the why, why, why's. But I'm going to tell you something.
God's got us right where He wants us. And He's taken us right where
He's going to put us. And He's going to bring us right
where He wants to bring us. His way, the best way, the right
way, the only way, the wisest way, God's way. You look to Him. The justified live by faith.
I always think about the Hebrew children when God brought them
out of Egypt. He gave them specific instructions.
I mean, this was better than OnStar. I'm telling you. He gave them specific instructions
as to where to go. And he put them in a place right
there by the Red Sea where they couldn't go across, they couldn't
go right, they couldn't go left, and they couldn't go back because
he'd hardened Pharaoh's heart. And you know what? He told Moses,
he said, I'm going to do that. Read in Exodus 14, he said, I'm
going to do that. Maybe Moses said, why? I don't,
I do. But he said, I'm going to do
that. So here they are, some people say 2 million, some people
say 3 million, probably about somewhere in between. But anyway,
let's say 3 million people, Moses led out of Egypt and he put them
in a place that was strategically death. Now that's not a very good general,
is it? But God put him right where he
wanted. Kept him there to do his will. To bring him where
he wanted him, his way, the right way, the only way, the best way. And you know they started murmuring
and complaining like we all do. You know what that is. That's
unbelief. You see, that's why faith is
not the ground of our salvation. Our faith is in Christ. And even
what little faith we have, I'll tell you what, even little faith,
if it's true faith, if it's God-given faith, has a great Savior, an
able Savior, a righteous Savior. Isn't that right? Even little
faith has... You see, The degree of our faith
does not add to or diminish the greatness of our Savior. Now,
think about that. I mean, that ought to give us
some comfort now. I mean, there are times when I wonder if I
believe at all. Have you ever been there? I mean,
I get so down and I wonder, well, am I doing something wrong here?
But the diminishing of our faith in that sense, it'll never...
Paul says here in Hebrews 10, he said, we are not them who
draw back unto perdition. We can never totally lose faith. We cannot turn away from God
unto final apostasy. That's what that means. And the
reason is, is because God keeps us. That's right, by His power
and grace, not because we keep ourselves. But I'll tell you, the littleness,
the smallness of our faith in no way diminishes the greatness
of our Savior. And that's what God was illustrating
back there at the Red Sea. Here they were in a position
of death. Pharaoh's army was coming back.
And they couldn't go across the sea and they couldn't go east
to the mountains. They couldn't go left into the
desert. They had no place to go. It was either just, just
fall down and die, fellas. That's what it was. And here
God sends his prophet in, in Exodus 14, and he said, now,
he said, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. You know what, you know what,
that's a good definition of faith, isn't it, Don? Stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord. And he says, the Egyptians who
you've seen right now, he says, you'll see them no more again
forever. They're going to be gone. And that's a great picture,
and what did he do? He opened up the Red Sea, and
they walked across on dry land. And that's a great picture of
our salvation by Christ. Our sins pursuing us. Our sins
in front of us. Our sins this way and that way. We've got no place to go but
just to lay down and die. And God, in the gospel of His
grace through Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, comes along
and He says, now stand still and see the salvation of the
Lord. Your sins that are pursuing you, you will see them no more
again forever. And He leads us to the Red Sea
of the blood of His Son on the cross to look unto Him for salvation. That's faith. Now, in Habakkuk's
day, What he was simply teaching them is that faith looks to the
power of God, not to the power of men. Faith depends upon the
word of God, not the word of men. Faith has confidence in
God, not in men. And faith looks to God, His wisdom,
His justice, His goodness, and His mercy, and not to circumstances. And what Paul's doing here in
Hebrews chapter 10, he's applying that to the justification of
a sinner before God. How God saves a sinner. Now,
what does it mean to be justified? He says this, he says, the just
shall live by faith. Now, that's the only ones who
are going to live by faith, the just. The unjust are not going to live
by faith, not not in God given faith. And what does it mean
to be justified? Well, there's a negative and
a positive here. The negative is this, to be justified before
God means to be not guilty under God's law and justice. Not guilty. That's a good place to be, not
guilty. Can you just picture the fellow
who's on trial? And he's waiting to hear the
sentence come in. And they come back and they say,
Not guilty. Can you imagine the relief that
comes over? Not guilty. That's what it means
to be justified before God. Now, you might ask the question,
say, well, wait a minute now. We're sinners. How is it possible
that a sinner could be not guilty? Doesn't it mean one and the same,
to be a sinner, to be guilty, to be guilty, to be a sinner?
Well, hold on. It has a positive, too. The positive
of justification means to be declared righteous in God's sight. And I often use this analogy,
and I keep using it because it's such a good one. I didn't come
up with it. But I know it's something our children can understand.
It's like this. If you owed a debt, by law you
are legally bound to that institution to pay them a million dollars.
And let's say in this illustration you don't have one penny to pay
that debt. You don't have one penny. I mean,
you can't even contribute even the smallest portion of that
debt. But now you're running around here like a chicken with
your head cut off trying to pay it. Boy, that's a great picture
of man in religion, isn't it? In his lost estate. But unbeknownst
to you, somebody walks into that bank Goes up to the president
of the bank, says, open the books, and he sees your name there,
and he looks at that name and he says, Bank President, put
that debt on my account. I'll pay it. In full. And he pays it in full. You no
longer owe the debt, do you? That was a legal matter that
was settled between the banker and the payer. Right? You don't know anything about
it. Now let me ask you this, just for the sake of some of
the common modern-day controversy that's going on. I don't mean
to keep bringing this up, but let me say, you don't know anything
about this payment of this debt, right? But it's paid, isn't it? Now the fact that you don't know
about it, does that make it any less real? Absolutely not. It's paid. It's
paid. You may not know it's paid, but
it's paid. The bank has no more legal hold
on you. They can't come after you and
take anything from you. That debt is paid in full. Now that's what it means when
Christ paid the debt at Calvary for the sins of His sheep. It's
paid in full. And I'm going to tell you something.
There was a long time in my life I didn't know anything about
it. But it was just as real in the eyes of God's law and justice
as if I had known about it. In fact, my knowing about it,
when I came to a knowledge of it, it didn't enhance it. It didn't finish it out. It didn't
take away from it. It didn't add to it. I just was
let in on it. That's fate. When I first heard
about it, I didn't believe it. I mean, if somebody come there
and say, hey, I heard some so-and-so paid your debt down at the bank,
you'd probably say, I don't believe that. I need some proof. When
I first heard about it, I didn't believe it. When I first heard
about it, I got mad. Because I'll tell you why. I
thought I'd been paying it. I've been spending my life trying
to pay that debt. I mean, I tried to walk some
miles. I got baptized. I joined youth groups. I was
in Baptist Student Union. I sold some wild oats and repented
and rededicated and read the Bible, bought me a poster, hung it on the wall. I thought
I'd been paid. I really didn't think the debt
was fully paid, but I thought I'd done some contributions there
that ought to be recognized and noticed. And then some guy stood
up here behind this pulpit and told me that all those things
that I was so proud of were nothing but dung. That somebody else
had paid the debt in full. And I got mad. I'm telling you. But you see, when God brought
me to see the reality of it, that didn't add one penny to
the debt that had already been paid. And that didn't add any
reality to it. Just because I knew it didn't
make it real. It was real when he did it. I was the one who
was living in la-la land. But he did it. But it goes on
further than that. There's some better news here
now. You see, not only did that fellow pay your debt of a million
bucks at the bank, he said, here's a million, give it to him. Put
that to his account. So not only was your million-dollar
debt totally wiped out, you're a million dollars richer. And
that's what justification is. And I want to tell you something.
That million dollars that was put to your account, you didn't
know about it for a long time. But that didn't diminish the
value of it. In fact, the value really began increasing, and
you didn't even know that. And when you received it, and
believed it, and accepted it, and bowed to it, that didn't
add one penny to it. But boy, what joy! What peace! And what assurance! You see what
I'm saying? Now that's what it is to be justified.
And when God shows us what Christ did at Calvary on the cross,
to pay our debt in full, and to give us His righteousness,
Oh, what joy and peace there comes in what? In believing. Just looking to Him. Just trusting
Jesus. That's all. Isn't that right? Now, that's how we live. You
see, there's no salvation and there's no justification without
what Christ accomplished on the cross. Now, it's necessary that
sinners come to see it. But why? Why? To finish what Christ started?
No. To make it real? No. I'll tell
you why. For the glory of God in the salvation
of sinners. That's why. God's going to be
glorified. God was glorified in the creation.
God was glorified in redemption at the cross in a way that He's...
Oh, I mean, it's awesome. Well, God's going to be glorified
in the hearts of His people. And that's why. It's necessary
because when Christ died on that cross and established righteousness
and justified His people, He gives them life. He brings them,
the Bible says, to justification of life. They must live because
their sin is done away with. And where there's no sin, there's
no death, there's no hell. And righteousness has been established
and put to our account. And where there's righteousness,
there's life and glory and blessing forever and ever and ever in
him. And he's going to glorify himself
in our hearts. I'll tell you, the gospel of
God's grace, this is how we live, you see, the justified shall
live by faith. We live by looking to Christ,
depending upon Him, resting in Him, seeing what He accomplished
and what all He's done for us. That's how we live. That's what
He's talking about. Now, tonight, I'm going to give
you several particulars from the Word of God on that issue,
that just shall live by faith. And I hope that's been helpful
to you. Let's sing that hymn, Blessed
Assurance.