The just shall live by faith. The just have always, always
lived by faith. The just have always lived by
believing God. Abel lived by faith. That's why
he offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than his brother Cain. He believed God. Cain didn't. Abel believed God. Noah moved
with fear and built an ark. How long did it take him? A hundred
and twenty years. You think at any time he would
have said, you know, this is just, this here is just, you
know, I don't know about this. What's rain? They've never seen
it rain. But God said it's going to rain.
No, you build an ark. And he did. He moved with fear. And he built an ark because he
believed God. Enoch walked with God, and it's written that he was
not. God took him. He had this testimony. This was his testimony. He pleased
God. This is the testimony of Enoch
that God gave of Enoch. Enoch didn't give that testimony.
God gave this testimony. of the reason why he took Enoch
is because he pleased me. And the Word of God says without
faith it's impossible to please God. So I know that Enoch, by faith,
walked with God. No person has ever been saved
that did not believe God. I'm not talking about infants. I'm talking about people like
you and me. No one has ever been saved that
did not believe God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Concerning His Son, the Gospel,
His person, His work. Salvation has always been through
faith in Christ, always, since the beginning. It's always been
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. At no time was it, is
it, or shall it be by any works at all. It's by believing God. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now the just shall live by faith. And this is written four times.
in the Word of God. I read it to you in Habakkuk.
So the first time it's written, it's written in the Old Testament. This is not a New Testament concept. It was written in the Old Testament.
The just shall live by faith. And it's written in Romans 1.17.
Look over there. Let's just look at them briefly. Over here in Romans. And verse 16, Paul says, For I am 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 and also to
the Greek. For therein, in the gospel of Christ, is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith. Then it's written over in Galatians
chapter 3. Go over here in Galatians chapter 3.
In verse 10, for as many as are
of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written,
Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. That's not faith. That
is not of faith. That's duty. That's do or die. That's what that is. But that
no man is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident,
for the just shall live by faith. And they all give reference back
to Habakkuk. back in the Old Testament. And
then we have it here in Hebrews chapter 10. There was a man that
you all know named Martin Luther. Crawling up those steps, kissing
those steps, this man starved himself, whipped himself, beat
himself. Mercilessly he beat himself.
and would starve himself, and he's crawling up those steps
and kissing those steps. And this verse, this verse just
rang out in his heart. The just shall live by faith. And it is said that he jumped
up, ran down those steps, and that's when the Reformation started. The just shall live by faith. Now first of all, who shall live
by faith? Who shall live by faith? It says
here the just, not the religious. Cain was religious. Did he not bring an offering
to God? Man by nature is religious. He's a religious creature. He's
got to worship something. He's got to make an idol, a God,
out of something or someone. By nature, we are religious. You believed in a God before
you ever believed God. And I'll tell you this, when
I finally believed God, it was not the one that I thought existed.
It was different. I honestly thought and believed,
like the Armenians, that God wants to save everybody. That
Jesus Christ died to save everybody was going to give everyone a
chance. And then I heard the gospel. And I found out God's
on the throne. And I found out that Jesus Christ
redeemed a multitude of sinners given him by the Father. I mean
a multitude of sinners that no man can number. And I found out
that no man naturally loves God. No man naturally believes God. The just, not the religious,
not the baptized, not those who do the ceremonies. It's the just. Those who have been justified
by God through the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. What does it mean to be justified? God can pardon you. You're still guilty. God can
forgive you, forgive me. Still guilty. You can be forgiven,
pardoned, but the guilt's still there, isn't it? You can't be
justified to be guilty. We are pardoned. We are forgiven. And we are justified. And that's
the only way we can be called just. I'm not just because I
was pardoned, I'm just because I was cleared of all charges.
There is not a charge on the books against me. There is not
a mark, there is absolutely not a blemish on the books against
you. The law has no claims on you. You are, who read, what did you
read Dale, what was that chapter? Sixteenth, wasn't it? Look back
here. Something just jumped out at
me when he was reading this. I had to underline it. He said,
Preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust, I believe. That's faith right there. That's
what faith is. It's trusting God. O my soul,
thou hast said unto the Lord, thou art my Lord, my goodness
extends not to thee. There's nothing about me that
makes God good. And what the Lord Jesus Christ did, did not
add anything to God. It added to us. It gave to us. But now listen. But to the saints
that are in the earth, and to the excellent. You are excellent. You are the excellent of the
earth. In Christ, you are the excellent of the earth. In whom
is all my delight. To be justified is to be cleared
of all charges, not a mark, not a blemish, and to put it simply,
not guilty. Not guilty. The just live a life justified
by God. You do. If you're in Christ,
you do. We live a life justified by God
through the substitutionary work of Christ, and in Him not guilty. Now you have to know what it
is to be guilty to appreciate that. You have to know what guilt
is to appreciate what it is to be not guilty. Because you know, you and I know
by nature we're guilty, but I'm telling you, before God you're
not guilty. Not a blemish. And it says here,
they shall live. This is how they live. This is
their life. This is their character. This
is, listen, faith is their habit. It's their habit. Believing God, reliance upon
God for all of salvation. Spiritual life and faith. are absolutely inseparable. You
cannot separate them. I know that the Armenian has
a person believing, and then God gives them life. Dead people
don't believe. Now you say, which comes first? I'll tell you this, they're both
instantaneous. When God commands life, you instantly
at that time believe God. You believe God. It does not precede life. It
does not give me life. Christ is the giver of life. We live, we live, listen, We
live because He lives. We live because He lives. He
is my life. Now, faith looks to Him. My faith
looks up to Thee, as the song we sing. But now, Christ is my
life. He's my life. We do not at any
time live upon our faith. No, it lives upon Christ. We
do not at any time live because of faith. We live because He
lives. Because I live, you shall live
also. Faith, listen, faith is a total,
complete reliance upon the Lord Jesus Christ for wisdom. How did you come to know God? through the Lord Jesus Christ,
by revelation of him. He's called in Hebrews, the apostle
and high priest of our profession. The apostle, the messenger. He's
the one who reveals God. That's how we know God, is through
him. No man knows the Father but the
Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. It is through Him that we rely
on Him for righteousness? I tell you, without that, no man's
going to see God. And His righteousness is the
only righteousness there is. There is no righteousness that
exists outside of His. We don't have any. We don't have
any. We rely on Him totally for sanctification? And we rely on Him totally for
redemption. He's it. He's it. It is a total, complete reliance
upon Jesus Christ for all that we need for time and eternity. For my daily bread and for the
bread of life. Totally rely on Him for it. And
it's through faith that we come to Christ. It's through faith. We don't
come to Christ through parents or the preacher. We come to Him
through faith. By believing. And faith is the
foundation of every grace. It's the foundation of every
grace. The measure of every grace in
us. I was thinking about this today. The measure of every grace in
us is this, according to thy faith so be it. How many times
did our Lord say that? Now, this faith by which the
just live is the gift of God. But it's your faith. If I give
you something, if I give it to you, Is it yours? This faith that is worked in
us by the work of the Holy Spirit is the gift of God, and it's
yours. Use it. Exercise it. Exercise it. It says over in
Ephesians chapter 2, Ephesians chapter 2, Well, by grace, are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves? That grace is not
of yourselves? That faith is not of yourselves?
Salvation is not of yourselves? It's the gift of God. Why do I believe God? and the
person beside of me does not believe God. Why do I believe
God when I have family members that don't believe God? First, grace. By the grace of God. And secondly,
it's the gift of faith. He gave me faith. It was given to me to believe
on Him. Scripture says it's not only
given to you to believe on Him, but also to suffer. I think it's
in 1 or 2 Thessalonians. But also to suffer for His name.
But it's given to you to believe on Him. As many as were ordained,
and when did that happen? Before the world began. As many
as were ordained to eternal life believed. They believed God. They believed the message concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. They believed Him. And no one
naturally believes God. I heard Henry say one time, he
said, someone said, I've believed Him all my life. He said, that's
just too long. You've believed just too long. There's no way
you've believed Him all your life. You were born, and I was
born with enmity in my heart against God. I and you were among
the greatest God-haters in this world until God saved us, until
he made one of his enemies his footstool. No one naturally believes God.
These children here are not going to naturally believe God. I don't
care how much you instruct Now they may make a profession because
that's the thing you do, it's the way we've been taught, but
I'm telling you what, they will not believe God until God does
a work of grace in their hearts and grants faith. And then they
can't help but believe God. Can't do it. Abraham believed God. Because Abraham was a work of
the grace of God. Abraham believed God and it was
accounted to him for righteousness. If you account something, it means it's there. You can't count what's not there.
You can't account for what's not there. What God imputes, He imparts. If He imputes the righteousness
of Christ to me, it's because He's imparted the righteousness
of Christ in me, in that new birth. Faith has to be a God-given gift
worked in us by the power by the power of God the Holy
Spirit. It takes Him. It takes Him. It takes the power of God to
bring a sinner to faith. This thing of begging people
to come down an aisle to accept Jesus as a personal Savior, it
takes more than that. It takes a new creation. It takes
Almighty God commanding life. It takes Almighty God to mandate
light. Can you do that? Can you talk
someone into that? Can you talk life into a person?
Can you talk light into a person? We can barely get them out of
high school. And we're talking about God. We're talking about Almighty
God giving light, life, spiritual life to a dead sinner. No begging will get that job
done. I tell you what, if the Holy Spirit
of God takes hold of a sinner, and He commands light and life,
illuminates, that sinner will believe. And the rest, listen,
the rest of his life, the rest of his or her life, They'll live
it by faith. The tenor of their whole life
will be believing God. Reading His words, sitting down
to preach Word, they will believe God. We do not live by sight, though
Jews said, show us a sign. God said, I'll give you a sign,
a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. Here he stands. Show us
a sign. Well, he's standing in front
of you. And they didn't believe him. They did not believe him. If he had called lightning down
out of heaven, they still wouldn't believe. He raised the dead. He raised Lazarus. You know what
they wanted to do? You know what the Pharisees wanted
to do? You read on, they wanted to kill him and Lazarus. They
wanted to kill Lazarus because of his resurrection, because
the Lord raised him from the dead. There was a lot more people
following them. Show us a sign. Well, they fed
5,000 with kids' lunch. Dead people cannot and will not
believe. God is light. Man is darkness. Our understanding, and I realize
this as I get older and the people I deal with out there in the
world, the darkness of human intelligence. It's amazing. I know we're amazed
at what we've accomplished, but you know, if we could see heaven,
we'd be so Stumped? We'd be so stumped. I mean, we
were just like, great, hey. Like walking around with a flashlight. God is light, and we're darkness by nature,
until he illuminates us. And still, in this life, we only
know in part, don't we? He says it's like looking through
a glass dimly. This flesh is so much of a burden
and a hindrance to spiritual life. That's why it has to be buried.
We've got to get rid of it. We've got to get rid of it. We
do not live by sight. We do not live by feelings. We
live by faith. If we live by feelings, We would
be unstable as water. Our feelings are like degrees
on a thermometer. It goes up, it goes down. You hear good news, you're happy. You hear bad news, you're sad. We don't live by that. We live,
no matter what the circumstance is, we live by believing God. Trusting Him. Following Him. Believing the Gospel. Learning
of Christ. Come what may. Come what may. Now I want to close by this.
What are the blessings that come to us by faith? Turn to Romans
chapter 5. These are just a few. We can go through a lot of these,
but I'm just going to go through a few of them. Romans chapter
five, there's two of them given right here in these first two
verses. In verse one, therefore being justified by faith. Well,
there's one. Justified by faith. Listen, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. We have peace. We not only have
the peace of God in the heart, but listen, there's real peace
between God and us through Christ. We have real peace. And then
it says in verse two, by whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand. We stand in grace.
We stand in the gospel. We stand in Christ. But it's by faith. You know, Scripture says, and
I'm trying not to deal with Hebrews 11, because I'm going to do that
Sunday. But faith is a substance of things hoped for. I'm getting
a little ahead of myself here, but faith gives reality to the
things we hope for. The world Those who do not believe
God, these things aren't real. Heaven, God, Christ. Faith is substance. Substance is something that's
what? Real. That's what we have. We have
access into this grace wherein we stand through faith. And then,
as I already mentioned here, we're justifying, justification. We read it there, but also I
want you to look over in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter
13. We should never claim to have
anything that we cannot establish by the word of God. Acts 13, 38. Be it known unto you, therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man," I preached from that
in Hebrews, this man, but this man, this man is preached, let
me read it from the beginning. Be it known unto you, therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins. But it doesn't stop there. All that believe are justified. Do you believe God? You are justified. You're not guilty. And by Him, all that believe
are justified from all things. You know, I know probably everyone
in here can think of one thing that you just Oh, I wish I hadn't
said that, done that. You know, there was one thing
that just smacked you right in the mouth. He said you're justified
from that one too. Which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. It couldn't justify, the law
can't justify you. You've got to be justified. I mean, you've
got to be just before the law can declare you justified. It's
not going to declare a criminal justified. It may pardon him,
it may let him go, but it's not justified. But the only way the
law can declare you and I justified is if we're not guilty. And listen,
we died Everyone who believes the gospel. We died in Christ
under the penalty of the law. As far as the law is concerned,
I was put to death 2,000 years ago. Actually, I was put to death
before the world began, because Christ is a lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. John Chapman was put to death. The law, as far as the law is
concerned, that criminal has been dealt with. That criminal
has been put to death. And now that new man, that new
John, that's born of God. There ain't no charges against
that one. Ain't no charges. And then righteousness. Look
over in Romans chapter 4. In verse 13, he says, for the
promise that Abraham should be the heir of the world was not
to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness
of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is
made void, and the promise made in none effect. Because the law
works wrath where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore,
it is of faith that it might be by grace. To the end, the
promise might be sure to all the seed. not to that only which
is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham,
who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made
thee a father of many nations, before him whom he believed,
even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those saints
which be not as though they were, who against hope believe in hope,
that he might become the father of many nations, according to
that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. 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, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded
that what God had promised he was able also to perform, and
therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness." Now, it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also. He's
teaching us something here. To whom it shall be imputed,
listen, if we believe. It's not going to be imputed
if you don't believe. Not apart from faith. Not apart
from faith. If we believe on him. that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered from our offenses
and raised again for our justification." Now, one last point. John, chapter
5. Eternal life. Verse 24. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that
sent me, hath everlasting life. Do you believe? Do you believe,
God? That's because you have everlasting
life. He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, listen, it says he hath it. It's
his. He got it. That's the reason he believes.
It's the reason he believes God has made him alive, and shall
not come into condemnation, but is passed from death, spiritual
death, unto life, spiritual life. Oh, what blessings, what blessings. The just shall live by faith. We have God's word.