journey to their eternal home. While you and I hold the answer in our hearts and in our hands, while we go about our daily lives never sharing God's great plans, How many more will die before we go? How many face eternal flames because they did not know? while you and I are too afraid to speak our Savior's name. How many more will die before we go? Our hearts are touched when someone speaks of people far away who've never heard God's precious word or that he came to save. The tears course down our faces, but then we brush the tears away. And we go about our daily lives, dreaming what we'll do someday. How many more will die before we go? How many face eternal flames because they did not know? While you and I are too afraid to speak our Savior's name, how many more will die before we go? God longs to hear, Lord, here am I, I'll go. And make a difference in this world, the love of Christ to show. No more content to live my life, to please myself alone. Lord if you can use me here, am I, I'll go. It's beautiful. Our scripture reading, Hebrews 11, one through six. Hebrews 11, one through six. Stand, if you would, for the reading of God's word. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report, Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Thank you, and you may be seated. Amen. So good to see everybody today and glad to have those that are guests with us this morning. I pray to just make yourself at home today and looking forward to the message coming up. Brother Dameron is going to be preaching here in just a moment. But before that, if you are visiting with us today, we take just a moment right now just to spend a little bit of time and pray. And you know, it's so often we come into the house of God and we've got so many things upon our mind and so many thoughts about Tomorrow and the next day and things like that. I'm gonna let these guys finish passing out and And I'll we'll move into this prayer time here, so All right Okay, excellent, thank you. Thank you, man. Thanks for doing that and Anyway, but we have just a quick time of prayer to kind of shift gears in our mind and kind of get our thoughts and our mind on the preaching that's coming up here. So while the music plays, we're just going to pray for a little bit right where you are. Ask the Lord to just kind of help you and get distractions off your mind and help you to focus today on the preaching that's about to happen. And just try to clear your thoughts and get in gear here. So let's do that. We'll have just a moment now, and then I'll close this up here in just a moment. So let's pray. you. Our Father, we thank you so much this morning for the opportunity to be in this place and gather together. And we thank you for those that have been visiting with us and have been by today. And we say thank you so much for that. And Lord, just already what we've been able to just experience and do so far today, just the hymns and the songs, and Lord, message in the special just a little bit ago how many have to die before we'll go and what a just a probing thought that is and I pray that you even that song right there you begin to tenderize and stir up our own hearts and Lord that that thought would be upon our mind today and tomorrow your Holy Spirit would bring it back and We'd meditate on that as we'd be reminded about our responsibility as ambassadors of Christ to be out in the highways and the hedges and compelling them to come in. A lifestyle, not a Saturday thing, but an everyday thing. And I pray you'd do that work in our hearts. Father, we lift up Brother Dameron this morning. We ask you just to fill him with your Holy Spirit, give him the power and the ability to preach today. Lord, would you give him a clear mind and just the liberty to preach today. And I know that liberty is going to depend upon us with a ready heart and mind to receive what you have for us. And we look forward to what you have. We just pray you'd help us to receive it and to make the changes in our life that we need to make in our life that you point out. Father, we ask you to remove any distraction in here today, whether it's in our own minds or externally, and we know Satan would love to distract the Word, and we just pray you'd bind Satan and devils and just give just an open doorway for your Word to get out today, and we'd allow it to be effectual in our own hearts. We're thankful, Lord, for what you're going to do today. We want you to be glorified in all of it. We want Jesus to be exalted today. And we want you to make us more and more like him. And we know you've promised that, and I know it's up to us to allow you to do that. So I pray you'd help us to do that today. And we'll thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. This last song that we're gonna sing, this last hymn was written by John R. Rice. Some of you, most of you know this. And what a great song to go along with the special that was sung this morning, So Little Time. So Little Time, The Harvest Will Be Ended. And would you think about those words as you sing them? It's so easy for us just to let words roll off of our mouth when we sing. But there is a massive, huge message in these. And I just pray that we would think about them as we sing. So find your way to page 98. You can stand one more time. And turn to page 98. Page 98. Let's do the first, fourth, and fifth verse. So little time, the harvest will be over. Our reaping done, we reapers take it home. Report our work to Jesus, Lord of harvest. And hope he'll smile and say to you, well done. Today we reap. us false souls to wed. Oh, then to save some dear ones from the burning, today we'll go to bring some sinner in. A day of pleasure or a feast of friendship, how often did I fail to strictly warn? We'll beat it dry, get under, dilute it, or digest it into the sludge we pour. Today we reap, or miss our goal. Givin' us lost souls to win Oh, then to save some dear ones from the wounding Today we'll go to bring some sinner in. The harvest wine with reapers few is wasting, and many souls will die and never know the love of Christ, the joy ♪ Oh, let us weep and love and pray and go ♪ Today we read our Mr. Golden Harvest ♪ Today he's given us lots to win ♪ Oh, then to save some dear ones from the burning ♪ Today we'll go to bring some sinner in ♪ Thank you, you may be seated. All right, if you have your Bibles, turn to Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 11, and we'll look at that passage, we had it as our scripture reading, but I'm gonna back up a little bit and let's look at chapter 10 and verse 35. Chapter 10, so you know, one thing when you're studying scripture, I'm glad that there are scripture divisions like chapter, verse one or whatever, but sometimes that can confuse us because it doesn't necessarily mean that a thought has stopped and started. All right, so in the context, and actually in the whole book of Hebrews, I believe it's building towards that end. And I believe one of the main themes of the book of Hebrews is about Christ, that Christ is better. That phrase better is found at least 13 times in the book of Hebrews. But then another theme is the Old Covenant and New Covenant. So the book of Hebrews, all right, here's a brilliant statement here, the book of Hebrews is written to the Hebrews, Hebrew people. And so if you studied and read some of the Old Testament, you know that the Hebrew people, and it's what God at that time had for them, they were the children of Israel, and he had a lot of ceremonial and religious what you would call rites or in some sense it almost seems like sacraments. It was a lot of ceremony there. But then Christ came. And in Christ, you know, sometimes we look at a Jewish person, or you read the Old Testament, like, you know, why couldn't they just see Christ? Well, I mean, they were doing that, and it wasn't just like 100 years. It's thousands of years that they're doing all of this, and then all of a sudden Christ comes and says, ah, nah, you don't need any of that, you just need me. Oh yeah, they may have been twitching a little bit. So for generations and generations and hundreds and thousands of years, they're going to a temple and all of this is so important. And then Christ comes and says, hey, I fulfilled it all. And he did, but one of the things that it's building towards is What do we live by? And what the author of Hebrews was writing, and that's what we started reading about in chapter 11, is it wasn't just us that live by faith, everybody has. And that's why he says, by faith, Abel. That's pretty close to the beginning of time there. So Abel, what did he live by? Faith. Enoch, faith. Noah, faith, Abraham, faith, and on and on. Faith is something very important, and it's what's necessary for us. So starting in verse 35 of chapter 10, it says, cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. You have need of patience. that after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise for yet a little while, and he that shall come will come and will not tarry. Now here's a phrase, and we've probably heard this, look at verse 38. Now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him, but we are not of them who draw back under perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Let me just take a moment to thank Pastor Echols, his wife, for your kindness, hospitality, your friendship, especially over the last couple of years. Our friendship has grown, and I'm excited for you as a church. We have prayed for years together that God would just help and lead and guide, and God does seem to be doing that. It doesn't mean that There won't be problems. I think our message this morning will maybe address that some. But you're stepping up by faith. And faith is something that God requires of us. We saw that in Hebrews 11 6. Why is it so necessary? Because without it, we can't please him. So faith is a very important part of our Christian life and understanding it. One man, many years ago, William Cooper, you would look at it, if you see his name, it looks like Cowper, but William Cooper wrote, it's actually a song, but it's a poem. This is what he wrote. God moves in a mysterious way. His wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. deep and unfathomable minds of never-failing skill, he treasures his bright designs and works his sovereign will. You fearful saints, fresh courage take. The clouds ye so much dread are big, with mercy shall break and blessing on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence he hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan his work in vain, and God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain. God wants us to learn to trust him. And that is our message here this morning. You'll see in the outline, we entitle it Living by Faith. You know, our nation was founded on people who were willing to take great risk, personal risk. For a long time in America, even, people weighed risk daily because it was simply a part of their life. Today, safety, though, has become more important than stepping out and risking something to gain freedom or victory, or the satisfaction of something that seems impossible. It's not much of a pioneering spirit today. You know, we sing songs, nothing is impossible when you put your trust in God. Only believe, only believe, all things are possible. We sing these songs. We sing hymns. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Great is thy faithfulness. One song that I love is Living by Faith. It says, I care not today what tomorrow may bring, sunshine or shadow or rain. My Lord, I know ruleth over everything and all of my worry is vain. Living by faith. But what I find is, Yeah, but I don't know if I really want to do it. Because faith is something that is hard. And we're going to look at that in the scripture. And faith is something that is very biblical. Over 230 times you will find the word faith in the Bible. Just the word faith, not synonyms. There are other synonyms of the word faith. Almost all of these words, faith, are found in the New Testament. It's not saying the Old Testament didn't have faith. But one of the Old Testament verses that we know that word faith is found is Habakkuk. chapter two and verse four, then that's an interesting story. The story, some of the story in it, not necessarily in the writing of that passage, but that is where the first time you find Hebrews 1038 written in the Old Testament. The just shall live by faith. And there's an interesting story about a man named Martin Luther. Martin Luther was Catholic. He was an up-and-coming priest. They found that he was pretty studious. He was a student of the Word of God. But I don't know that it was necessarily a great thing. They stuck him out in this little city called Wittenberg. They put him out there and, you know, as an up-and-coming priest, you would probably want a big city, you'd want an appointment in something, a prestigious university, and Wittenberg wasn't that. It was a little town. And they said, you know what, you go out there and you teach, and you would think if you were a priest, you know what, I should get probably like, you know, the Gospels. No, they said, and we want you to teach the little book of Habakkuk. And just so you know, it is a little book and that probably not a high ranking position. So they gave him that book and he said, you know, I'm going to study it. And he came to chapter two and verse four. And as a Catholic, it caused a little bit of questioning because it said the just shall live by faith. And this is what he found. And you can find this. It's found three times in the New Testament. It's found in the Book of Romans, where I believe it's talking about the just. And so then he studied the Book of Romans. In fact, he wrote a commentary on the Book of Romans. And during that study of the just, There's debate on it, but some believe, some believe that he got saved. So here is a man that's Catholic, that's raised Catholic, that's studied all the sacraments, and he's studied all, he's practicing it, and then he comes and the scriptures, guess what they do? Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And the word of God opened up that he was wrong and the just shall live. The book of Galatians is the second time that the word, that phrase is found, the just shall, and I believe that emphasis is living. And then the third time we read it there in Hebrews 10 38, the just shall live by what? Faith. They live by faith. So here in the Bible, we're gonna look this morning at the idea of living by faith. So I think I have four points in your outline there. Is there four? All right, I think four, four points. All right, so we'll try to quickly go through them to help us understand. So I tell guys when I'm teaching, all right, if you're looking at a subject One of the main things you gotta do, especially for words, is define them. So the first point is the definition of faith. The definition of faith. So R.A. Torrey wrote a book called What the Bible Teaches. It's a pretty good book. It goes through and it's some of his just individual studies. He was a brilliant man, a pretty good theologian. And as he studied the Bible, this is what he defined faith as. So it's a little wordy. I might have some of it down there. That's why I put it down there. I know it's Sunday morning. You already went through Sunday school, got a nap in. All right, but here's nap two coming up, all right? So here we go. what the Bible teaches. Here's R.A. Torrey's definition of faith. To believe God is to rely upon or have an unhesitating assurance of the truth of God's testimony, even though it is unsupported by any other evidence. And to rely upon and have an unfaltering assurance of the fulfillment of his promises, even though everything seems against fulfillment. Now it's wordy, I would agree. And it's a lot of thought, a lot of meat, but it helps you understand a little bit of what faith means. Faith is resting then on God. So, in our definition, that's R.E. Torrey's idea. Any good pastor, and this will help you in the future, if a guy gets up and he's preaching and he goes to define something and he doesn't reference the Webster's 1820 dictionary, probably question salvation. Because the Webster's 1828 is what you use. So the Webster's 1828, when you look up the word faith, this is what Noah Webster says as far as the definition in theology. This is what he says, faith is the ascent of the mind or understanding of the truth of what God has revealed. He says it's simple belief of the scriptures. Wow, that's pretty succinct, but all right, I'm starting to understand scripture. All right, as far as the definition, it goes back to scripture. So does the Bible define faith? Well, actually it did. We read it. What's Hebrews 11.1 tell us? Hebrews 11.1 says this, faith is the what? Substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But still, as I was reading that, I'm like, all right, so what does that mean? So that word, substance, and also the idea of faith or that substance, It's the evidence of things not seen. It means to that which is placed under. Okay, so the idea is, and this is what Albert Barnes says, he said the Christian believes what God says. He's never seen heaven, he's never seen an angel, he's never seen the Redeemer, he's never seen a body raised from the grave, but God said it. And that, that settles it. So, but we find that word substance somewhere else, and remember I said I believe it's building in the book of Hebrews? Look at Hebrews chapter three and verse 14. We're studying words, it's good to know how words are used. So it's good to, one way to study words is synonyms or words that are similar. So look at Hebrews 3.14 and see if you find the word substance in there. It's not there, but it is, because there's a synonym. For we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. So guess what word substance a synonym is in Scripture? Confidence. Now faith is the confidence. of things hoped for. I also tell people this, so Bible words sometimes are not similar to the way we define them. Sometimes we change even, we change what words mean. For instance, the word we say, it's the confidence of things hoped for. In the Bible, hope is different than what you and I kind of define it as. For instance, all right? In my mind, I'm thinking about, I know I'm in church, but you're doing the same thing. You're like, man, I hope I have a good lunch. Now, Pastor Eccles has said he's taking me out, but I'm like, man, I hope that he knows what good food is. Now, think about that. So the Bible is saying that there's a confidence of things hoped for. Is that what the Bible says? When the Bible says hope. So in fact, the Bible says in Titus chapter two, that we're looking for that blessed hope. So is that blessed hope like what? You know, I hope I get a raise tomorrow. No, that's actually in the Bible, hope is something that you can bank on. It's a sure thing because it's based on a promise of God. So the Bible says this when it comes to faith, when I'm defining it. Faith is a confidence of something that is promised. It's the evidence of things not seen. Okay, I'm starting to understand faith a little bit. So I also tell people this, some people, They don't get it, they don't understand it, but when you're studying scripture, it's also good once you analyze something to come up with your own definition. So here's the damn right definition of faith. Get ready. You may not like it, but I like it. All right, so anyways, faith is that spiritual muscle exercised when we believe God's word and act upon it, no matter what our flesh, circumstance, others say. Then you say, well wait a minute, so faith is a spiritual muscle. Why do you say that? Because the Bible tells me to do what to my faith? Exercise. It tells me to do that. Well, I know like a physical muscle, if I want it to grow, I have to exercise it. So faith is a spiritual muscle, and it's not based on, and It's exercised when I believe what God says, no matter what everything else says, it ain't gonna work. And in fact, we have to have faith in our prayer life, don't we? We have to have faith in salvation. So what does man say in regards to salvation? Work hard. You gotta get there. Oh, okay, that kinda makes... It doesn't make sense to me because I've studied God's word. But really, outside of God's word, the majority of the world kinda makes sense to them, doesn't it? You do this and you do this and you do this. But what I have to do and what we have to do like when we're going out and we're sharing Christ with people, we have to, by faith, get them to trust in his word, not what everybody else says. Not what my flesh feels like or circumstances. That is faith. So that was number one. That is the definition of faith. I think we understand it a little more. So secondly, what is the dependence of our faith? So this is how we say it, faith alone is useless. Faith has to be tied to the correct item. All right, so our faith is not then in ourselves, but it is tied to an omnipotent God. So let me give you a thought. This is a quote by an anonymous person, but it's an awesome quote. Listen to what someone said about faith. A strong faith in the wrong object achieves very little. A strong faith in the wrong object. Now, you may not admit this, but I can admit this about myself. There are some times that I'm like, oh, I got this. And I have faith in me, and I don't do it. I flop. But guess what? My faith was in me, but it was in the wrong object. And it achieved very little. But listen to this. All right, there we go. Sorry about that, Micah. He just was holding up. He's like, you're muted. All right, the people were happy. All right, but anyways. So here is point number two. So we understand that point number one, and that is a strong faith in the wrong object achieves very little. A weak faith in the proper object can accomplish great things. Does the Bible back that up? Yeah, actually, if I have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, I can say unto that mountain, remove yonder. And guess what the Bible says? It will. Biblically, the Bible says my faith has to be tied to the right object. So what is the dependence of my faith? It's in God. All right, I know Mrs. Echols, I'm not trying to knock Hobby Lobby, but we know that Hobby Lobby is basically one of the bastions of Christianity in America. You walk in and it's Christian music playing and just lovely people there. And you go there and that's where you go to buy the things to hang on your wall, that way all your neighbors know you're a Christian. And so you go in there and you're like, I want people to know that I'm a Christian. So you go in and they have a wall mural or they have a placard and you're like, it says, believe. Like, oh yes. We just came out of Christmas time and people all over have belief. You're like, well, what do you mean by that? Like, well, I believe. Like, I believe I'm hungry. I mean, so does that mean I have faith? Well, yeah, you have faith that you're hungry. So belief alone, and you'll talk to people, I believe. That doesn't mean they're saved. Because faith has to be tied to the right object. Faith alone by itself is useless. So it has to be tied to God. So thirdly, and this is the one that I don't like it as much. So we define faith. We know how our faith or who it's dependent upon, so that's faith. So how is our faith developed? And this one is more after salvation. After salvation, I'm saved, and we're saved by faith. We'll talk about that in our third point, our fourth point, the display of our faith. But in the development of our faith, after salvation, is faith necessary? After salvation, it actually is. We say, oh, you know what? I was saved by faith, but the Bible says I have to live by faith. Corinthians says we walk by faith, not by sight. So after salvation, I don't get saved by faith and be like, yeah, forget it, I don't need faith anymore. No, God says I need to grow in my faith. So how does that happen? Well, I found two areas, there's probably more, but these two areas, I don't like them that much. In fact, Brother King was talking about it this last session of his ministry. He went through it. You as a church have been going through some of this. I've gone through this. So the first one is found in James chapter one. Look at James chapter one and verse two through four. James chapter one and verse two through four. It says this, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. So what does that mean? The idea of temptations there is not sin, it's trials. And it's basically various or different types of trials. Suffering. So count it all, joy, knowing this, that the, what, trying of your faith worketh patience, but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. So on our point number three, the first thing, how does God develop my faith? Faith is built by trials. I don't like that. I like things smooth, easy, all right? I don't want things hard. But think about that, when we, all right, the Dameron definition, which I kind of like, all right? I said faith is a spiritual muscle. So physically, how does my muscle grow? Some resistance, right? And so a trial is God sending something that pushes my faith. It's testing it, growing it. And there's all kinds of different tests that God will send. It can be in family. It can be in finances. Sometimes it can be in relations, friends. as a church, sometimes it seems like you'll start looking out, but remember, by faith, I don't look at everybody else, I don't look at what everybody else is saying. Are there churches, man, they're just packed to the gills today. You can go down to, I believe it's Houston, they're written, they're written, they bought basically an old astronome, packed to the, packed to the hilt. Millions coming in. I don't know if you heard this many years ago. Their offering was stolen on a Sunday morning. $600,000. I was like, dog, I wish I would've known about that. I would've gone in and helped them because they got caught. I would've helped them get away with it. All right, no, I'm just kidding. All right, but I'm like, man, that's one offering. Like, wow, God must be blessing. Actually, scripture defines success. And you don't have to look at somebody else. You look at God's way to do things. That's what success is. Success is God's way of doing things. And you know what? Sometimes when you do things God's way, He gets the glory and you get none. It's okay. You still accomplish. By faith, you say, all right, God, I'm not seeing much, but I'm obeying you. Faith says that's right. And sometimes a trial comes in. And there's a mindset that's out there. We call it the prosperity gospel, and there's different catchphrases sometimes, you know, in the middle of the night when you can't sleep and you click around and you'll see this, it used to be called the televangelist. And he comes on, he's like, sow the seed. You give me $100 and you'll be blessed. I'm like, wait, no, you give me $100 and you'll be blessed. All right, now all of a sudden he's getting all the hundred dollars and he's got three three liter jets. And he's like, see, the Lord is what? No, it isn't. So material wealth is what is what is proof that God's blessing. Well, I don't know. It seems like then Christ wasn't successful. Because he didn't have anywhere to lay his head. Oh, oh, oh, but that's different. No, actually, that's Bible. So the Bible tells me that I look at Scripture and sometimes trials will come in. Don't read the book of Job, then. The book of Job, man, Job must have been a horrible person. No, God was testing him. And actually in the book of James, it's referenced. You've heard of the suffering and the patience of Job. Why? Because it's an example for us to understand that God sometimes sends you through hard times. And what we have to do is we have to turn and say, all right, God, I gotta trust you. I'm relying on you. So one way that God develops our faith is what? Faith is built by trials. So secondly, 2 Peter chapter one, 2 Peter chapter one is another passage that tells us, all right, so how is my faith developed as a Christian? How is it developed? And we see that it's written to Christians in verse four, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the what? Divine nature. If someone partakes of the divine nature, they're saved. So he's writing to save people and he says you've partaken and these promises are to you. Look at verse five. And besides this, giving all diligence. So what's the idea of diligence? Diligence is the idea of work. So give diligence or work at what? Adding to your faith. And then he gives a list of seven things. That's what he says. Add to your faith what? Virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity. Now, this is what I can tell you. Those seven things, you could work on the rest of your life, and you're gonna be busy. And God says it's up to you as a Christian to do that work. You know, sometimes we're like, oh, Lord, just do it. I'm finding in scripture that God says, all right, now you're saved by faith, living by faith, but my faith, he wants us to engage it. So there's a misconception when you're studying theology and scripture. It's always important to compare scriptures with scripture. So some people have taken phrases or words and they pop them out of the Bible and they don't compare them. So for instance, the Bible says, work out your salvation. Like see, you have to work to get, that's not what it's saying. Compare it. So what is the Bible saying? After saved, guess what I need to do? God saved me. Now work it out. Reveal that. That's my job. Every day I get up and God wants me. And so this is a scary word, but it's found in scripture. He wants me to be more sanctified. So sanctification is another scary word, but it's found in scripture. And guess what God wants to do? And he says, it's not on my own. He's given me the Holy Spirit and the word of God. And every day through faith, Guess what? I can become more like Christ and he wants me to work at it. That's living by faith. It's living by faith. So the last point then. So we defined it, we see how our faith is dependent upon God, and then how our faith is developed. So how do I display it? Three ways we display faith. One, we should be saved by faith. If you're not here this morning, the Bible tells us that we're saved by faith. Where do we find that? Well, remember I said that Martin Luther found one of the times in Romans chapter one where it says, the just shall live by faith. The word faith is found often in the book of Romans. Romans 3, it says this, found in verse 24. It says, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remissions of sin that are passed through the forbearance of God, Then it says this in verse 28, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. So I'm saved by faith. What does that mean? Faith is a confidence in a hope, and the hope is, this is what the Bible, and the hope is on promises of God. God says this, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and call upon his name, thou shalt be saved. So the world says, you know what, you gotta work hard, you gotta do this, you gotta be baptized, you gotta join a church, you gotta give all this money. But God says, no, it's in the finished work of Christ. So by faith, I rest. on Him and the Bible says I'm saved. That's saving faith. So I'm saved by faith. But then the Bible says, and we read this in the book of James already, all right, we were there, but in James chapter one and verse 22 it says, but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face, and a glass, then it says this in James 2, 17, even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. So I need to have saving faith. That's how I display it. Secondly, I need to show my faith. Show it. Your brother here was talking about that it's concerning to him with some of the men there in Albania. They go, I'm saved. Well, where's the change? And I understand the great debate on work, salvation, repentance, I understand that. But you can't really get away from scripture where it says that, man, when Christ comes in, you're a new creature. Old things are passed away. I'm not talking about, I understand the old nature. I understand that old man. I understand, man, I still have a bent toward sinning, but there's something in me. One man, I remember growing up as a teenager and hearing pastors say it, my wanter changed. What do we mean by that? Well, before, man, it didn't matter. When sin was there, I was like, yeah, I'm doing it. But then after salvation, all of a sudden, sin was there. And I'm like, I kind of want to do it, but I love God. I love Christ. The wanter changes. And that needs to be shown to a world. So I'm saved by faith. I show my faith. But then, in Romans, Chapter 10, Romans chapter 10. This is our last passage, Romans chapter 10. We already mentioned some of them in verse nine. It says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Saving faith. Says this in verse 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But listen to verse 14. how then shall they call on him? And whom they have not believed, and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?" And you're like, oh, thank the Lord, I ain't a preacher. Yeah, you gotta look it up. Remember context, scripture with scripture. So that means that you're not supposed to fulfill the Great Commission because I'm supposed to go into all the, the church is supposed to go into all the world and preach the gospel. That's every one of us. So, how do I display my faith? Saving faith. I show my faith, but then I share it. It used to be a great debate in the 80s. Lifestyle evangelism. You know what? You don't just, you don't go out there and live it. Now, I actually think you should live it. I think it's kind of hypocritical to just talk about it and not live it. But I think it's also hypocritical to just live it and not talk about it. You see, it's all in scripture. We do all of it. And what is it? I'm gonna live it and we're gonna talk about it. Because that's how we display faith. This morning, how's your faith? God wants it to grow. God wants it to be shown and shared. But sometimes when a trial comes in, testing, what is God doing? Building your muscles. He wants you to be a strong Christian. So let God do his work and let's be people of faith. Out in my neck of the woods, I live in Dover now, and about an hour north is a place called Philadelphia. In Philadelphia, on June 28th, 1851, there was a lady that was born, Eliza Hewitt. Eliza Hewitt had, as she grew and she became a teenager, and then she went off to college, she had a desire to teach. She graduated and she became a teacher but she suffered a severe spinal problem shortly after starting and she became an invalid. No longer could she teach. She couldn't sit and stand in the classroom and so she was very discouraged. But she continued to live there in Philadelphia and she found that and some others found that she had a gift of writing. And so she wrote for some Sunday school publications and then she started writing hymns. And at about 40 years old, so you think about it, that was about 20 years after being an invalid, she wrote a song and she said, my faith. has found a resting place. Not in device or creed. I trust the ever-living one. His wounds for me shall plead. My heart is leaning on the word, the living word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name. Salvation through His blood. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that He died for me. You know what she found? That she could rest her faith on God. and on God's word, and it was enough for her to help her live by faith. This morning, maybe God dealt with you in some area of faith. Let him do that work. God wants, what did we read just a little bit ago in Hebrews chapter 11? We call it kind of the hall of faith. And what you'll notice about a lot of those men, Abraham, Noah, Moses, you know what you'll find? They're sinners. Every one of them, you'll find a spot. The only one that I haven't found was Joseph. Some people debate that, but really, I haven't really found something in the life of Joseph that's really said, but Abraham, Noah, Moses, you know, every one of them, sinners. But you know what God called them? And actually, and even you go through, Rahab is listed there. So my past, I can have a checkered past, but if I come to Christ and I have saving faith, guess what God wants from me? He wants me to be a person of faith and to grow in faith. Doesn't mean that I'm not gonna slip up. What he wants is me to rest fully on him and his word. And when something comes into my life and I don't understand it, I say, God, I'm trusting you. It's living by faith. Heads Bowed, eyes closed here this morning. And in just a moment, Pastor Eccles will come. I'll have an invitation. But I ask you this morning, first of all, do you have saving faith? Maybe I always liked to just, I don't wanna just take it for granted. You may be here and you say, man, I've been coming to church for a long time, but as you were talking about faith and saving faith, I don't know that I've put my trust in the finished work of Christ. That is saving faith. That's how we're saved. If you would say this morning, I don't want to embarrass you, I'd just like to pray for you, you'd say, man, God dealt with me in regards to salvation, would you pray for me? I don't believe I'm saved. Is there anybody like that here this morning? You'd slip up your hand, say, I don't know that I'm saved. Pray for me. What about as a Christian here this morning? God deal with you about having a faith that is living, not dead, a living faith. Let God do his perfect work. when something comes into your life, or maybe it is that God is pushing you, saying, are you adding to your faith? That's on you. Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We need to do that and grow. This year, make it a year of growth. in growth and faith. Heavenly Father, I pray that you bless the invitation time. We thank you for this time that we can look at scripture, help us to be people of faith. In Jesus' name, amen. The piano is going to play this morning. The invitation is open. How has the Lord spoken to you this morning? Maybe you're sitting confused at a time of life and you're not knowing what God is doing in your life. And maybe you've realized this morning that God is testing you. God is testing you. You know what you need to do today? You need to get alone with God and just write it down and put a stake in the ground and let Him know, I'm going to live by faith. I'm going to live in confident obedience to the Word of God, regardless whether I know what's going to happen tomorrow, what's going on the next day, what yesterday meant and what it even means in my life. I might be in an area that I just don't even know what God's doing, but in spite of it all, I'm just going to believe Him. I'm going to trust Him. I'm going to obey Him. I'm going to do exactly what He tells me to do. Just do what you know to do in the next step. Amen? With the Word of God. Just obedience. Are you living by faith? Are you living by faith? Has God brought something into your life? And you just need to say, Yes, Lord. Your muscles are being tested. You know, some of you who do exercise or you don't need to even go to exercise because your work exercises you enough. Boy, that resistance, sometimes that resistance doesn't feel so good. Sometimes you kind of bellyache under the resistance, right? But boy, once you get stronger and stronger and stronger and that resistance becomes easier and you actually are kind of thankful that you have a little muscle in your body that you can get around. Yeah, God knows what he's doing. Amen. Oh. You're welcome.