Well, we come back this week
to Hebrews chapter 10, and it's probably the last time in Hebrews
chapter 10. I want to look at the second
half of it, and I've entitled it, God's Eternal Promise Held
by Faith. Faith is the key, faith is the
key. This is all about, as it says
in verse, Verse 20, verse 20, a new and living way, by a new
and living way, a new and living way, where to? to the kingdom
of God, to the eternity of God. You see, it isn't really new
because it's from eternity. This is the eternal covenant
of grace. He talked about it in verse 16,
the covenant that he would make with his people. So it isn't
new, but it's just newly revealed as the Old Testament, which was
not fundamentally different, but actually a picture, a prototype,
a pattern of that which would be fulfilled in the Gospel when
Christ came. And that is done away, that is
put away, that is ended, and this new and living way is revealed. It's the way of the New Testament,
the new covenant in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, yet
it has always been there from the very beginning. The Gospel
that Adam and Eve believed in the Garden of Eden, when they'd
been sent out of the Garden of Eden and God revealed to them
the truth, is this very same gospel. It's the gospel that
Abel believed when he brought his sacrificed lamb to God. Not because the lamb would save
him from his sins, but what the lamb pointed to. The seed of
the woman, the promised seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus
Christ, God, our God become man. to put right everything that
Satan in the fall had made wrong with Adam and Eve and all of
his race. It's a new and living way, a new and living way for
God's people. When I say his people, I mean
the elect that he's chosen. Oh, that's very narrow, you say,
that's so narrow. No, it's not, because it's a
multitude that no man can number. When John looked in Revelation,
in Revelation, was it seven? Yes, seven. When he looked, he'd
counted the tribes on earth, 144,000, and then he looked in
heaven and there was a multitude that no man can number of Jews. No, no, no, of every tribe and
tongue and kindred. God has his people from eternity,
a multitude that no man can number yet. In Adam, all are sinners. All have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God. So how are they going to come
by that new and living way into the kingdom of God wherein there
is no unrighteousness, where nothing that defiles can be admitted
to that kingdom? Answer? God has made a new and
living way to justly bring those people in, without violating
his justice to bring those people in, to qualify his people. It says in the scriptures he
has made his people meat-fitting, to be the citizens of his kingdom. He's qualified us to enter, and
not only to enter, but to abide eternally in his holy kingdom. Through how? Through the doing
and the dying of his son. The doing and dying of God himself,
God in flesh. For it was God that purchased
his people, from the curse of sin, from the curse of the law,
from the justice, divine justice offended. God purchased them,
ransomed them from that. How? With his own blood. God?
With his own blood? How could God shed his blood? God is spirit. Ah, God became
man. God became man. that he as God
and man in one glorious being might die to pay the price of
justice for the sins of his people, to redeem. When you redeem something,
you buy it back from a captive situation, to redeem from the
curse of sin. and he is our great high priest.
There is such a gulf between fallen man and holy God. There's a chasm that is impossible
to cross except one mediate for us, and he is our mediator. There is one God and one mediator
between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. He mediates with
God. as an unredeemed sinner, as a
sinner bearing your sins without the blood of Christ having paid
the penalty for those sins, as an unredeemed sinner, it says
in verse 31 of our chapter that it is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. I've heard in the past arrogant
men on the television, thinking they're such great philosophers,
and they're speaking about their unbelief, and they're saying,
when I get there, if there is a God, I'm going to tell him
a thing or two about the way he's messed things up. Oh yes?
Really? Oh yes? You'll discover it's
a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
It is. When Christ returns in final
judgment, the scriptures tell us that people will be screaming
out, crying out to the mountains to fall on us and hide us from
divine justice. But if God's Spirit, if God's
Spirit gives you faith, gives you that sight of the soul to
see that Christ's death was for me, If he does that, if he puts
a new covenant, verse 16 of our chapter, this is the covenant
that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I
will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write
them. If he gives you a new nature. If you're born again of the Spirit
of God, always say, oh, he's a born-again Christian, and it's
glibly dismissed as nonsense. No. Spurgeon once told the story
of a woman who used to keep saying to him at the end of his message,
you keep saying you must be born again. Why do you keep saying
you must be born again? She said, madam, it's because
you must be born again. You must be born again of the
Spirit of God. You who are dead in your trespasses
and sins, the Spirit of God must come and give you a new person
within. a person after the character of our Lord
Jesus Christ, a new creation, your sins washed away. Well,
if that's the case, verse 22, Let us draw near. Let us draw
near with a true heart, and in the full assurance of what? Faith,
the sight of the soul. In the full confidence, based
on what we see that the natural man cannot see, but that which
the Spirit of God opens the eyes of the soul to see. In the full
assurance of faith, Seeing it? Seeing what? Seeing the gospel
accomplished. Seeing all that Christ has accomplished. Seeing sins put away. Seeing
death abolished. Seeing the doors of that kingdom
of heaven opened wide. Let us draw near where they couldn't
ever go. They couldn't ever go to the
picture which was the holiest of all. in the temple of God
in Jerusalem in the Old Testament days the high priest alone could
go only once a year and only with exactly the right sacrifice
as specified to picture that which Christ would accomplish
but when Christ died on the cross that picture of the holiest of
all which is heaven itself that picture which was the holiest
of all in the temple in Jerusalem which was hidden behind a thick
thick veil that veil of When he died on the cross, the gospels
tell us that veil was torn from top to bottom. The thing that
barred the way for sinners was torn from top to bottom. Why?
Because Christ, our high priest, not the Levitical high priest,
Christ, our high priest, went in and he didn't go with something
that was just a picture, but an ineffectual picture. He went
in with that which was totally effectual. in purchasing the
propitiation, the turning away of the anger of God, and that
was his own precious blood. And so we come with confidence
and assurance and certainty and a solid hope. You know, we talk
in human language of hope as, I hope it's not going to rain
this afternoon, though if the weather recently has been anything
to go by, the chances are it probably will. We hope in that
sort of will it or won't it kind of way. But the hope in the scriptures,
the believer's hope is a confidence. It's apprehended, it's grasped. Apprehended, you grasp it, you
possess it, you make it your own. And how is it apprehended?
By faith, by that sight of the soul. And it's maintained by
faith. It's not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God, maintained by faith. So I've got three points.
Going on and holding fast from verse 23, then beware of complacent
presumption, and then persuaded of better things concerning you.
So verse 23, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without
wavering, for he is faithful that promised. What brought you,
if you are a believer, and if you have a hope of eternity,
a hope of heaven, what was it that brought you out of your
natural state of this world's darkness, of knowing nothing
of the things of the Spirit of God, what was it that brought
you out of that into what the Scriptures call the marvellous
light of God's kingdom? Answer, Ephesians chapter 2.
You know it well, verse 8. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8.
What was it that brought you out of that state of darkness
and just condemnation into the marvellous light of the kingdom
of God? Verse 8 of Ephesians chapter 2, for by grace are you
saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the
gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. It's the
grace of God. It's the undeserved favour of
God. It's the grace of God based entirely
on the choice of God and God alone, who in eternity chose
a multitude for his own glory to save them. By grace you are
saved, but how do you know about it? How do you grasp it? How
do you apprehend it? How do you live in the light
and the good of it in this life until you leave this life and
go to that kingdom? How is it that that happens?
It's by faith. It's by belief of the truth.
It's not of yourselves. Even that is not of yourselves.
It's not that some were good people and when they were offered
the same as everybody else, oh, these good ones, they chose to
believe, and these other ones, these naughty people, they chose
not to believe. It's the gift of God. God, the Holy Spirit,
comes and gives that gift of faith so that it's not anything
that you do, because you know what we would do as sinful people?
What it says in verse nine. We would boast about it. We would
brag about how good we've been. No, it's grace through faith
that brings us into that situation. It's the regenerating power of
the Holy Spirit, the new birth, the new creation. It's what it
says in 2 Thessalonians, when Paul is writing to the Thessalonians,
and in chapter 2 and verse 13. He's talked about those who reject
the truth, but then in verse 13 of chapter 2 of 2 Thessalonians,
he says, but we are bound to give thanks always to God for
you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. How does he know that they're
beloved of the Lord? He says, because God has from
the beginning chosen you to salvation. How does he know that they've
been chosen to salvation? Ah, he can see that it's through
the sanctification of the spirit and their evident belief of the
truth. Those things persuaded Paul that
the Thessalonians were amongst the true people of God. Belief
apprehended gospel truth. Belief, you know, they say, have
you apprehended the laws of motion in physics or something like
that? Have you apprehended it? Have you grasped it? Have you
sort of captured it and it's coming? No, this is apprehending
the gospel. Their belief apprehended gospel
truth. And they experienced the power
of God's gospel. You know, Paul says to the Romans,
he's not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God. It's
the sign of those who are truly saved is that they believe the
gospel of grace. They believe it. And if you believe
it, you rest on it. I believe that if I sit on that
chair over there, I will not go crashing on the floor. I believe
in that chair. I believe that it will support
me. I am prepared. to rest my whole weight upon
it because I trust it. That's the sort of thing it is,
to believe God. And Mark 16 verse 16 says, he
that believes and is baptized shall be saved. Saved from just
condemnation. Saved from that which God says
he must do to sin. The soul that sins, it shall
die. But in the gospel of grace, Christ has already died for his
people. Look in John chapter three. These
are some of the clearest verses. You know from verse 14, as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, and we won't go into
that now, I've explained it many times before, but he says in
the same way, even so must the Son of Man, that's what he called
himself, more than anything else on earth, so must the Son of
Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish
eternally in the judgment, but should have eternal life. When you weigh the value of words,
can you come across a set of words any more valuable than
that? That whosoever believeth in him should not perish eternally,
but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth... Oh,
it doesn't include me, it's only for the elect. It says, whosoever
believeth in me. How do you know it doesn't include
you? until you believe it, or until you reject it, whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Verse
18, he that believeth on him is not condemned. What? If I believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and when it comes to that day of judgment, I am not
condemned. That's exactly what it says.
But he that believeth not is condemned already, because he
has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And verse 36 of the same chapter, he that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath, the anger, the fury of
God abideth on him. It's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. Faith, or belief, is not
the work that you do that accomplishes salvation for you. Rather, it's
the evidence of the work of God's Spirit within you. Because you
are saved. because you are amongst the elect
multitude of God. You are redeemed from the curse
of the law. You are quickened, made alive. You are preserved for eternity
by God. The gospel is, as I've said,
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. In
Romans 3.26, it says, he is the justifier. Job asked the question,
how should a man be just with God? God is the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. In John chapter nine, when Jesus
healed the man who was born blind, And he got into all sorts of
trouble with the Jews and the Pharisees. And they kicked him
out of the synagogue and Jesus found him. And he said to him,
do you believe on the Son of God? And he said, I don't know
who he is, Lord, but show me who he is. And Jesus said, it's
me speaking to you now. And he believed to the saving
of his soul. Belief is the evidence that you're
redeemed by the blood of Christ. It's the evidence of salvation. You believe because you are one
of God's sheep, not the other way around. That's exactly what
Jesus said to the Pharisees. He said, you believe not because
you are not of my sheep. He didn't say, you're not of
my sheep because you haven't decided to believe. He said,
you believe not because you are not of my sheep. It is God who
is sovereign over all these things. So going back to 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 14, says uh he said how confident
he is that they're the lords he says where unto the the belief
of the truth the gospel where unto he called you by our gospel
to the obtaining of the glory of the lord jesus christ he gets
all the glory therefore brethren Stand fast. Don't move away from
it. Stand fast. Hold the traditions
which ye have been taught, whether by word, spoken directly to you,
or by reading our epistle. Hold fast, and that's exactly
what it says in verse 23 of Hebrews 10. Hold fast the profession
of our faith. Carry on in this life as you
began with Christ. Did you believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ? and know the blessings of the
assurance, the full assurance of faith, of salvation, that
you have a home in glory land that outshines the sun, that
that is your eternal destiny. Well, keep on believing that.
Keep on. Paul writes to the Galatians,
how did you start? By the Spirit. Well, why are
you trying to go off some other way? As you started, carry on. Keep going just as you began.
The goal of faith. What is the goal of faith? What
is the objective of faith? Look at verse 36. You have need
of patience that after you have done the will of God, you might
receive the promise. You might receive the promise.
What is the promise? It's the inheritance. It's the
eternal inheritance in the kingdom of God. Come ye blessed of my
father, inherit the inheritance. Come into the inheritance which
was prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Attain
the prize of citizenship. in God's eternal kingdom of bliss
and without wavering. have your eyes fixed on the goal. If you turn over a page or so
into Hebrews 12, see, Hebrews 11's all about the gallery of
faith, people that have believed. And he said, we're encompassed
about by this great cloud of witnesses, witnessing to the
truth of it. And there's a sin of unbelief, which so easily
besets us, but let us run with patience the race set before
us. How? Verse two, looking unto
Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. He's the author
of our faith and he's the finisher of our faith. And let us consider
one another. Verse 24, let us consider one
another. Let us be aware of one another
as believers, as fellow believers. To provoke, to encourage is what
that means. It doesn't mean to goad as with
a legalistic goading and prodding, as so many churches so-called
seem to like to do, but to provoke by example. lead by example,
provoke one another to love and good works, not forsaking the
assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but
exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day
approaching. We need to encourage one another
as believers by example and by practice, because as the words
of wisdom in the Old Testament say, in Ecclesiastes chapter
four, Verse nine, it says this, these are words of wisdom that
you can apply to many situations, but it certainly applies to this
race of faith, running the race before us, that together in fellowship,
with the benefits of fellowship, the blessing, the warmth of fellowship,
the encouragement, the mutual encouragement, two are better
than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if
they fall, the one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him
that is alone when he falleth. For he hath not another to help
him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat. But how
can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him,
two shall withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly
broken. Very simple, wise words about
the need for fellowship. We need regular fellowship. We need to meet together. We
need to meet for worship. We need to share the experiences
of faith. We need to sense one another's
needs for prayer between ourselves. And if not physically, face to
face, as it is for so many, especially in this country in these days,
there's been such an a wide-scale abandonment of the
true gospel in the traditional churches of this country, which
was so much a pillar and ground of the truth, the way that God
blessed this country in hundreds of years gone by. But today you
would say it's a complete barren desert apart from just ones and
twos in wilderness separation from this world. If we can't
physically meet together, which many of us really cannot, then
by internet cons. Just say hello to one another.
I'm not going to name her because I know she's watching now and
she'll be embarrassed if I do. But at the end of the service,
nearly every Sunday, I get a little SMS text message, and it's a
little yellow hand shaking. You know, don't you? It's a little
yellow hand shaking. And honestly, it's as if you
were in this room shaking my hand. Now do that to one another,
all of us. Just say hello. Doesn't need
to be a great long epistle. Just say hello to one another.
Visit when you can. Visit by an email. Visit by a
FaceTime, face-to-face. A good friend of mine up in the
north of England, we regularly, we regularly get together in
the same room. No we're not, we're 300 miles
apart. How do we do it? We use FaceTime and it's as if
for half an hour we're chatting away in the same room. Online
sermons are very good. We've got a rich, rich resource.
But we need as much contact with other believers as possible.
And we don't, we don't make this a legalistic work. As I've said,
so many do. And enforce it with discipline
and judgment. No, the emphasis is on mutual
encouragement. What is the work that we must
do? The Pharisees asked Jesus. He said, this is the work. of
God that you believe on the one whom he has sent. But at the
same time, beware of complacent presumption. In verses 26 to
31, we have a warning against complacent presumption. You see,
the Scriptures balance two things. They balance encouragement to
preserve true saints from fear that they're not the Lord's,
they're going to be lost. So there's lots of encouragement
not to give up and abandon the gospel because you fear being
lost. But that's balanced against,
that encouragement is balanced against warnings to deter those
who are mere professors of Christian faith from presuming on God's
favor. True saints persevere, verse
23, for he is faithful that promised. True saints persevere, for God
keeps his people. Jesus said God, the Father, will
keep his people. No one is greater than God the
Father. No one can pluck the people of God out of the hands
of God the Father. We were told in Philippians by
the Apostle Paul to work out our own salvation with fear and
trembling. Why? Why? It's a big, big task,
isn't it? Because it's God that works in
you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. And what is
the will of God? that of all that he has given
to the Lord Jesus Christ, not one should be lost, but all should
arrive in that eternal kingdom of God. He who began a good work
in you, says Philippians 1 verse 6, he who began a good work in
you will complete it, the author and finisher of our faith. But
here is a warning in these verses, against unbelief. It says, look,
in verse 26, if we sin willfully, oh, I know, whenever I sin, it's
only completely accidental. I never sin willfully. Are you
really deluding yourself with that idea? Of course we sin willfully. We sin willfully all the time.
All of our sin is a willful choice. All of it is. What's it talking
about then? It cannot be that. It cannot
be that. What is it? The sinning willfully that's
being spoken of here must be the sin of unbelief. Sinning
willfully is deliberately, on purpose, disbelieving. After
that we have received the knowledge of the truth. Sinning willfully
is disbelieving after we have received the knowledge of the
truth. Like in Psalm 73, the psalmist says, I was in a dangerous
position. My feet had well nigh slipped.
I came close to disbelief. I came close to walking out on
God's promise. The parable of the sower casts
light on this. You know, it's in three of the
gospels. Jesus taught, the sower went out to sow his seed on the
ground. and some fell by the wayside,
the track, and others on stony ground, and others in ground
that had thorns and thistles, and other on good ground. The
ground is the spectrum of humanity, and the seed is the word of God. Jesus explains it like that,
it's perfectly clear. Some, like the majority of humanity,
it would appear, is like the word of God landing just on the
hard track, doesn't even get anywhere near going into the
ground. And before it's found a way to take root, the birds
of the air come down. What are the birds of the air,
spiritually? We read about satanic powers,
the powers of the kingdom of darkness. these fallen angel spirits that
are all around seeking to pluck that sown word of God. It's by the foolishness of preaching
it, please God, to save those who believe. But Satan's purpose
is to try to pluck that good word away before people believe
it. But then there's the stony and
the thorny ground. Oh yes, it gets in there and
it germinates and there's a little root and you see a shoot coming
up. And there's an initial good show of seemingly true faith,
but through carelessness, through neglected fellowship, Through
stagnation without growth in grace and knowledge, they prove
to be false. It proves to be unbelief. It
was unbelief, you remember, Hebrews 3.19, that kept the Israelites
out of the promised land. They could not enter in. Why
could they not enter in? It says, because of unbelief.
And they died without mercy. In verse 28, He that despised
Moses' law, which was a gospel picture, died without mercy under
two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment,
suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under
foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant
wherewith he was sanctified, wherewith he claimed, professed
to be sanctified, an unholy thing. and a thundespite to the spirit
of grace. Having tasted, tasted only, not
imbibed, tasted the goodness of God's truth, to treat it with
indifferent contempt is punishment, is condemnation from God. But
you believers, yes, there's a warning there, You see, we go on, how
do we go on to that glorious kingdom of God? It's by faith,
looking unto Jesus, looking unto Jesus, by faith, clinging onto
faith, standing fast in the faith, stand fast in the profession
of our faith. But there are those who, having
made a show, prove to be nothing other than just a show. or pray
for our brethren, that none of us are counted amongst that number.
But he says he's persuaded better things. In chapter six, which
is the other chapter which gives severe warnings about unbelief,
in chapter six of this epistle, in verse nine, he says how serious
it is to fall away in unbelief. But verse nine, but beloved,
We are persuaded better things of you, and things that accomplish
salvation, though we thus speak, though we give you this warning.
We're persuaded better things, and so it is in these verses
here, towards the end of the chapter, from verse 31 onwards
down to, verse 32 onwards down to the end. Look at verses 38
and 39. The just, the justified one,
shall live by faith, shall live by, their faith looking unto
Jesus. But if any man draw back, my
soul shall have no pleasure in him, is what God says. But we
are not of them who draw back unto perdition, unto lostness,
eternal lostness, but of them that believe to the saving of
the soul. And he's going to go on in chapter
11. The whole chapter is about Old Testament saints who lived
this life in sinful flesh, not looking back at an accomplished
gospel, but looking forward to the promise through the types
given. But they lived in this flesh,
in this sinful flesh, in the face of trials. How did they
live? By gospel faith. They lived patiently
waiting God's time to enter eternity. And in spite of fleshly weakness,
and in spite of black slidings to which we're all prone, and
despite of sin, even the willful sin that we do, they persevered
in faith. They were not stony ground believers,
stony ground professors, I should say, thorny ground professors. The stony ground, no depth of
root. The thorny ground, they seem to grow well, but the thorns
and the thistles, what's that? It's the cares and the things
of this world seducing away from the truth of God in Christ. But
good grand believers is what they proved to be. Fruitful believers. What about you? Verse 32, call
to remembrance the former days in which after you were illuminated,
you endured a great fight of afflictions. How did you start
on the road? You heard the gospel of grace.
Your soul was needy. Your soul was made aware of sin. You repented of that sin and
you saw in the Lord Jesus Christ. There was the glorious remedy.
There was the answer. And you believed the Lord Jesus
Christ. That was the illumination that
you had from God right at the start. But you had affliction
from the world. Because in believing that, you
immediately found yourself on a different wavelength to the
rest of the world. And the world, in varying degrees,
was alienated from you. And the world, in various degrees,
hated you for believing that thing. What did they hate you
for? For trusting in gentle Jesus, meek and mild? No, well, he was
a nice man. You can believe in him if you want to, but I'm not
going to fall out with you. No, I'll tell you what they hated
you for. Because it's not of him that willeth, nor of him
that runneth, but of God that shows mercy. And God in sovereign
grace, chose a people for his own glory, and that's it. That's
what the world, and especially the religious world, hates of
the true Christian gospel. But you evidence true faith,
he says. And in verse 34, well, verse 33, you were made a gazing
stock by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst you became
companions of them that were so used. You had fellowship in
those sufferings with other believers. And you had compassion on me,
he says. I'm sure this is Paul that was
writing. In my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your
goods. You weren't laying up treasure here on earth, but in
heaven. Knowing in yourselves ye have in heaven a better and
an enduring substance. Cast not therefore away your
confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For you
have need of patience, that after you have done the will of God."
What is the will of God in believing? What is the will of God? This
is the will of God. I'll summarize it. I've got some
points in my margin. You repent of your sin. You believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and all that he has done. You forsake
this world. Yes, you live in it, but you
don't live of it. You're not part of it. You don't
think like it. You leave nominal religion and
those who preach that nominal religion and you seek the Lord's
face and you wait and you endure for when he takes you to his
eternal kingdom and in the process you resist sin and you keep going. That's the will of God for his
people that you might receive the promise for yet a little
while Yet a little while seems to go on and on and on, doesn't
it? It's a time, times, and half a time. You read that in Revelation.
A time seems like a long time, and then times seems twice as
long for a long time, and then half a time, and it ends. For
a little while, and he shall come and will not tarry. Now
then. This is quoted three times in
the scripture at least, might be more. The just, the justified
one, the one made just before God, shall live by faith, shall
live his life by faith, shall live his life with patience,
with patience, content to wait on God, content to believe nothing
other than the gospel of his grace. Because if we do, and
if these Hebrews were tempted to go back to the Old Testament
pictures, to make Christ secondary to what they really wanted to
do. Galatians is so clear. If you do those things, Christ
will be of no effect to you. He will profit you nothing. The
gospel unmixed alone has great recompense of reward, is what
it says here, verse 35. The gospel alone and unmixed
has great recompense of reward. Don't dilute it. Don't mix it
with anything, or else Christ will profit you nothing. How
severe was Paul's condemnation of the Galatians, who were inclined
to mix gospel grace with legal works. So then, verse 36, you
have need of patience, to wait on God, doing his will, what's
that? Believing his Son. The just shall
live by faith, believing his Son, for the promise is certain. And how long should I keep on
doing it? Keep on living by faith. I am crucified with Christ, said
Paul in Galatians 2.20. I am crucified with Christ. I'm
killed with Christ. That which the Lord demands of
me because of my sin is accomplished in Christ. I am died with Christ. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in
me. and the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. I live, not I, but Christ lives
in me. Don't draw back to perdition,
to a state of being lost for eternity. Go on believing. living
by faith to the saving of the soul, just as those that we're
going to see in the next chapter 11. Numerous clear examples from
the Old Testament era of those whose faith was focused on Christ. Yes, I know He hadn't come in
the flesh then, but they could see Him by faith. He was revealed
to their souls, the promised seed of the woman, and resting
in Him, they lived by faith until they were taken to that glory,
until they possessed that promise. Amen.