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00:03 Good morning everybody. Um about 500 years ago a um a German
00:11 monk uh was plagued with sin and he felt terrible. So what he did he he went to
00:17 something called the sanctala. It's a the holy steps which were uh 26 marble
00:24 steps which were the steps that Jesus claimed to have walked up when he was judged by Pilate. and and he was walking
00:31 up these steps and he was on all fours and he was he was praying on his knees
00:36 every step and he was hoping that um the church would forgive him that the indulgence the church will offer will
00:43 come to him that his his sins will be taken away from him and as he was doing that suddenly this
00:49 passage of Habacook came to his mind the just shall live by
00:55 faith and he stood up immediately and He descended the stairs and he went back to
01:01 his hometown in Germany and he started going through the scriptures and trying to understand what it means. And exactly
01:10 500 years ago, October 31st, 1517,
01:16 he took a thesis, a 95 thesis, and he nailed it against a German church, which
01:23 marked the beginning of the Reformation, the Protestant Reformation. This monk was Martin Luther and it's very much
01:30 this verse that caused him to think through what then caused to be the reformation.
01:39 So we have a big task here today um to go and go through this passage and and see what it means and and we will go do
01:45 a couple of things today. We're going to we're going to see this passage repeat itself um all over the New Testament as
01:52 well. And this is what Martin Luther did. He he went back and and he he studied the scriptures. He studied the
01:58 just shall live by faith and he he looked at it from from different aspects and he looked at it from from Habacook
02:04 and then he looked at it in in Galatians. And then the same passage appears in Romans and it also appears in Hebrews.
02:13 And what we're going to try to do today is is is is journey through those scriptures together and
02:20 and see what we might learn from that. So, um, it's a big task. It's a daunting
02:26 task. Um, I've got all my notes here. So, we're going to be going through a lot of scripture today. I apologize for
02:31 that, but I think it might be a a a a good exercise for us to to see uh what
02:36 we can learn from how the just shall live by faith looks like from all these different passages. What I'll try to do
02:42 is I'll try to draw context uh for every one of these passages and then see what we can learn about righteousness, what
02:48 we can learn about faith and what we can learn about living out that righteousness and living out that faith
02:53 through the scriptures. So before we do that, let us start with a word of prayer.
03:03 Father Lord, we ask for your grace this morning as we we come here to try
03:08 to understand your scripture. Let us be reminded that understanding scripture fundamentally means standing
03:15 under scripture. So father we pray that as we stand under scripture you will will show us your
03:23 word today that we may hear it and maybe we live by it. So father right now I ask for your grace
03:30 that we may that I may speak your word clearly and faithfully and father that whatever is of you we
03:36 will stay in everybody's mind in our heart and convict our hearts whatever is not off of off you father that we'll forget it.
03:44 So father we we thank you for this morning we ask you to be with us. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
03:51 All right. So, we'll we'll start, of course, in Habacook because we're going through a series in Habacook. And um uh
03:58 we're going to see what it means that the just shall live by faith according to Habacook. Well, um let me draw the
04:05 context for us this morning first. And um I think Arnold last week explained um
04:10 Judah was having a a a terrible time in the city. And um um there was lots of
04:17 idolatry going on, a lot of sinfulness going on, a lot of injustice going on. And Habacook was not understanding. And
04:23 he he was crying out to God, why? What's happening? How can you let this injustice happen?
04:29 And and God answers him and says, I will I will I will take care of it. I'll bring Babylon and I will I will run over
04:35 you guys with Babylon. He's like, oh no, but they are wicked people and how can you do this? And um it's even worse than
04:42 what we're going through right now. and and that kind of sets up the situation where we're in right now. Um Habacook is
04:47 crying out to God. He's not understanding the times. Injustice is happening. Turmoil is having trouble is
04:53 happening. And and Habacook is is speaking to God. And and right here we start in chapter 2 with a with a little
04:58 interlude where he says, "I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower and I'll look out to
05:04 see what he will say to me and and what I will answer concerning my complaint."
05:09 So here's Habacook. He's saying I I will not react. I will not do anything. I I
05:14 will wait for you, God. I'll wait for you to answer first and only then I will react based on that and then God comes
05:22 and God answers and the the God says write the vision. Make it plain on tablets. Just like take out your iPad,
05:29 take notes. What I'm going to do, what I'm going to say is going to be really, really important. And I want lots of
05:34 people to run with it. I want I want people to understand it and I want people to take it to heart and so that
05:39 they can run with it. And he says, "For still the vision awaits its appointed time. It hastens to
05:46 the end. It will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it." He says, "Whatever I'm going to say, it may not come
05:52 immediately. It may take time. And even if you if you don't see it happening,
05:58 wait. You have to wait for it." And then it says and then he says here, "It will
06:04 surely come. It will not delay. Behold, his soul is puffed up. is not upright
06:10 with him. And he says, "But the righteous shall live by faith." And here
06:15 we have the the passage of the righteous shall live by faith. So he's showing us
06:21 as two kind of of people. The people who who could be puffed up and arrogant. And later on in verse 5, it says people who
06:28 will will drink wine and they will they'll do everything for themselves and they'll be selfish and and then later on
06:33 we'll go into five woes. What will happen to those people? And pastor Mark will cover that next week. So you can
06:40 see here a differentiation of of two kind of people and two kind of and how these two kinds of people should live as
06:47 they are waiting for God's salvation and waiting for God's justice to come and
06:54 God's answer to come. So it says here so what does it mean in in this context of Habacook that the righteous shall live
07:00 by faith? Well actually in the Hebrew we much better understand that the the righteous shall live by his faithfulness
07:09 there would be a better translation of this word here. So what does it mean to
07:14 be faithful? Clearly what we are seeing here that if you are righteous and who are the righteous we are trying to
07:19 understand who are the righteous people. The righteous people here are the Israelites the a covenant community.
07:25 They're not righteous because they're acting all morally at that point of time. and they're righteous because of the covenant of of of Abraham and Moses.
07:32 So, so they are covenant people. And he's saying if you are this righteous people, you shall live faithfully. And
07:38 and faithfully here means to the promises of God, trusting God, that God
07:44 will deliver, that God will answer, that God will come true for you. That even
07:50 though it doesn't seem like it in this current situation, God will have his
07:55 way. live faithfully. Steadfastly is another way to to say this.
08:02 So, how then do we live faithfully? How then do we live steadfastly?
08:08 How then do we wait? Is is is waiting just a a passiveness
08:13 that we sit back and we are slothful and we're just waiting for God to do his work and we do nothing?
08:19 Absolutely not. You see throughout scriptures if you look at what waiting means we we can see a great insight of
08:25 of how we are supposed to wait how we are supposed to live faithfully.
08:32 Well um there's many scriptures talk about that. Maybe we'll go to a scripture we are all bit more familiar
08:37 with which would be James 5. The reason we are more familiar with is because we went through it last year and I'm rather
08:43 familiar with it because I preached the passage. So that's why we're going there. Um so in here in James 5 about
08:50 faithful living it says this. Be patient therefore brothers until the coming of the Lord. Again you see a faithfulness
08:56 and a patience for a particular time of when God will answer when the Lord will
09:02 come. And he says see how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth being patient about it until he
09:08 receives the early and the late rains. You also be patient. Establish your heart for the coming of the Lord of the
09:15 Lord is at hand. So he says when we wait, we're supposed to wait like a farmer. A farmer who waits between the
09:23 early and the late rains. So what does that means? Between the early and the late rains are two different seasons.
09:30 After the early rains, you will then the soft the ground will be soft and you will start doing work. You will work the
09:36 the land and then afterwards you will will sew the seeds and and there's work to be done as you wait for the late
09:43 rain. So a waiting faithfully like a farmer is
09:49 not a passive sitting back. It's an active doing. You're doing something. You are preparing land. And ultimately
09:56 here in this passage it says establish your heart. Prepare your heart for when
10:02 the Lord comes. So this is something we can learn here about about waiting about living faithfully living steadfastly is
10:11 a waiting and active waiting and active preparing of our hearts.
10:16 Now there's another passage that gives us great insight on how we are supposed to live faithfully and that passage is
10:22 in Luke. Now in this Luke pass passage Jesus is talking and he's giving us a
10:28 parable and he is actually having Habacook 2 and three Habacook 2 and
10:34 three or Habacook 2 2 and three in mind as he gives this parable and he says
10:41 this and the Lord said who then is faithful and wise manager whom his m who
10:48 then is the faithful and wise manager whom his master will set over his household to give them their portion of
10:54 food at the proper time. Blessed is that servant who master will find so doing
11:01 when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.
11:07 But if that servant says to himself, my master is delayed in coming. So we can see the reference here of if there is a
11:13 delay, my master is delayed in coming and begins to beat the male and female servants and eat and drink to get drunk.
11:20 And here again we the reference of being drunk which we will see in the wos as well. The master of that servant will
11:25 come on that day when he does not expect him at that hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with
11:32 the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master will but um will but did
11:38 not get his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will receive a severe beating. Now it's it's
11:45 a warning passage. which is a harsh passage but it's it's a a passage that Jesus had in mind. He was thinking back in haba cook too and saying this is two
11:51 kind of people. The one who will wait faithfully the one who will prepare themselves they will do what the master
11:57 has done. It's an active doing it's giving the food to the people and and taking care of the people taking care of
12:03 self as compared to the other person who will just be about himself puffed up
12:08 arrogant going around his own ways drinking wine going around his own desires. So again we can learn something
12:16 about faithful living here. What it means that the righteous shall live by faith or that the righteous shall live
12:22 faithfully here. It's an active waiting. So here when we understand the righteous
12:29 shall live by faith. It's an active waiting a faithfulness a steadfastness. And again zooming back into the Habacook
12:36 passage itself we can see Habacook is doing that. So in the passage itself we
12:41 can see an application of what it means to be faithful. See, Habacook in the midst of turmoil, what does he do? He
12:47 goes to the watchtowwer. He prays. He talks to God. He prepares himself. He says, "I will not move until I hear you
12:53 answer. I'll be faithful. I'll be steadfast. I will wait for you before I react." So in the passage itself, we
13:01 also understand something about faithfulness. So clearly here when we
13:06 read the passage, the just shall live by his faithfulness or the just shall live by faith, he's talking about a practical
13:14 faithfulness, right? A practical righteousness. How we live our lives
13:19 steadfastly continuing on trusting God, trusting that he will provide, that he
13:25 will have a solution even though it may not seem like it at the moment. So it's
13:30 a practical living. It's a lifestyle. A practical righteousness.
13:36 All right, we've done with one scripture. Let's see how the just shall
13:41 live by faith looks like in Galatians. Now let me set the context. And this
13:49 context here is Paul is writing and Paul is upset. Um Paul's upset with the
13:55 Galatian people there. He's he's crying out to them. And he's saying, "Oh, you foolish Galatians. Um, who has bewitched
14:02 you? What has come over you?" He's asking him, "Have you not seen Christ crucified? Did you come not to faith by
14:09 by by hearing through believing? Believing through hearing? Was it by by works that you have been
14:16 saved or was it by faith?" That's what he he's upset because something happened in in Galatia that
14:22 that the Christian brothers, they were safe. But suddenly some Judaizers came and and they were telling, "No, you must get circumcised. No, you must eat
14:29 kosher. No, you must do all these works." And and Paul's upset. He's like, "Hey, don't you know that you've been saved by
14:35 faith and not by works." And then we come to this passage. He says, "For all who rely on works of the law are under a
14:42 curse. For it's written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law
14:47 and do them. Now it's evident that no one is justified before God by the law. For the righteous shall live by faith,
14:56 but the law is not faith. Rather, the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the
15:02 law by becoming a curse for us. So, who are the righteous here? He's talking, of
15:07 course, to the new covenant community. He's talking about the the Galatian brothers here. And what does it mean here to live by
15:14 faith in this context? It's clearly not a practical living out. He's not asking you to to do stuff. Don't be faithful in
15:22 this context. In contrast to living by works, living by faith, he's saying that
15:28 you receive your righteousness by faith.
15:35 by believing that what Christ has done on the cross will justify you.
15:44 So this is not a practical righteousness he's talking about. What he's talking about here is a
15:50 positional righteousness. That if you believe
15:56 in what Christ has done on the cross, if you have that faith, that faith will
16:05 position you in a standing with God that will make you righteous. So it's a faith
16:13 that does that. So here clearly it's a it's a a it seems
16:20 to be a very different kind of application to the same words.
16:25 So of course we could spend many hours and I I I have and therefore I'm not
16:30 going to make you guys go through that. Um try to understand how could Paul possibly use this passage
16:38 referencing Habacook 2 to mean something completely different. But we will not do that today.
16:46 Um we will go on and and see what further insights we can have by looking
16:52 at a different passage and that is the Roman passage. So let me just repeat where we were at in Habacook. We learned
16:60 that the righteous, the just shall live by faith means that you should faithfully, steadfastly live out your
17:06 faith. It's a lifestyle trusting God regardless of what's happening. trusting
17:11 that he will provide that he will have a solution and here in Galatian it means the just shall live by faith is that
17:17 your faith will justify you your faith will make you righteous it is not by
17:24 works it's not by following the Mosaic laws that you are justified but it's by
17:29 putting your faith in Jesus Christ that you are justified so let's go to the next passage
17:38 which is Romans Rans again let me draw context
17:45 in Romans. It's very easy to draw context because we are in chapter one of
17:50 the book. So so Paul is is really excited. He says I I yearn to see you guys. I I yearn to come and and be with
17:57 you and I want to come to you and I want to preach the gospel to you. That's why he's saying to Romans uh right there, I
18:02 want to preach the gospel to you because the gospel is awesome. And and he says well right here it tells why the gospel
18:08 is awesome. He says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone
18:14 who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in the righteousness of God, for in it the righteousness of
18:21 God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live
18:28 by faith." So here again, the passage, the righteous shall live by faith. So what
18:35 can we learn about righteousness and and living by faith from this passage? Well, the first thing is we learn whose
18:42 righteousness it is. See, it's the righteousness of God that
18:47 is revealed. So what happens when we place our faith in Jesus Christ? It's not that he makes
18:53 us more righteous and we become more righteous people. No, it is imputed righteousness.
18:59 It is an alien righteousness put upon us. It's a righteousness extranos. They
19:05 would say it's a it's a righteousness that does not belong to us. It is God's righteousness
19:11 placed upon us. See that truth when Martin Luther
19:16 discovered that truth about that passage he said the flood's gate of salvation opened up for him and the Holy Spirit
19:23 came into his life. He was he was a Catholic monk. when he made that realization that it is not through the
19:30 works of the church. It's it's not through the Lord's supper. It is not through all doing all these works that
19:35 you are becoming more righteous. No, it's a full righteousness of God of Jesus Christ placed upon you
19:43 when you so believe in the gospel. So it's an imputed righteousness.
19:51 It's an external alien righteousness that comes upon us. It's God's
19:57 righteousness on our lives. Now, who then is this righteousness for?
20:06 Well, in in Habacook 2, it was for the covenant community. He was talking about in Galatians 3, the context seemed to be
20:13 the righteousness he's talking about the the Galatian brothers, Galatian Christians. But here we hear something else. For I'm
20:19 not ashamed of the gospel. the power of God frustration to everyone who believes.
20:26 See, he's saying that righteousness is for everyone.
20:32 Now, what does that mean for us here today? It means that everybody here,
20:38 regardless of where you're from, what you have done in your life, how your past week looked like, whether you've
20:45 been church all your life, or whether it is the first time you've ever stepped into a church, whether you have a porn
20:52 addiction, a drug addiction, whether you are a workaholic, whether you cheat on your wife or your husband, whether your
20:59 eyes wander, whether you take a bribe or receive a bribe, Regardless of how your
21:05 sins look like right now, the gospel is for you.
21:12 You need the gospel. The gospel is for everyone.
21:17 For everyone who believes. So right now, if you're here and you've
21:23 you've you've never considered those truths and thought you were never worthy of receiving this that you thought you
21:29 must first change your life before you can come into a church or you must change your life before you can follow
21:34 Jesus. You must change your life before you can baptize saying. No, the gospel is for everyone right now. Where you at?
21:43 All you have to do is believe. And what do you believe? You have believe this. that Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago
21:50 came down to earth and he lived the life you should have lived. See, he lived
21:57 faithfully. He lived obediently, always trusting God
22:03 regardless of what circumstance may look like. Even in face of persecution, in face of his own death, he says, "Not my
22:09 will but your will." He lived a perfect life. He lived the life that all of us
22:16 were supposed to live. And he also died the death
22:22 all of us deserve. See all your sins, all your all your
22:29 addictions, all the things you have done wrong, past, present, and future were put on
22:38 that cross. and he died on that place for you.
22:44 This is what the gospel is that Jesus Christ took your sins, died for you, and
22:51 if you so believe in him, he will die for your sins too.
22:56 And then he rose again, overcoming sin, overcoming your sin. So as we place our
23:05 faith in that, we are imputed with his righteousness.
23:13 His righteousness comes upon us.
23:19 And I kid you not, there's something else we learn about this passage that
23:25 this gospel news that when we believe it, it is powerful.
23:32 See, it is the power of God unto salvation.
23:38 And trust me, if you if you believe in this, it will change the way you live your life.
23:45 See, the gospel changes everything. If you place your faith in that truth,
23:52 here in this passage says, it is the power unto salvation. And then if you be
23:57 righteous, you shall then live by faith. The way you live will be changed. Ask anybody here who came here once a sinner
24:05 and was transformed by the gospel that his life has changed. See what happens
24:10 when you accept Jesus into your life is the Holy Spirit comes into he gives you new convictions. He gives you new desires. He gives you a new heart. He
24:18 gives you a new identity. And if you tell me that all those things do not affect how you live,
24:26 I do not know if you have experienced it.
24:32 The righteous shall live by faith in this context clearly shows that it is not our righteousness. It is God's
24:38 righteousness. And as we live out those gospel truths in our life every day,
24:43 this is how the righteous live by faith because the gospel is a power that
24:49 changes us and changes our desires and therefore changes our lives.
24:55 And in this passage we have one more great implication
25:02 it says therefore I am not ashamed of the gospel.
25:10 What does that mean? That means when we go into our workplaces, when we go into our schools, in our
25:17 universities, when we go around in our neighborhoods, we should not be ashamed
25:24 of this truth which has powerfully changed us and ultimately changed the
25:30 way we live.
25:36 There's a couple of reasons why we can be ashamed. Because if we truly accept the gospel,
25:42 we must first come to realization that we are sinful people, that we are sinners, that we are
25:49 incomplete, that we're not perfect, that we are broken.
25:57 And to admit that sometimes we feel shame.
26:06 But it's such a vital thing for us to admit that we are those broken people
26:11 and that we should not be ashamed of that. But we have Jesus Christ who died for us and we are not ashamed that we
26:18 need a savior. We're not ashamed that we cannot save ourselves.
26:24 No, we boast in our weakness. And that gives us strength to go then
26:30 into our workplaces, into our schools, into our neighborhoods, to go and tell
26:35 everybody about that gospel. See, the gospel must so impact your life
26:42 that you want to go and tell everybody and not be ashamed about it. That's how the righteous
26:48 live by faith. Now is it going to be difficult?
26:58 Absolutely. Now you you are changed. Is that change natural? No. I would say it's
27:04 supernatural. But is that change easy? No. It is a difficult change. If you if
27:10 you read through the whole New Testament um and say that becoming a follower of Christ is easy. I don't know which book
27:16 you're reading. All over the place it says there will be suffering, there will be turmoil,
27:21 there'll be persecution. I mean Jesus himself said if you become my disciple and follow me, pick up your cross, count
27:29 your cost. I don't think he was joking. I think he was showing us clearly that
27:36 it is difficult to follow Jesus to to be a righteous person to live by faith to
27:41 trust in the gospel to trust God all the time to live out those truths.
27:48 Now that the gospel has changed everything our lives to live it out in the workplaces in our homes in our
27:53 neighborhoods. It's a difficult task. Nobody said it's going to be easy.
28:02 persecution will come. Why? Because when we live out the gospel in our
28:07 workplaces, we might just not take that bribe or give that bribe.
28:15 We might just have to confess our addictions to other people
28:22 so they can help us out of it. We might just have to confess to our
28:27 spouses that we hadn't been faithful. We might just have to confess to people
28:35 that we were not treating them right.
28:40 We might not have to think about ourselves anymore, but about others.
28:46 It's a difficult task. But the price is great,
28:54 you see. And because it's difficult, we have another passage.
28:59 You see, Hebrews speaks exactly into that difficulty. See, if you now look at the righteous shall live by faith
29:06 according to Hebrews, we have an author who's writing to people who are suffering, people who are straining on,
29:13 trying to be faithful to God. And he's trying to give them encouragement. And he says this, "But recall the former
29:19 days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings. sometimes being publicly
29:25 exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those
29:32 in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that yourselves had been had a
29:38 better possession and an abiding one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which was which has a great
29:46 reward. For you have need of endurance. So that when you have done the will of
29:52 God, have you been faithful, you may receive what is promised for yet
29:58 a little while and the coming one will come with no delay.
30:03 But my righteous shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no
30:10 pleasure in him. But we are not those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and persevere
30:18 and preserve their souls. You see here, the righteous shall live
30:24 by faith is that you will hold on in spite of suffering, in spite of the difficulties.
30:31 And right after this, right after this little passage here, we we step into
30:36 Hebrews 11, the hallmark of faith.
30:42 Now, I I wish I could I could just stand here and read to you the whole Hebrews 11, but maybe I've I've covered too much
30:48 scripture today already to do that. But go back and and read Hebrews 11. It says, "By faith, by faith, by faith,
30:56 people's life had been transformed. By faith, people overcame things. By faith, people were justified."
31:03 And ultimately, Hebrews 11 compiled together is by Hebrews 11:1. It says, "Now faith is the substance of things
31:10 hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
31:16 The righteous shall live by faith, the substance of things hoped for,
31:24 the evidence of things not seen." How does it apply to our lives? It says
31:32 here, "Do not lose heart as you are the righteous one who's who's
31:37 living by faith." Do not lose heart. Even though the the our outer selves are are wasting away, even though we are
31:44 suffering, you see our inner selves are being renewed day after day. How are they being renewed?
31:50 In the face of Jesus Christ, in the image of our creator, through the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we preach the gospel to ourselves, we are being renewed day
31:57 by day. And therefore these momentary afflictions, these these momentary
32:03 troubles are producing for us an eternal weight of glory.
32:08 So we do not look at the things which are seen. We do not look at the the transient things, the temporary things,
32:14 the seen things. No, we look at the things which are unseen.
32:20 For they are eternal and they last.
32:25 They are forever. So the righteous shall live by faith means the righteous shall live with
32:32 hope. So if you look at everything that we
32:37 have learned today from Habacook that the righteous shall live by faith. They
32:43 shall for faithfully trust in God. And we see that the righteous live by
32:50 faith that they should place their faith in Jesus Christ and by that faith they're being made righteous.
32:55 And that that righteousness according to Romans is not their own righteousness but an imputed righteousness. That
33:00 everybody can receive if you shall so believe that you can live that out faithfully by
33:06 being not ashamed of the gospel. And if trouble comes your way and suffering
33:13 happens you have hope. And the righteous can live by faith in that hope that they
33:19 have. You see, the problem that we have so often is that we think that there's a
33:24 dichotomy. There's a a difference between faith and faithfulness.
33:31 But it seems that here in scripture, faith and faithfulness are always linked
33:38 together. And isn't that true? You can't separate faith from faithfulness.
33:46 For whenever you have faith in something, you'll be faithful to that. Whatever you
33:52 place your faith in, that is what you will be faithful to. Your positional righteousness will affect your practical
33:60 righteousness. What you believe in will affect how you live. Just to explain to
34:06 you with an illustration maybe if you see a bridge and you have faith of a
34:12 bridge and the bridge is over a chasm and you have faith that that bridge will
34:17 hold but do not walk over it. You're not living by faith.
34:24 If you have faith in your marriage but be unfaithful to your spouse, you're
34:30 not living by faith. Or to put it easier, if you have faith in your wife, but send a private
34:37 detective to follow her around, you're not living by faith.
34:43 You see, your faith will always impact your
34:48 faithfulness. Always. Faith and faithfulness cannot be
34:55 separated. So what does it mean that the righteous shall live by faith? Well, we should
35:00 have faith in Jesus and we should live it out faithfully.
35:08 Now, one thing I want to close with as the worship team to come up
35:14 is it's interesting how Hebrews 11 finishes or or closes.
35:19 Hebrews 11 closes by by saying this. It it it it comes it first it gives a
35:25 hallmark of of all the people all the overcomers who who did every great thing they the heroes of faith
35:32 and then it comes to another section in Hebrews Hebrews 11 I think it's 32
35:38 onwards and it says this and what more shall I say for time would fail me to
35:44 tell of Gideon Barracks Samson Jeepa of David Samuel the prophets all these great people who have overcomers who who
35:52 enforce justice They obtained promised, stopped mountains of lions, quenched power of fire, escaped edge of the
35:58 sword. Everything they did by faith. But it says here there were some other
36:04 people who were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they
36:12 might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even change and imprisonment. They were
36:19 stoned. They were sawn. They were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute,
36:26 afflicted, mistreated. And it says at the very end,
36:33 and all these though commended for their faith,
36:38 though they were living faithfully and they were having faith, did not receive what was promised.
36:47 They didn't receive it here. It says here
36:56 since God had provided something better for us.
37:02 See God has provided something better for us. God has provided heaven for us
37:11 and that heaven is secured for us by the blood of Jesus.
37:17 So our hope is found on nothing less
37:24 than Jesus blood and his righteousness. And that's how
37:30 the just shall live by faith. Let us pray.
37:39 Father Lord, we come before you,
37:46 not perfect, broken.
37:55 Father, we ask for your strength to to trust in you
37:60 regardless how the situations look like to be faithful
38:06 for you are a faithful God who when he says he will come he will come that he
38:12 will deliver that he will deliver and father we know that it is not by us
38:19 doing all the right things that we come into relationship with you know it's through Jesus Christ that we
38:25 come into relationship with you and through our faith in him
38:30 and father we know that we we place our faith in him it's a powerful thing it will change our lives it will change the
38:36 way we live so father help us place our trust in Jesus
38:43 and father when our strength fails father we ask for your strength
38:48 let us be reminded of the hope that we have in Christ.
38:54 Father, we know that
38:59 when we say that the righteous shall live by faith, it means that we are justified.
39:05 When we say the righteous live by faith, it means that we are being sanctified. And Lord, we know when we say the
39:11 righteous live by faith, we will be glorified.
39:21 Father, we pray that we the righteous will live by faith.
39:26 Amen.
