Listen folks, every year on or around October 31st, we have taken time to study the Reformation. It was actually October 31st, 1517, when Martin Luther, a young, diligent and faithful Catholic monk, nailed his 95 theses to the doors in the castle church at Wittenberg, Germany. That's just about 100 kilometers south of Berlin. I used to take teams there all the time. Great place if you ever get over to Germany. Martin Luther chose October 31st on purpose, and the reason why is he knew that a lot of people would be going to church on the following day, which was All Saints Day. He hung them on the doors of the church because back then that's where people commonly posted their public messages. It was basically a public bulletin board. It wasn't an act of defiance and he was gonna mark up this old historic church or whatever like that. It was used for that purpose. Martin Luther wrote these 95 Theses in response to some really abuses that were taking place in the Catholic Church at the time. And one of those abuses that was of concern to Martin was the sale of indulgences. How many of you guys have heard of indulgences? Okay, a number of you. Indulgences were documents approved by the Pope Right? And sold in order to bring in money in order to complete St. Peter's Basilica. If you go to Rome today, that's one of the primary buildings that you'll see is St. Peter's Basilica. And those selling the indulgences told the people that each purchase would lessen one's time in purgatory after death. person could purchase that time off in purgatory, either for themselves or for a deceased family member, a loved one who had already died and gone to purgatory, as they said. Sometimes they were even guaranteed, if they paid enough money, I kid you not, they were guaranteed absolute freedom from purgatory for all sins, past and future. Kind of sounds like the gospel of Jesus Christ. It doesn't, except you don't have to pay for that one with money. One of the famous sayings that circulated at that time was, when a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs. Cute little jingle, huh? Now in case you're not familiar with the concept of purgatory, according to Catholic doctrine, it's a place of temporary suffering and torment similar to hell, where believers go after they die to work off any remaining sins not covered, here's where the heresy comes in, by the blood of Christ. The Roman Catholic Church also teaches that there is a huge repository of good works. Listen folks, if you used to be Catholic like I grew up in that tradition, then you know what I'm talking about. Okay, but there's... The Roman Catholic Church teaches that there's a huge repository of good works amassed by really good people like Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mother Teresa, and others like them. And according to Catholic doctrine, those people have done so many good works that not only do they get to go directly to heaven, skipping out on purgatory altogether, but they actually have good works left over. And those extra good works go into what is called, and I quote, the treasury of merit. So when a person in this lifetime buys an indulgence, he can skip a certain amount of time in purgatory because good works have been taken from the treasury of merit and then applied to that person's own personal deficiency, their account. Now folks, let me make this about as plain as I possibly can. Purgatory is nowhere found in God's word. It is a made up doctrine. It's not even hinted at anywhere in the scriptures. It was entirely made up by the Roman Catholic Church in order to extract money from the people. Unless you think that these doctrines have no relevance to us today or ancient relics of the Middle Ages, think again. Here in America, the Catholic Church is quite liberal. Do you guys realize that? It really is. And in all honesty, rather rebellious to its Roman roots compared to the Catholic Church in most everywhere else around this world. Leave it to the Americans to go AWOL, right? Now, unless you've been to countries like Mexico, Poland, Brazil, the Philippines, Italy, you haven't seen the true face of Roman Catholicism. But by God's grace, I've had the privilege of going to every single one of those countries that I've just listed off, where such Catholic dogma is still alive and well. I remember listening to the radio in Germany one time, and they were, I kid you not, it was like the, been 100 years since they opened up a certain door in Rome, and if you went to Rome and you paid your money, and you walked through those doors, you just had to walk through them, then you had time off in purgatory. And it was a modern day ad that I personally heard. Now it's interesting to note that at the time that Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses, he didn't have major problems with the doctrine of purgatory or even the sale of indulgences altogether. He just felt that there were some abuses happening in Germany that the Pope, way off in Italy, wasn't aware of. He was really naive, and he wanted the best. So when Luther posted these 95 theses, he wasn't intending to pick a fight with Rome. He simply wanted to start a conversation about some of the problems that he saw going on there. He honestly thought that the Pope would be grateful to be made aware of some of these abuses, some of these problems. Fortunately, that wasn't the case at all. Instead, the young monk was castigated for ever challenging the Church of Rome. How dare you? It was way worse than that. It was, as a result, Martin Luther became the talk of the town. People started coming from really all over Germany to hear him preach, because he didn't preach like the typical Catholic priest, which is topically and in Latin. My mom grew up in Seattle, and guess what she remembered as a child hearing? Latin in the Catholic church masses. They all spoke Latin, in which case nobody understood. Instead, Luther preached sequentially through books of the Bible, explaining them clearly in the German language so that everyone could understand what this book said. It was kind of a novel concept back then. And Luther was saved at this point, but his understanding of doctrine was still growing. It was still in its infancy. As soon as the 95 theses went out, he was mercilessly attacked by the Catholic church from every possible angle. But that only emboldened him and encouraged him to keep studying. the scriptures, and testing everything that he had been taught as a Roman Catholic against the perfect backdrop of God's word. And this went on for several years. And naturally, Luther's theology changed and grew as he really got to know God's word better and better. Finally, on April 17th, 1521, The Roman Catholic Church called for a meeting to be held in Worms, Germany. You'd say Worms, Deutschland, where Luther was to stand trial for his alleged heresies. And many of Luther's friends tried to dissuade him from going, thinking that he would be ambushed along the way and killed. But Luther was promised safe passage by the ruling authorities, so Luther went. even though he knew that the threat to his life was very, very real. And during the trial, he was examined by a very skillful debater and guard dog of the Roman Catholic Church, a man by the name of Johann Eck. And Eck systematically proved that Luther had indeed moved outside of Roman Catholic doctrine or dogma and was therefore, according to the Roman Catholic Church, a heretic. Again, Eck was successful in doing that. And during his trial, in spite of all the intense pressure from both church and state, Luther refused to recant what he had written. And Luther is reported to have said that he would take nothing back unless, and I quote right now, unless I am convinced by the testimony of the scriptures or by clear reason. For I do not trust either in the Pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves. I am bound by the scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the word of God. Add my amen there. I cannot and I will not retract anything since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise. Here I stand. May God help me. Amen. And a hearty amen to that amen. Amen? A lot of amens going on here. May God give us that same zeal and love and fortitude for the scriptures in our day and age, men and women. Because like I said, we need a reformation in the church today. We really do. We think, oh, look how bad it was back then. If only they could look forward 500 years. Now Luther didn't realize it at the time, but God was using him to be the match to light the fire of the Reformation. Eck had systematically proven Luther no longer to be Roman Catholic, and that, at that time, that really depressed Luther. As mentioned already, he had never intended to split the church. He simply wanted to call attention to some of the abuses he saw taking place. But even though his thinking wasn't quite solidified yet, there were some crucial biblical beliefs that were really being forged together in Luther's mind. They were starting to take shape in his own thinking. In the first doctrine that was becoming clearer and clearer to Luther was the doctrine of sola scriptura. That is the doctrine that the Bible, in the Bible, what? Alone, is what gives us everything we need for faith and practice. That's huge. We can't rely on tradition, we can't rely on church fathers, church councils, papal bulls, decrees, or any such thing. It's the Bible, and the Bible alone that teaches us what to believe and then how to live that out in a God-honoring and God-glorifying way. Now the second doctrine that was beginning to take shape in Luther's mind was a doctrine of equal importance, and that was that justification comes about by faith alone. Justification comes about by faith alone. Instead of needing the Roman Catholic Church's system of priests and masses and sacraments to go to heaven, we just need to believe in Christ. Luther was able to see that the Roman Catholic Church had exchanged the truth of the gospel for a huge ritualistic really monster that was designed to foster dependence on the church and not faith in Christ. From Germany, the Protestant Reformation then spread all throughout Europe, influencing the work of John Calvin in Geneva, Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland, and John Knox in Scotland, to name just a few. The Reformation of Luther also sparked the Anabaptists and the English Reformation. Folks, if you're not familiar with church history, go back and pick up a really good novel on that, and I've got some really good ones if you need some recommendations. These movements in turn influenced the spread of Christianity to the Americas and throughout the known world, really wherever European exploration took place. As one author put it, and I quote, South Africa, think about these countries, South Africa, India, Australia, and New Zealand all felt the impact of Luther's hammer in Wittenberg, amen. So Reformation Day, folks, why are we spending so much time here? Because Reformation Day remains a central rallying point for all those who choose to follow Christ alone, by faith alone, according to the holy scriptures alone. Reformation Day commemorates the actions of one man who is willing to go against the deeply entrenched traditions of his day and to present God's word as a sole guide to salvation and Christian living. And folks, like I said before, we need a reformation today. We really do. There's so many churches that are preaching all kinds of things. but they're not preaching the gospel. And so we need to get back to the basic fundamental tenets of what God's word tells us is really important. As I mentioned before, really there's only one message in this whole big book, right? There's only one main message. There's 1,189 chapters in this book, and there's one message. There's one author, and of course there'd be one main message. Now it's important to remember that the reformers were all imperfect people. just as we all are. There's a lot of times people try to pick up stones and say, do you know what that guy believed? Do you know what that guy believed? Yeah, I knew they believed some false doctrines here and there. And when we look back at them, folks, listen, we can see huge blind spots in probably every single one of their lives, just like we can see blind spots in our lives as soon as we pick up a mirror, right? in their theology, in their practice, but we cannot deny that they were faithful to the light that they had, preaching, teaching, and working towards reform in the church, sometimes even giving their very own lives for what they so strongly believed. Again, may we all be willing to do the same. So five doctrinal convictions emerged like pure gold from the fiery furnace of the Reformation. And those five fundamental beliefs became known as the five solas. Which, by the way, don't be confused here, are not the same as the five points of Calvinism, all right? These are the five solas of the Reformation. The five solas were five Latin phrases that emerged during the Protestant Reformation, summarizing the reformers, fundamental theological differences with the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. And again, realize this, that the Roman Catholic Church was the only church that was allowed back then. Anybody else was put on a rail, run out of town, killed, right? You really were killed. You were burned at the stake for being a heretic. So the first is Solus Scriptura, scripture alone. The second is Solus Christus, Christ alone. The third is sola gratia, grace alone. The fourth is sola fide, faith alone. And the fifth is soli deo gloria, glory to God alone. We've covered the first three over these past three years. And so this year, men and women, we want to look at sola fide, by faith alone. Now there are many passages in God's Word that we can turn to, but because we took such a long time in introducing this whole thing, we're going to look at a shortened version of our passage this morning in Romans chapter three. Now realize this, men and women, in Romans chapters one, two, and three, Paul goes on, he really goes to great lengths to show that we've all been infected with a deadly virus. You guys following me so far? That's Romans 1, 2, and 3. No one has escaped this deadly virus. Not only are we all infected, but this virus has entered every part of our being. No part of any person has been spared. Every single one of us has been totally infected with that terminal disease called sin. That three-letter word that is deadly. Without divine intervention, all mankind would be condemned because there is absolutely nothing that we could do to heal ourselves, to rid ourselves, and to stand righteous before an all-holy God. But wait a minute. Paul's Jewish readers might interrupt Paul at this point in his soliloquy in Romans 1, 2, and 3. What about the law? They would say something, well, I do my best to keep the law, Paul. Maybe you don't, but I do. Well, Paul anticipated that objection. And so in verses 19 and 20 of chapter three, he discussed the utter futility of trying to rely on the law and to cleanse oneself of sin. The purpose of both the Mosaic law, which was given to the Jews, and the law of the conscience, which was given to all men, both Jew and Gentile, is exactly the same. The law brings about the knowledge of sin. How many of you remember back to before you got saved? I do, I remember the things that I was doing, and I remember I didn't feel good about it. I felt that it was wrong. Now I didn't know how to tell you that, but I just did. And that was the law of my conscience that was working its work that God had placed in there. Well listen to Romans, listen to Paul in Romans 3 verses 19 and 20. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the, help me, the knowledge of sin. Folks, I'm just, again, I'm getting you ready for our text, okay? The purpose of the law is very much like the purpose of a mirror. A mirror cannot wash us. It can only show us our desperate need for being washed. It shows how dirty we are on the outside. And thus, the law was meant to drive us straight to the cross of Jesus Christ. As Martin Luther said, the law's function is not to justify, but to terrify. You mean, I look that bad, Lord, in front of you? And the answer is, yes, we all do. So is there any hope? Again, that's what Paul wanted them to get to. And in order to come into God's holy presence and to have a right standing with him, we must all be perfectly clean. Do you realize that? And even the smallest sin will automatically and immediately disqualify us just like it did to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This man left to himself is utterly hopeless and helpless. Now if this were the end of Paul's message and the book of Romans were to end right there, it would be depressing, right? Beyond depressing, because here's three chapters of really bad news. We'd be really left in utter despair. There'd be no hope, no silver lining, no light at the end of the tunnel, but really we know that he goes on and on for several more chapters. And this is really just the beginning of Paul's message. God has not left man wallowing in the filth of his sin. My dear brothers and sisters, there is good news for all of us who will listen. who will listen to the rest of the message. How can an all holy God accept those who are unrighteous and totally depraved before him? Well, Paul begins by answering that in our very own text today. That's verse 21. So with that as a whole lot of background information, let's stand together for the reading of God's word. And we're reading Romans 3. I know your bulletin says through 26, but it's actually through 28. And that is my fault, not our church staff, our secretarial staff's fault. Romans 3, 21 through 28. Here it is. Okay, you guys got the, now we're plopped right in the middle of the book of Romans, but you have the background story, okay? So here's where we are. As a matter of fact, in my Bible, the headline right here, right above verse 21 is justification by faith. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction, is a verse we all know real well, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That's Romans 1, 2, and 3. Here's verse 24, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has, help me out. faith in Jesus. Actually, we can keep going on, sorry. Where then is boasting? It is excluded by what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. And there we may be seated. I got so used to being verse 26 this week that I even forgot it right there. Beloved, verses 21 through 28 contain the very best news you have ever heard. Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse was an old-time pastor and a pioneer using radio as a platform for preaching. And in 1949, on his radio program, he began a weekly, in-depth study of the Book of Romans which lasted until the day he died in 1960. So 11 years in the book of Romans. And Dr. Barnhouse called this passage that we just read in Romans chapter three, the heart of the Bible. So this is after his 11 years of study, this is what he said. This is the heart of the Bible. And he went on to write this, and I quote, I am convinced today, after these many years of Bible study, particularly in Romans, that these verses are the most important in the whole Bible. Understand them and you will understand the whole Bible. Fail to comprehend their true meaning and you will be in darkness concerning most of scripture, end quote. In one last short little quote, Martin Luther called this passage the marrow of theology. The marrow of theology. Let's go back to verse 21. Let's go back to our text. Look at these first two words. Paul writes, but now. You should underline them in your Bible, because these two little words mark a huge transition in Paul's explanation of the gospel. Remember I said that Romans 1, 2, and 3 were really about the total depravity of man, whether it's Jew or Gentile, people who know the law, people who don't know the law, all of us are guilty and underneath God's judgment. One author said this, the difference between heaven and hell hangs on the meaning of those two tiny words. Or those two, or those tiny words, excuse me. Now look at the rest of the verse with me. But now, apart from the law, we've already been down that road, here it is, the righteousness of God has been manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Friend, we need God's righteousness, simply and solely because we have how much of our own? Zilch, zero, and nada. We've got none of our own. We weren't born with righteousness. We were all born sinners. That's what Psalm 51 says and many other places throughout God's word. As verse 23 also so clearly says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So the only kind of righteousness that is going to save us is a righteousness that is going to come from outside of ourselves. That is a foreign righteousness, not one that we're inherent in or have ourselves. And that's what Paul meant when he said the righteousness of God has been manifested. The righteousness that we all so desperately need had to come from outside of ourselves, it had to come from God. Because no one else has it. We're all in the same boat, are we not? All of sin, Jew or Gentile. Beloved, God's grace is far greater than our sin, and His mercy is infinitely more powerful than our depravity, and that's the good news of the gospel. But again, the gospel always starts with the bad news first. Now look at the last part of verse 21 again. It says this, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Folks, that's just another way of saying, you know what, this is nothing new. really the whole Old Testament has been speaking about this. Paul was being accused actually of bringing a new message, something that's not spoken of anywhere in scripture before, but Paul's saying, oh, au contraire. It's all over the pages of the Old Testament. The law and the prophets all pointed forward to the hope of Christ's sacrifice on our behalf. As a matter of fact, one commentator noted, the law and the prophets did not show men how to achieve their own righteousness, but pointed them to the coming Messiah, the Savior and Son of God, who himself would provide the righteousness that God demands of men. Look up Jeremiah 23.6, 1 Corinthians 1.30. Although the full revelation of salvation through Christ was not given in the Old Testament, that had always been the way of salvation to which that testament pointed. Amen, and amen to your amen, brother. Folks, we've all heard people say that the Old Testament saints got saved by works, right? In the New Testament's case, saints get saved by grace. That comes from somebody who does not know their Bible. That's first class heresy. That's changing what the Bible says. Now, anywhere does it say anything like that. Bible's crystal clear. Wish we had time to go down that path, but we don't. Next Paul goes on to point out in verse 22 that the righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Now you know why I picked out this passage, to talk about sola fide. Not only does God's righteousness come to us apart from the works of the law, or in other words, good works, but it can only be received by Faith, and this point is very important because everyone trusts in something even if it's only in themselves. That's most of, I would say, probably America today. Many people claim to trust in God. It even says it on our currency, right? Trust in God. But salvation depends on more than just a vague, generic, it says it on our $1 bill or whatever, right? It says it on the American currency, so we must be a Christian nation, because it says it on our currency. Well, according to James 2.19, even the demons believe. And he goes on and says, and tremble. Beloved, make no mistake, the only faith that is ever going to save anyone from their sins is faith that is directed toward the Lord Jesus Christ and the work that he, that he accomplished on the cross. Again, another theologian describes saving faith as follows. Saving faith is trust in Jesus Christ as a living person for forgiveness of sins and for eternal life with God. This definition emphasizes that saving faith is not just a belief in facts, but personal trust in Jesus to save me. The definition emphasizes personal trust in Christ, not just belief in facts about Christ, end quote. I remember I, again, you know my testimony, you've heard me say things about it all the time, but as a drug dealer in high school, I thought that I was okay. I really did. I thought that I, since I believed in the facts, that I was gonna be okay. But little did I know that just believing the facts doesn't make you okay, it just makes you more culpable. Where former John Calvin put it this way, faith is not a distant view, but a warm embrace of Christ. I'm gonna define faith more extensively later on, but look at what the Bible says here real quick. Faith plays an enormous role in our salvation and sanctification of the believer. Write these verses down, folks, okay? This is just a quick summary of what the Bible teaches about faith, at least in the New Testament. According to Romans 5.1, faith is the condition of justification. It's a condition of justification. According to John 6.47, faith is the way that we receive everlasting life. Justification, everlasting life, same thing. According to Ephesians 3.12, faith is the means by which we have access to God. Salvation, same thing. According to Hebrews 11.6, faith is the only way that we can please God, okay? According to 1 John 5.4, faith is the victory that has overcome the world. And according to Matthew 21.22, faith is the key to having our prayers answered. It's not just important at the beginning of salvation, but all throughout the Christian life. Now again, let's go back to our text in Romans chapter three, verse 24. What's the condition for being made righteous? We'll skip verse 23. We know that's chapters one, two, and three, for all have sinned, fall short of the glory of God. Okay, we keep that in our mind. Now verse 24, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Follow along with me. I know this is kind of a deep dive into some theology today, but it's important, you guys. It's important that we don't just stick to the A, Bs, and Cs of Christianity all of our Christian life, all right? After a couple of months and even years, we start feeding our babies what? Big food, big people's food, grown-up food, right? You don't keep feeding your five-year-old little baby food out of a container. At least I hope not. Your five-year-old's not gonna like that very much. And so too should we grow up and start eating like adult Christians. One commentator said this, and I quote, we now come to the greatest single verse in the entire Bible on the manner of justification by faith. We entreat you, study this verse. We have seen many a soul upon understanding it come into peace, amen. Amen, that's how important this is. Paul makes it crystal clear that all have sinned, but it is also true that all who believe are justified as a free gift by God's grace. Again, what does that term even mean? We use it loosely, we talk about it in Christian circles, but what does it mean to be justified? Well, justification is nothing more than a legal term of a judge, and in this context, the ultimate judge of judges, right, king of kings, lord of lords, declaring in a judicial sense, not guilty. It's as if the judge pounds his gavel on the bench and says, declares, not guilty. And that's what justification means. It's an act and not a process. It's a one-time act. There are no degrees to justification. Stick with me here, you guys. Don't fall asleep, please. Either you are justified in God's eyes or you're not. All right? Justification is also something that God does and that man doesn't declare about himself. Sinful man can never justify himself before an all-holy God. You remember what Job said? I know this wasn't talking about justification, but he said, hey, I wish I could plea my case before the Almighty. And then God showed him just a little bit about who he was, and he says, I put my hand over my mouth, right? He said, stop. Lastly, justification does not mean that God makes us righteous, but rather He declares us righteous. This is important because what I don't want you to confuse are the two doctrines of justification and sanctification. You following with me? Sanctification is the process by which God makes us more and more like Jesus, more and more Christ-like, more and more holy. And that's gonna last your entire life. Justification, on the other hand, is the legal declaration on the day, the very minute, the very second you got saved, that God declared in heaven, not guilty. He transferred us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. He adopted us from sins of unrighteousness, wickedness, sons of really of in Satan's domain to sons of light, sons and daughters. Again, it's what happens when God alters our record in heaven for all of eternity. Sanctification should be growing day by day in our lives, but justification will never change. Again, you're either justified or you're not. So when we trust Christ's salvation, God declares us righteous, and again, that declaration, I believe with all my heart that the Bible teaches, will never be repealed for somebody who truly has it. God now looks on us as though we've never sinned. We've been given Christ's righteousness and praise God for that. That should make all of us sit up and smile and say amen, thank you Lord. Now look at verses 25 and 26. Whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation, I'll explain that in a second, in his blood through Faith, this was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time so that he would be just and the justifier, the one who has faith in Jesus. Again, we'll stop right there. Only God's perfect wisdom. could have come up with such a perfect solution for solving man's sin problem. And at the same time, satisfying God's holy wrath. Right, not just turning a blind eye. Only through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus could redemption and propitiation be made for us. God remains holy because the perfect demands of his justice were carried out. Christ died for our sins. He really did. He died in our stead, in our place. Yet at the same time, God displayed his great love towards us by standing in our place and taking the wrath and the punishment for our sins upon himself. And therefore, God is both, as the scriptures say here, just and merciful. and the justifier, the one who has faith in Jesus. Do you see that? That's the gospel right there, folks. Hence there's absolutely no room for us to boast, pat ourselves in the back about being saved. Paul points that out actually in verse 27. Look what he says. Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No. but by a law of faith. God's standard of righteousness is so high. It's so out of reach that none of us could ever even come close to attaining it. But there's absolutely nothing we can do to become righteous. before God through our own efforts. Righteousness is only achieved by accepting it as a free gift of God's grace through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Thus God's gracious gift of redemption through the atoning work and sacrifice of our Lord and Savior excludes all, Pat's on the back, all boasting, It's only by the matchless grace of God that we are what we are. You guys all know Ephesians 2.8.9. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And that, not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that, who? No one may boast. God doesn't need boasters in heaven. We're all in the same boat. And that boat is sinking. And it's sinking quick. It's taking on water real fast. So what does Paul mean by the law of faith that he mentions at the end of verse 27? Let's keep reading to find out. It's actually in verse 28. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Brothers and sisters, Paul couldn't be any clearer. He really couldn't. His point is simply this, the only way that a person can ever be made right before God and stand justified by, or excuse me, before Him is by faith. That's it. No religious effort. No law keeping, we've already gone through that in chapters one, two, and three. No popes, no priests, no amount of good works will ever achieve that. Just faith. Just faith. Now unfortunately faith, has been misunderstood over the years. That's why we need to take a little bit of time right now and define what we're talking about. Many people think that faith is simply believing what you know isn't true, right? It's the arm bar with the kid on the ground saying that you're the king or whatever, you know, whatever you did as a kid, like what I did with my twin brother. Or they think that faith is the opposite of rational thoughts. To them, faith is nothing more than positive thinking or wishful dreaming. There are also many others who confuse faith with feelings. Really, if their feelings are up, then their faith is strong, they think, right? They're singing those songs that just make everything, our spirits lift up and they think that there's so much faith. Faith has very little, if anything, to do with our feelings, men and women. I hate to put it that way, but it's true. We will never progress very far in our spiritual walk if we try to live on the plane of our feelings. Do you know what I'm talking about? We walk by faith and not by sight. Regardless of what my feelings say on the day, I still do what God calls me to do. We will never progress very far in our spiritual walk if we try to live on the plane of our feelings, and that's exactly what our culture is teaching all of our kids all around us, even ourselves. Hey, just listen to your heart. That's the worst advice ever. So if faith isn't a feeling, what is it? Well, not surprisingly, the Bible actually gives us a wonderful definition of biblical faith. It's found in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 11, one. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. That's faith. In other words, if God says something, faith completely and absolutely believes it, even if it's not visible to the naked eye. One man defined true faith as outrageous trust in God, and I really like that. You guys can write that down. It's outrageous trust in God. Biblical faith holds something as true simply because God says it's true, and then faith acts on that belief in how you live your life. I have people all the time, they say, hey, pastor, but what about this situation, that situation? And they don't like what I say or I open God's word and it says this, and they're like, well, I can't do that. Well, then you're not living by faith. You've gotta do what this book says, even though you think and through all your experiences, well, it just won't work. I've tried that, it just won't work, pastor. Right? How many, we're all guilty of using that as an excuse, quite frankly. But we've all heard of men and women whose faith have inspired us. But often what we don't see is how God used trials and adversity in their past to continually increase their faith. And that's what God uses in our lives. He uses all the difficulties in our lives so that we can grow in faith. You see, faith that is never put to the test is only theoretical. We don't need textbooks teaching us about faith. What we need are living, breathing examples to show us what it really looks like. And that's where Hebrews chapter 11 comes in. We defined it in verse one. But more than any other chapter in the Bible, this one chapter shows us what true faith looks like in the nitty gritty of life. How many of you guys love chapter 11 in Hebrews? And most of us know this as the hall of faith because the author of Hebrews gives us a long list of Old Testament heroes who lived by faith and sometimes died by faith, right? Here they are. They were written, again, Romans 15 verse four says, all these things were written in earlier times for our instruction. You know what I'm saying? And so in other words, God's word is all true and it's for us. So here it is. Again, most of them are introduced by the phrase, by faith. Verse four, by faith able. And he goes on. Verse five, by faith enoch. They didn't get saved in the Old Testament by works, they got saved in the Old Testament by faith. Here it is, it's a good chapter to turn to. Verse seven, by faith, Noah. Verse eight, by faith, Abraham. Verse 11, by faith, Sarah. Verse 20, by faith, Isaac. Verse 21, by faith, Jacob. Verse 22, by faith, Joseph. Verse 23, by faith, Moses. Verse 29, by faith, the children of Israel. And verse 31, by faith, Rahab. That should give all of us Gentiles hope, right? After that he goes on to say that he doesn't have time to mention all the acts of Gideon and Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel, and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword from weakness, were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight, end quote. That's verses 32 through 34. Amen and amen. That's what real faith looks like. So if that chapter were to continue and your name were written there, what would it say after your name? By faith, Cary Green, by faith and you fill in the blank. And then how are you living? How's your marriage? How's your raising of children in this awful generation that we live by? What an incredible list of men and women who not only believe God by faith, but live by faith. Man, I hope the future generations can look back on us and say they were a group of body of believers who lived by faith. Brothers, sisters, young and old, please know that God loves it when his people dare to trust him. Again, do not mistake faith for a feeling. Faith is not a feeling, but a conscience choice to do what your feelings scream against you doing simply because God's word says it. Faith moves beyond or moves forward even in the face of doubt and opposition. Doesn't matter what all your friends and family are saying, it moves forward with what God's word says. And lastly, faith sees what others do not see. The world has told us time and time again that seeing is believing. But God says that believing is seeing. That's what it says. Not literally like that, but that's what it means. Faith was never meant to be a one-time experience. Yes, we must exercise faith when we initially come to God, but sometimes we give the impression that people need to respond to the gospel in faith, but after that, everything in the Christian life is now up to them. But that's simply not true. One author said this, the same faith that saves us is the faith that carries us from day to day as we make the journey from earth to heaven. And we're all on that same path. Some are a little further along than others. But that's our path, men and women. Prophet Habakkuk put it this way in Habakkuk 2 verse four, but the righteous will live by his faith. That's Habakkuk. Folks, make no mistake, the whole Christian life is to be lived a life of faith. Again, another commentator said this, and I really like this, I had to include this, we are saved by faith. Listen, kept by faith, and we walk by faith, endure by faith, rejoice by faith, serve by faith, love by faith, sacrifice by faith, pray by faith, worship by faith, and we obey by faith, we get married by faith, and we have children by faith, all that we do, we do by faith, end quote. Is that your life? All I can say is amen. What a description of the heroes of the faith in Hebrews chapter 11. We'd be able to describe their lives by each one of these descriptions here. May it be true of us. Faith always has an object. And saving faith always has one object or one person, one person alone as its object, and that is Christ. The law of faith, there is a recognition that God did it all. And faith gladly accept Christ's perfect sacrifice. Faith has a genuine love for God because it believes and trusts him. Out of love, that same love springs forth genuine wholehearted obedience. Furthermore, faith will be characterized by the humility because genuine faith holds God's glory as the most important thing in life. When missionary John Patton, we're almost done, was translating the scripture for the South Sea Islander. He was Islander, excuse me, he was unable to find a word in the vocabulary for the concept of believing, trusting, or having faith. Then one day while he was in his hut translating, a native came running up the stairs into Patton's study, and he flopped himself in a chair, exhausted, and he said to Patton, it's so good to rest my whole weight in this chair. John Patton had his word. Faith is resting your whole weight on God, amen? I love that. That word went into the translation of their New Testament and helped bring that civilization to a saving knowledge of Christ. Faith, men and women, is putting your whole weight on God. If God said it, then it's true. And we're gonna live it out. The gospel teaches that when Jesus took my place on the cross, God's wrath was poured out on him, Jesus, in order to satisfy God's just punishment of my sin. God's justice was satisfied through Jesus' loving sacrifice, and because of that, I am no longer counted guilty. I'm no longer counted an enemy. Jesus took my place of punishment, and I took his reward of righteousness. And the result of that great exchange is that I now have peace with God. But not only do I have a judicial peace with God through my Lord's atoning death on the cross, but I also have an emotional peace with God. Instead of conflict, turmoil, fear, and uncertainty, I now have serenity, assurance, tranquility, and harmony. In short, as believers, we now have peace. Is that not one of the fruits of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace? And the fact that I now have peace with God has changed my whole life. It so certainly has ever since I got saved when I was 21 years old. Instead of living for myself, which only made me miserable as an unbeliever, I now have a higher purpose to live for, and that is for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So, in conclusion, how should all this affect us? Well, If you're a believer, then praise God that your salvation is all of God and none of you. With great humility, thank God every day for the unbelievable gift of being born again and walk every day with an unshakable faith that he is controlling every detail in your life, the good as well as the bad. It's easy with the good, is it not? more difficult with the bad. But what if you're not a Christian? How should that then affect you? Well, if you're not a Christian, then you need to understand that you have absolutely no hope of salvation apart from faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the message which Martin Luther worked for and really gave his entire life for. Faith alone can save you. As one author said, faith is that instrument that lays hold of Christ and his work on the cross so that God can declare us to be right. Again, amen. True faith involves the intellect, okay? For it affirms the facts of Christ's life, death, burial, and resurrection, but it doesn't stop there. It also shows itself in the practical way that we live our lives. True faith is a very personal commitment of yourself to God through the work of Christ. Friend, it's time for you to turn from your sin. all of your sin and put your faith and trust in the only one who can save your eternal soul. And if you call on him with a sincere heart, then he will hear you and he will declare you to be righteous because of what he did for you on the cross. And as we end right now, I end, I think we're gonna sing Rock of Ages. Listen to one of the stanzas. It says this, nothing in my hand I bring. They're empty. Simply to the cross I cling. Naked come to Thee for dress. Helpless look to Thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die. Amen.