Let me see if I can do something
today with the subject of faith. I don't think there's anybody
out there listening that's not interested in faith. Faith. I want to deal with four or five
things. Number one, the object of faith.
What is the object of saving faith? And then secondly, the
foundation of faith. The ground of faith. On what
authority do we preach and believe what we believe? And then, I
want to look at the results of faith. And then, last of all,
the evidence of faith. Now, in Romans chapter 1, verse
16, listen to what Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for that gospel is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek, for in the gospel is the very righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith, from one degree of faith to another, as
it is written, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. And do you know that's written
in the Word of God four times? The just shall live by faith. We find it in Habakkuk. Find
it here in Romans 1. You'll find it over in Galatians
3. You'll find it in Hebrews 10,
38. The just shall live by faith. Now, I know what that's saying.
Do you know what that's saying, the just shall live by faith? Well, let's break it down. The Our Lord was called the just
one, but we know it's not talking about Him here. He doesn't live
by faith. We're talking about the justified.
The just shall live by faith, that is, the innocent. A man
who's just is innocent. He's not guilty. He's justified,
therefore he's not guilty. And yet Solomon said in Ecclesiastes,
there's not a just man upon the earth. Not one. who doeth good,
and sinneth not." There is not a just man upon the earth who
doeth good and sinneth not. And yet four times in the Word
of God it says, the just shall live by faith, and Solomon comes
along and says, there's not any. There's not any. And Job asked
the question three or four times, how can man be just with God?
How can he be just, justified, who's born of a woman who drinks
iniquity like the water? Then if there's not a just man
upon the earth who doeth good and sinneth not, then who are
these just people, these who are justified, these who are
innocent? Well, they're those people who've been justified
by God, who've been justified by God. Romans 8.33 says it's
God that justifieth. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. God
justifieth them. They're justified because God
justified them. That's what it says. Romans 8.30,
what does it say? Whom he predestinated, he called. Whom he called, he justified. Whom he justified, he glorified. So these who are justified, the
just, they're not guilty. The innocent, the justified,
shall live by faith. And Paul in 1 Corinthians 6,
he names all sorts of sins, sins of men and women. I mean terrible
sins. And then he comes up to this
verse in verse 11, and he says, "...and such were some of you."
That's what you were. But you're washed, you're sanctified,
you're just. You're justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God. We're justified. Who are these just? The just
shall live by faith. Who are they? The ones God justified. Not the ones who claim they're
justified, but the ones whom God actually justified. In the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ and by His Almighty Spirit. And notice next, it says the
just shall live. Shall live. Live. Scripture says,
and Adam all died. All died. It's appointed unto
every man who wants to die. Everybody's got to die. And here
this is talking about, he says, the just, of which Solomon said
there aren't any, shall live, and the Word of God says they're
all going to die. But this is a miracle of God. This is something
God does. This is something man can't do
any more than the Ethiopian can change his skin or the leopard
his spots, but God can do it. And we're justified by God and
it says here we're going to live. The Bible says death passed upon
all men, it's appointed unto all men to die. Well, who is
this group of people who will live? Well, number one, listen
to it, they live spiritually because they're born of God.
To as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become
sons of God, which were born, not of the will of man, not of
the will of the flesh, but they're born of God. They live, the just
shall live, because God quickens them by his Spirit from their
deadness spiritually in Adam. And then they not only shall
live spiritually, but they'll live daily, walking, Not by sight,
but by faith. Now are we sons of God. And not
only that, but they're going to live eternally. The just,
justified by God, shall live. Live spiritually, live now, and
live eternally. Christ said, I'm come that they
might have life and have it more abundantly. And because I live,
they live. And Revelation 21 says, I heard
a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God
is with men, and he'll dwell with them, and there'll be his
people, and God himself will be with them, and be their God,
and God'll wipe all tears from their eyes, and there'll be what?
No more death. They'll live. Those whom God has justified. in the name of his beloved Son,
by the power of his great and mighty Spirit, shall live." Now
watch this, and here's where I'm coming to the subject of
faith. The just shall live by faith,
by faith. Romans 5, 1 says, therefore being
justified by faith, by faith we have peace with God. In Romans
3, 28, Paul says after going over the lives of the pagan Gentiles
and the religious Jews, he said, therefore I conclude that a man
is justified by faith, faith alone, without the deeds of the
law. And for his illustration, he
uses Abraham. He says Abraham believed God.
He believed God and he lived. He believed God and he was justified.
He believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. He
believed God, and he was called the father of the faithful. He
believed God, and they said the seed, Christ, would come through
Abraham. He believed God. He believed. Now then, what is this faith
that justifies? We're justified by faith. What
is this faith that saves? What is this faith that brings
us into living union with Christ like the vine and the branch,
like the head and the body? What is this faith that brings
us into a vital union with the Son of God, whereby that we're
seated with Him in the heavenlies? Well, I believe I can give you
four things that will be most helpful to you. It's helpful
to me, and it will help you to understand this faith that justifies. Now, here's the first point. The object of faith, the object
of faith's got to have an object. And the object of saving faith,
now listen to me, the object of saving faith is the Lord Jesus
Christ. I say that without compromising
or hedging or explaining. It's Christ. Christ Jesus. He is the object of saving faith. Now, I know that salvation is
the work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Lord our
God is three in one, our one God. But the chief object of
saving faith is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We believe
the Father, the Father who chose us and purposed our redemption.
We believe the Holy Spirit who quickened us, who's our comforter
and teacher. But the object of faith is Christ. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath everlasting life. his person and his work. And
then I know that true salvation will produce works. It will produce
works of faith and labor of love. But I tell you this, he who looks
in any measure to his works or to his labor or depends in any
way upon his deeds, for salvation will perish. Christ is the sole
object of saving faith. The hymn writer put it this way,
have found a resting place. Not in device or creed. I trust
the ever-living Christ. His wounds for me shall please.
And I need no other argument. I need no other plea. Jesus Christ
lived and Jesus Christ died for me. I know that salvation is
an experience. I know it's an experience of
joy and peace. But my friends, we must not,
we will not, we cannot look to our experiences or to our feelings,
only to Christ for all things, for He, listen to this, of God
are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification and redemption. All I need is
in Christ. Listen to this verse. This is
the record. God hath given to us eternal
life, and this life is in His Son. It's not in a dream or an
experience or a decision or a feeling. It's in His Son. And he that
hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. You see, Christ Jesus, the Lord,
was cursed. He bore the curse of the law. He endured the curse of the law.
He bore the wrath of God in our place. And it's by His sacrifice
and obedience that we're made whole. Saving faith at all times,
under every circumstance, looks to Christ and Christ alone. How
do we look to Christ? Well, listen to this briefly.
We look to Him as God. He's not lesser God. He's God.
He's equal with God. He taught it not robbery to be
equal with God. He's their God of their God.
Though He's the God-man, He's still God. He has all preeminence
and all power. He said, all power and authority
is given unto me in heaven and earth. The Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And
in Isaiah 9, 6, the prophet called Him, in the same breath, Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God. the everlasting father, the prince
of peace. And yet he called him a son given
and a child born. That's the mystery of godliness.
God was manifested in human flesh. So faith looks to Christ. That's the sole object of saving
faith. It's Christ. Christ is God. Christ is our representative.
Christ is our righteousness. He was made sin for us who knew
no sin in order that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. He suffered the just for the
unjust, literally, to bring us to God. He's our righteousness,
and we look to Him as our high priest. We have a high priest. The priesthood is not denied.
Christ said, I didn't come to destroy the law. I came to fulfill
it, to fulfill it. And Christ is our Sabbath fulfilled. Christ is our circumcision fulfilled. Christ is our priesthood fulfilled. And those things are set aside.
He taketh away the first and establishes the second. He is
our high priest. We have a high priest. We have
a sacrifice. We have a mercy seat. We have
a Passover. Christ is our Passover. It's
not a new way of saving men. God saves men by Christ who fulfills
all the promises and purposes and patterns and types. Do you
see that? Christ, we look to Him as our
justifier. We're justified because we're
in Him, and in Him there is no sin. And we look to Him as our
King. So, my friends, the object of
this faith that saves, the just shall live by faith, the object
of faith is Christ Jesus the Lord. I find in Him all I need. And my church membership and
church family and works of faith and labor of love and all these
other things are but things that I enjoy in my relationship with
Him. And they're motivated by my relationship
with Him. He's the sole object of my faith.
He's our first love. And that's what He said to Peter
sitting by the fire there. He said, And Peter said, well,
you know all things. You know I love you. He said,
well, then feed my sheep. If you love me, you'll feed my sheep.
Now, secondly, the foundation of faith. Now, listen carefully.
I'm trying to help. I know there are multitudes of
people who are hollering, believe, believe, but they're not telling
me what to believe. They're saying, look, but they're not telling
me to whom, to whom. And they're saying, well, just
trust. Well, trust whom? What do you do? Why'd he do it? Where is he now? Can he be trusted? Does he have somewhat to offer? Will God accept him? It would
be awful to trust your salvation into the hands of someone that
God didn't ordain, and God didn't accept, and with whom God won't
do business. All right, we preach that God...
Listen, we preach that God in mercy... Now, here's the foundation
of faith. the foundation of faith. I preach
that God in mercy and grace will forgive sin. God will forgive
sin. God will pardon the chief of
sinners. On what authority do I say that? Did I just get that
out of the air somewhere? Is that what you learned in school? Or on what authority do you make
a promise like that? Coming to me all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest." Where do you get things
like that preached? On what authority? We preach
that God sent His Son, God Himself, in the person of His Son, came
into this world as a propitiation, a sin offering, a mercy seed,
a covering for sin. And we say, come to Christ and
be healed, be made whole of whatever need. On what authority? On what authority? You might
as well, you know, if you don't have any authority, you're about
like that fellow that says, sit cross-legged in a cave and God
will take you to heaven. Lie down on a bed of spikes and
God will take you to heaven. Crawl on your knees across the
stone floor and burn a candle in the window and God will take
you to heaven. On what authority? And that's what I'm asking here.
When we preach, there's life and eternal glory for all who
will look to Christ, all who will believe Christ, all who
will rest in Christ. And I say, on what authority?
Well, my answer is this. The Word of God. The Word of
God. The foundation of faith is the
Word of God. Not a feeling or an experience
or a tradition or a custom or the old church fathers or what
you think or I think. There's a way that seemeth right
unto men, and the end is death and destruction." This book is
the foundation of faith. It says, "...faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God." And I'm telling you
this, I know enough about God's Word, not much, but I know enough
about it, to know that the theme of the entire book, is redemption
in Jesus Christ. That's the theme of that book
from Genesis to Malachi, from Matthew to Revelation. The theme
is redemption. The mercy of God in redeeming
sinners in Jesus Christ. Listen to Acts 10.43. To Him,
to Christ, give all the prophets witness. Who are the prophets?
Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jeremiah, Solomon. These are the prophets. And to
Christ give all the prophets witness that through his name,
whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission, forgiveness
of sin, by believing Christ." That's what that whole... Moses
said that. Christ said, Moses wrote of me. What did Moses write? The first
five books of the Bible. And in his first five books,
he talked about the seed of woman. He talked about the Passover
lamb. He talked about the smitten rock. He talked about the ark
of Noah. He talked about the brazen serpent.
He talked about the bread from heaven. He built the tabernacle
with his priesthood, with his table of showbread, and his altar
of incense, and his ark of the covenant overlaid with gold,
the cherubims, and the shekinah glory, and the atonement. That's
all Moses wrote of Christ. That's Christ in all those pictures. I've been writing a series of
Sunday school lessons on preaching Christ from the Old Testament.
I've written 63 of them already. I've just got to the book of
Psalms, working on the Psalms now. And I've found so many,
many pictures of Christ our Lord in the Old Testament. And I wish
there's some way that I could impress on you the importance
of searching the Scriptures, Search the Scriptures. We have
no warrant to believe anything if we don't find it in the Word
of God. You know, those noble Bereans, they heard Paul preach,
and they went home and searched the Scriptures to see if these
things be so. Christ said, Moses wrote of me.
Abraham wasn't saved by laws and duties. Abraham was saved
by faith. By faith, Abraham looked to Christ. Abraham saw my day. He saw it
and rejoiced, Christ said. When he walked up that mountain
with Isaiah, I mean with his son Isaac, Isaac said, where's
the lamb? He said, my son, God will provide
himself a lamb. Christ said, he saw my day. David,
the Lord, is my shepherd. Isaiah, he was wounded by a transgression. Oh, I just wish there's some
way that I could challenge men and women, young people, to read
the Word of God. And don't read it like a book
of proverbs, or good sayings, or good luck charm, or a historical
fact. Read it to find Christ, and redemption,
and mercy, and grace, and the love of God, and the forgiveness
of sin. That's what it's all about. That's
what it's all about. All right, thirdly, I want you
to see the results of faith, the results of faith. Let me read, just read some scriptures. Look at Acts 16.31 says this,
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. That's
the results of faith. You believe, you'll be saved.
What's saved mean, preacher? It means delivered, delivered
from the penalty of sin, Delivered from the power of sin. Delivered
from the curse of sin. Delivered from the wrath of God
against sin. Delivered from the death of sin. Delivered. Believe Christ, you'll
be delivered. And then John 3.18 says this,
He that believeth on the Son is not condemned. Never condemned. Free from all condemnation. You
know, Paul wrote this, there's no judgment to them who are in
Christ. We've already been judged. Our sins are put away. Listen
to John 1, 12. To as many as received him, to them gave he
the right, the privilege to become sons of God. Think about it. The results of faith. A son of
God. Even to them that believe on
his name. And if a son, then an heir. A joint heir with Jesus
Christ. Acts 13, 39. By him all that
believe are justified. I talked about that earlier,
innocent of all charges, not guilty. John 3, 36, He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. You know what that is? That's
the life of God. That's the life Adam lost in
the garden, spiritual life, the life of God. This natural life
is temporary, goes by so quickly, and dust thou art, to dust thou
shalt return. But to believe on Christ, is
to be given eternal life, and they'll never die. And Romans
9 says, Whosoever believeth on him shall never be ashamed. I'm
thankful for that. Never be ashamed. God's not going
to let you be ashamed. You're not going to be ashamed
at the judgment when all the secret things are brought into,
revealed, and when all the things He said that had spoken in the
darkness done in secret will be brought out into the open
and judged. Not you. Not you. Christ has already borne
your shame and guilt on the cross, and you'll never be ashamed.
Never be ashamed. The bride of Christ is not going
to be ashamed. She's clothed in His holiness.
She'll never be ashamed. Romans 4 says this, Abraham believed
God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness. And this was
written not for his sake alone, to whom righteousness is imputed,
but for our sakes, who shall receive it by believing on Christ."
How do we receive the righteousness of Abraham? By believing. That's the results of faith.
Bold I stand at that great day, for who ought to my charge can
lay. Even then shall this be all my
plea, that Jesus Christ live and died for me, I believe. Therefore,
have I spoken?" Our Lord said to that centurion one day, He
said, Can you believe? All things are possible to them
that believe. All things. That's the results
of faith. Now last of all, the evidence
of faith. I've showed you the object of
faith, it's Christ. God has vested all things in
Christ. He's put everything in His hands.
And the foundation of faith is His Word. God's Word. And the results of faith is life,
glory, eternal joy, and last of all, the evidence of faith.
Faith is shown by works. The faith that saves is not a
dead faith. I beg your pardon. The faith
that saves is not disobedient faith. I hear people say, well,
you teach salvation by faith alone. You encourage sin and
indifference. That's not so. That's not so. God's people have a living faith,
a working faith, a loving faith, an obedient faith, a willing
faith, a devoted faith, a single faith. He loves Christ. And I'll
quote this scripture for you. Listen. For by grace, God's grace,
are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus on two good works, which God has ordained that you
should walk in them, not out of duty or law, but love. I have two messages on this tape,
giving and faith. If you want the tape, send two
dollars, we'll mail it to you. The address will be given to
you. Until next week, may God bless you.