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Please take your Bibles once again. If you still got Habakkuk chapter two open, please open up there. And I was going to say to Callum, I mean, it's a challenging, I was also going to mention it was a challenging chapter. I mean, just reading through it sometimes, you know, it goes over your head a bit. Habakkuk can be a challenging book. I'm not going to go through the entire chapter. There's just one phrase there that I really want to focus on. Look at verse number four, Habakkuk chapter two, verse four. The Bible says, To hold his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. Now, the reason I wanted to look at this verse is because if you're familiar with the New Testament, you'll find the phrase the just shall live by faith mentioned three times in the New Testament. It's a pretty common passage, a common verses that we're all familiar with, but did you know its origins come from the book of Habakkuk, okay? And it comes there, and we're going to have a look at that later on as we go through this sermon. But the title for the sermon tonight is the just shall live by faith. And if my voice starts to die away, I'm sure brother Matt will lift up my voice with the amplifier there. So I'll try my best, but just a reminder, Galatians 5 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, okay? So we're up to the fruit of the Spirit part seven, and we're touching upon faith, okay? Now, of course, faith is such an important topic, and that's such an important characteristic of a Christian. It's so important that you must have faith in order for you to be saved in the first place. When we talk about the faith, oftentimes religion, churches are commonly just referred to as the faith, or the Christian faith, you know? But we're going to look at it with a little bit more detail today. We wanna be people that have faith, okay? We wanna be people that have great faith. And so as we go through this, as we see how the Holy Spirit wants to work in our lives, we'll see how is it that we can be people of great faith. Now, I'll get you guys to turn to Galatians chapter three, please, Galatians chapter three, Galatians chapter three. And while you're turning there, I'm just going to read to you from Hebrews 11, verse one. It gives us the definition of what faith is, okay? What is the definition of faith? The Bible says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. In order for you to be someone that has hope, that has great hope, you must be someone that has faith, okay? And faith is based on evidence, okay? It is evidence of things not seen, all right? None of us have seen Jesus Christ in the flesh, okay? None of us have seen in the flesh, his crucifixion, his resurrection. We have seen the word of God, and that is one avenue of developing your faith. But we haven't seen heaven. We haven't seen the soul or the spirit of man. And as far as, well, when we see a body being buried, we didn't see spirit or soul leave the body. Well, we don't see the angels and we haven't seen God. You know, we haven't seen eternal life. We haven't seen these things. And yet I'm sure if I asked each one of you, do you believe in these things? Do you have confidence that these things exist? You'll say to me, yes, I do. I am confident that God exists. I am confident so much, not only does God exist, but I'm confident that I'm a son of God, that he loves me so much, that he did this sacrifice for me 2,000 years ago in Jesus Christ. I've not seen those things, but I have the confidence in those things. You know why you have the confidence? It's because you have faith, okay? If you did not have faith, yeah, you couldn't believe these things. You couldn't have confidence in these things. Now, I want you, Galatians chapter three, you guys are there, Galatians chapter three, verse 10. Actually, before I read that, before I read that, let's just talk about our salvation very quickly, okay? Do you have the confidence that you're saved? You know, can you say to me, I know when I die, I'm going to heaven, you know? And we should be like that, okay? Once we've trusted in Christ, once we've understood his sacrifice, once we know that Jesus Christ has paid for all our sins, our past, present, and future sins, once we've understood that it's based completely on the work of Christ, and it's just a matter of me placing my faith on him, you're going to get to a point maybe immediately or soon afterwards of complete confidence that your soul will be in heaven. You know, today, I don't even think about the possibility that I would go to hell. It doesn't even, I don't have any fear of hell. You know, I don't tremble in fear to think about hell. I don't think, am I, you know, at the end of my life, you know, is God really going to allow me to heaven? Or is he going to judge me and send me to hell? I don't think those things at all. I have so much confidence in it because I have confidence in Christ, right? And I'm sure any of you guys that have been saved, at least for, you know, a decent period of time can say those same things. Now, I'm not saying that there's never going to be times in your life where you may have doubts, you may have questions, you may need a few cobwebs to be removed because of bad preaching. I understand that's part of growth, but really, once you understand the gospel, it's just clear to you, you understand eternal life, you just don't fear hell anymore. You don't have any doubts. You have complete confidence in the word of God, all right? I mean, it's so real to me as my own family. It's so real to me as the planet earth that I know I'm going to heaven after this life. And that's what faith is, okay? But you see, the Holy Spirit wants to develop faith in our lives. He wants us to live by faith. He wants us to walk in faith. And that's where it becomes a little bit more challenging. When you start walking in faith, you start believing the promises that God has for you in your daily life, it becomes more challenging for some reason. But you know what? The same confidence you have with your salvation is the same confidence God wants you to have, the same reliance God wants you to have in your day-to-day walk with Him, okay? And that's what we need to get to because we're all weak people. Quite often, I realize sometimes when I look at myself, I'm a man that lacks faith. I pray about things, but I'm sort of, part of me is thinking, but is God really gonna do that? Did God really hear that? Is He going to take action? And even when I have, what am I, 37? I thought, am I 37? I've got 37 years of life experience where I've gone to God in prayer and He's answered those prayers. And I can look back and say, wow, God answered these prayers. There's still a part of me, the flesh of old man that says, maybe it was a coincidence. Was it really God that stepped in? I mean, sometimes just amazing things that God has done, but you know, they always have that little bit of you, you know, and we need to make sure that we're people of great faith where just like you have the confidence of your salvation, we need to be people that have confidence to know, God hears me, God answers my prayers, and He'll continue to do that, okay? But I reflect upon myself and I lack in these areas sometimes, you know? And I'm sure we're, again, we're made of the same flesh and blood. I'm sure you can relate to that. But let's go to Galatians chapter three, verse 10. You guys are there already. The Bible says, for as many as are the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them, okay? Now, I want to pause there for a moment. We know that salvation is not by the works of the law, okay? If salvation was by the works of the law, to some extent, what does it say there? It says that those that are trusted in the works of the law, it says here they are under the curse, okay? They're still under the curse. They're still under the judgment of God, okay? Because then why, why is that? Because it says, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. So if you think, hey, I'm going to try to be saved by the works of the law, well, you have to do them all, okay? All of them, you have to be perfect in. You can't be just, well, maybe 40% of it. No, all of it, okay? And because none of us are able to do that, no human being has the ability to be perfect because this flesh is corruptible, because of the sinful nature. If you're trusted in works, you have still the curse upon you. And look at verse number 11. It says, but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evidence. So it's obvious. It's so clear, nobody can be saved by the law, right? It's evidence. For the just shall live by faith. And that's the phrase there that we saw in Habakkuk chapter two. We see it here in Galatians 3, 11. Again, the just shall live by faith. Now this phrase, the just shall live by faith has a double meaning, okay? Has a double meaning. And it's based on where it's placed within the context of the scripture that you're reading. For here, we see that it's based within the context of being saved, okay? But of people that are not trusted in the works of the law, but we've been made just, we've been justified. It says, they shall live. We've been given everlasting life, right? In what sense? How did we receive that? By faith. The double meaning, we're gonna have a look at this later on but for now, this phrase here is being used for someone that has trusted in faith upon Jesus Christ, okay? And not trusted upon the works. And once again, there's great confidence to be had as a saved Christian. If you say to me, you know, Kevin, Pastor Kevin, I still have some doubts, I don't know. I don't have the confidence that I'm going to heaven. You know, cause it's still a possibility that maybe, maybe, look, that's not good enough, okay? You need to have your full faith on Jesus Christ. The Bible says, you've got to believe with him with all your heart, okay? And once you believe on him with all your heart, that means you're trusting nothing else, but his sacrifice, okay? And I understand again, sometimes the doubts come, okay? Especially as a young Christian, a carnal Christian, maybe you don't know much of the Bible, maybe you've been hearing some just really bad preaching, it's confused you, I can understand that. But God wants you to have confidence in your salvation, okay? God wants you to know you have everlasting life, you've been justified by the faith that he's given you. Please turn to Matthew 18, Matthew 18, verse one. Matthew 18, verse one. I preached Matthew 18 to the church in Sydney last week. And we'll have a look at this, Matthew 18, verse one. At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? It's just the things these disciples talk about, right? Who's gonna be the greatest in the kingdom? So immature of them. I love how Jesus responds there in verse number two. And Jesus called a little child unto them and set him in the midst of them and said, verily I say unto you, except you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. So you have the disciples saying, who's gonna be the greatest? Jesus puts their focus back on, hey, more important than who's gonna be the greatest, are you even going to enter into the kingdom of heaven? And if you're going to enter in, you've got to become like this little child. We know that salvation is by faith, okay? But here's the thing about faith, in order for you to be saved, you have to be humble like that little child, okay? Just like the little child depends on their parents, knows that the parents are gonna provide the house, the clothing, the food, you know? Parents are gonna set boundaries. Parents are gonna direct them in life, train them in life. Just like that little child has such utter dependence upon their parents, we need to be little children. And if you are saved, you became like a little child. You became humble and realize I can't do this on my own. I need to trust the heavenly father to sort out my salvation. I need to trust him and his sacrifice, okay? So Jesus points them to entering into the kingdom. They're talking about how to be great. Now, should we strive to be great in the kingdom? Absolutely, okay? I'd be ashamed if I never taught on the importance of trying to be a great Christian, someone great in the kingdom of heaven, because then Jesus continues talking in verse number four, verse number four, because remember verse number three was about entering the kingdom of heaven. Verse number four now is talking about being great in the kingdom of heaven. Verse number four, and then he says, whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, okay? So it's the same teaching, the same teaching, the faith, the humility, the little child must have to be saved is the same humility, is the same faith in order for you to become great in the kingdom of heaven. The same faith, the same humility, the same reliance on the father, the same reliance on God that you have for salvation is the same reliance you need to have in your day-to-day walk, the reliance upon God in your day-to-day walk. That's how you become great. You humble yourself. You put others before you. You depend 100% on the father to direct you, to guide you. So let's have a look at the quantity of faith, okay? Because we all have faith to some extent, okay? Even the atheists have faith that God does not exist, okay? I mean, everyone exercises faith to some extent. Even the atheists, the evolutionists believe, have faith in the big bang or whatever, okay? Everyone has faith, okay? Now, one thing you'll notice, just I'm gonna go through the book of Matthew. If you wanna turn to Matthew and follow through, you can, but I'm gonna go through these passages pretty quickly, so I'm not expecting you to sort of keep up with me, okay? But if you want, you can. But Matthew chapter six, verse 30, Matthew chapter six, verse 30, Jesus says, "'Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field, "'which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, "'shall he not much more clothe you, "'O ye of little faith.'" O ye of little faith, okay? Matthew 8, 26, "'And he saith unto them, "'Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?' "'Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, "'and there was a great calm.'" Okay, so you see how Jesus is looking at certain individuals and saying, you've got little faith, okay? Now, they have faith, okay? But he's saying it's very little, okay? Their faith that they have. Matthew 14, verse 31, "'And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand "'and caught him and said unto him, "'O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?'" Does anyone know where that one's from? Anyone know that reference? I'll read it again, let's see if you guys catch it. "'And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand "'and caught him and said unto him, "'O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?'" Yes? Yeah, Peter walking on the water. I think that, man, for Peter to walk on the water, I thought he had great faith doing that. But because he sinks, Jesus says, oh, you know, you've got little faith there, okay? I feel bad for Peter, he tried hard. But anyway, let's keep going. Matthew 16, verse eight, "'Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, "'O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves "'because ye have brought no bread?'" Okay, so that's Jesus feeding the multitudes, okay? And just for comparison, I just wanna show you this, okay? Just wanna show you how Jesus can look at individuals and judge how much faith they have. And the examples that we just saw are people of little faith, you know? And I'm sure some of you might say to me, I have little faith, you know, I can increase in that. And, you know, I'm working hard. You know, I realize sometimes that I am a man of little faith, okay? It's still there, okay? It's increasing, trying to get there. But then we also have examples of people of great faith when Jesus looks at them. Matthew eight, verse 10, "'When Jesus heard it, he marveled, "'and said to them that followed, "'Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, "'no, not in Israel.'" And then Matthew 15, 28, "'Then Jesus answered and said unto her, "'O woman, great is thy faith, "'be it unto thee, even as thou wilt.' "'And her daughter was made whole from that very hour." So ladies, all right, here's Jesus speaking to a lady. It says, "'O woman, great is thy faith.'" You know, women, you know, I know sometimes the Bible, you know, focuses a lot on the man, you know, especially, you know, especially if you're in the ministry, serving in the church, it's directed to man. But you know, you can be a woman of great faith. You know, Jesus is also looking for women that have such great faith. And he'll reflect that, he'll acknowledge that, he'll bless you when he sees you with great faith. So obviously, when we look at these examples, we see people of little faith, we see people of great faith. Which one do we wanna be? Obviously, the one with great faith, right? And if we're just honest many times, we do have little faith, okay? And so the goal is to increase the faith. That's the goal. And that's what I'll be talking about now. How can we increase our faith? And let me just, I'll get you guys to turn to Romans chapter 10, please, Romans chapter 10. And while you're turning there, I'm going to read to you from 2 Thessalonians chapter one, verse three, which says, "'We are bound to thank God always for you.'" So this is Paul speaking to the Thessalonian church. He says, "'Brethren, as it is meet, "'because that your faith groweth exceedingly, "'and the charity of every one of you "'all toward each other are boundeth.'" So we see something here in 1 Thessalonians chapter, 2 Thessalonians chapter one, verse three, is that Paul acknowledges the faith of the Thessalonian church is increasing. Not just one individual, but the faith of the entire church is on the increase, and he acknowledges that. And he's really thankful for that. And as their faith increases, he also says, "'And the charity of every one of you "'all toward each other are boundeth.'" You know, if you want to, if we want to be a church of great love, a great love for the brethren, then we also need to make sure we also develop greatness in our faith. Okay, those two things will go together. Having greater faith will also cause you to abound in love for your fellow man, for your fellow brethren, all right? Now you guys are in Romans 10, and of course verse 17. I'm going to go through these very quickly because we do need to cover it, but we all kind of know these things, but you know, it's good to be reminded anyway. How can we develop faith? How can we be a church like the Thessalonian church where Paul can say your faith grow exceedingly? Well, of course, Romans chapter 10 verse 17, Romans chapter 10 verse 17, you guys all know this one or should know it. So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, okay? So number one, how do we increase our faith? Get into the Word of God, okay? Very similar to some of the other things that we're looking at, the other characteristics, the other fruits of the Spirit, all coming from the same source. Of course, the Word of God is primary, okay? That is your Bible reading, that's coming to church and hearing preaching. You know, as long as you're hearing from the Word of God, that's going to develop your faith. Now, I know the context here is about the faith unto salvation, I understand that, okay? But it's the same source that we can gain faith for our daily walk as well, okay? Because remember, it's the same faith, it's the same humility that as a little child you got saved, that's required for you to become great in the kingdom of heaven, all right? Now, if you guys can go to Luke chapter 17 verse five, Luke chapter 17 verse five, the second way you can develop your faith, the second way you can develop your faith, and again, this is a very obvious one that we're all very familiar with, but it's good to look at again, Luke 17 verse five, the Bible reads, and the apostles said unto the Lord, increase our faith. So what do you think the second point is? Ask the Lord to increase your faith. Go to him in prayer and say, Lord, I am a man of little faith, I am a woman of little faith, please increase my faith. Don't you think that's a request God will want to answer in your life? Isn't that a request that God will wanna help you along and help develop that faith in your life? Absolutely, that's definitely a prayer that he's going to answer in your life if you can come with sincerity of heart, asking him to increase your faith. So number one was to get into the word, read the word. Number two was ask God for faith. Ask God that he would increase your faith. Let's look at the third point now, 2 Corinthians chapter 10, 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 15, 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 15, 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 15. Now before I read this passage, just a bit of background, we've gone to the Corinthian church before, okay, and we know how messed up they were. And as we read through 1 Corinthians and even 2 Corinthians, even though they had improved by the time 2 Corinthians was written, Paul is still rebuking that church quite a lot, okay, for the wrong things they still have, all right? So keeping that in mind, that Paul in his letters has been rebuking his church sharply, we read verse 15 here, it says, not boast of things without our measure that is of other men's labors, but having hope when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly. So Paul says, look, I'm sure I'm going to be blessed by this church. I'm sure I'm going to abound by hearing about the works that this church, that the Corinthian church has. But before that happens, we need to make sure that your faith is increased. So what's my point? The point is in order for you to have your faith be increased is for you to be corrected, for you to be rebuked, okay? And that's why you need to come to church, okay? So you hear the preaching, so you hear the rebuke. Now, I don't necessarily know all the sins in your life. I don't necessarily know your weaknesses. I know some, I'm sure you know some of mine, okay? We all know, we get to know each other, we start to see some of the faults that we all have, but this is what's beautiful about the word of God. You know, when you get up here, you're just commanded to just preach the word, and obviously it's going to touch the hearts of certain people. You know, sometimes when you hear preaching, you're like, did someone tell Pastor Kevin about this? Why is he preaching about that? Someone must have told him. No, right? We're just preaching God's word. And of course, God's word has the power to touch your souls, okay? And of course, we need to be corrected in our sinful ways. So we need to overcome our sinful habits in order for us to have our faith increased, okay? Just like Paul here was rebuking this church sharply, sometimes you need to be rebuked, okay? You need to be rebuked for the sins that you do have. So that's number three. Number three, number one was read your Bibles, get into the word. Number two, ask God to increase your faith. Number three, take correction and overcome sin in your life. Now let's go to number four, Galatians chapter two, verse 19, Galatians chapter two, verse 19. Galatians chapter two, verse 19. Galatians chapter two, verse 19 reads, for I through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God. How are we dead to the law? Verse number 20, I am crucified with Christ. This is point number four, guys. You need to crucify that flesh, okay? You need to overcome that old man. You need to crucify that flesh. And he goes here, nevertheless, I live. He says, look, I crucify myself with Christ, and yet I'm still alive. So what's he talking about? If you crucify that old man, and that old man needs to be crucified every day, it's always there, it's always coming back to life. You wanna keep it down, but it's always popping up, okay? You get rid of that old man, you crucify that old man, so then you can live in the new man. You can live in the spirit. And then it says here, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. That's how you live after the new man. It's Christ living in you, directing you to walk in that life. And then it says here, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, all right? So this is the next way for you to increase in your faith is to crucify that old man. Listen, every morning when you wake up, you need to remind yourself the old man is here. Did I say crucify the new man? Crucify the old man, okay? You need to remind yourself this old man is still here. The old man does not wanna go soul winning today, okay? This old man doesn't wanna go to church today. This old man doesn't wanna read God's word today. But you know what? I'm gonna pick up that Bible. You know what? I'm gonna get ready for church because I'm going to crucify that old man. God increased my faith. Help me to put that old man away so I can walk in your way, so I can walk after Christ, okay? That's point number four. You know, Jesus Christ put it this way. Take up the cross and follow me. You know, take up your cross, meaning crucify that old flesh, all right? And walk after his ways. If you guys can go to 1 Timothy chapter three now, 1 Timothy chapter three verse 12. And this one's a bit of an odd one, all right? Probably one that's probably not... You know, if you're here preaching about faith, increasing your faith, you're probably not going to turn to this passage. But I thought it was interesting, okay? 1 Timothy chapter three, 1 Timothy chapter three verse 12. Now obviously this is not for everybody, the passage that we're looking at, but the application is there for everybody, okay? So the primary application is not for everybody, okay? But definitely we can apply this to everybody. We can take a lesson for everybody here. But 1 Timothy chapter three verse 12, look at this. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. Now look at this, verse 13. For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchased to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. You see, that's another way of saying great faith, you know, or an increase of faith is to have great boldness in the faith. You know, you're strong, all right, in the faith. And look right now, you know, well, let me just say this. I'm thankful that in one of my old churches, I was able to serve as a, you know, in the office of a deacon for two years. You know, I didn't really think about this much, but the Bible tells me here that that would have given me great boldness in my faith while I was serving in that church. And of course, what is a deacon? Obviously a deacon is not the bishop, it's not the pastor of the church, but deacons came into play when the leaders, the apostles, or even the pastors needed assistance, okay? They're kind of like the assistant pastor in many ways. A lot of the churches that have assistant pastors today, really they're serving more like a deacon, okay? They're going around taking care of administrative duties, taking care of other things so the man of God is able to, you know, spend time laboring in the word, you know, without being caught up in too many other things. So look, we don't have, right now, we don't have a need to have a deacon. We don't need the office of a deacon at this point in time. At this point in time, you know, I feel like I can manage all things, but if there ever came a point in my time where I need help and, you know, Isabel is not enough help, you know, they're doing the little computer things, but I need someone to be, you know, involved in the church, yeah, we may call upon someone to put their hand up to take on the office of a bishop, sorry, office of a deacon, you know? And that would be a great opportunity for you to have boldness in your faith, to increase in your faith. Just that office will give you that ability, okay? Now, how do we apply this to everybody? Well, deacon, you know, deacon just means servant. That's all it means. Someone that's a servant, someone that's ministering to other brethren in the church. That's all it means. In other words, I'm not talking about the office of a deacon, but we can all be deacons toward one another. We can all be servants to one another, okay? And as we seek to serve each other, you say, well, I serve Christ, you know, I'm serving the Lord. Okay, that's good. But if you serve the brethren, not only do you increase in the boldness of your faith, but by extension, you are serving the Lord as well, okay? So what I'm trying to say here, guys, is look for opportunities of ministry. We don't need to have official ministries, all right? This person is the head of this ministry. But if you find an area in your local church, you find an area here at New Life Baptist Church, where you can say, hey, I can help in this area. I can take care of that. So you don't need to worry about it, do it. And I don't know what they all are. There might be things out there that I'm not even aware of that needs to be taken care of. I don't realize this is something that's taken up maybe my personal time or the time of others. So you know what? I wanna be a blessing. I wanna develop boldness in my faith. I wanna be a deacon in that sense. I wanna be a servant to the brethren. I wanna serve in my local church. That's gonna give you great faith. When you start plugging yourself into church, when you start to get involved, you're going to learn to love the church a lot more. You're going to develop great love for the brethren as well, all right? Now, we all start at a point where we attend church and we just come for the service and we leave kind of thing. But start thinking. I know that's where we all start and that's fine. Especially if you're a newer person, that's all I expect you really to do. Just turn up, be blessed by the preaching, go home. But hey, for others that have been here for a while, start thinking about, hey, how can I help in the church? And how can I make this personal to me and so I can serve the brethren, so I can earn rewards in heaven, so I can increase in faith, okay? So I thought that was an interesting one that I wasn't really aware of as I was going through and studying this. But yeah, if there's ever an opportunity for a deacon one day, it's a great opportunity for you to put your hand up and develop great boldness in your faith. Now, just one more, 1 Timothy 6, verse 10. 1 Timothy 6, verse 10. Now, this one isn't so much how to increase your faith. It's more to do with how to hinder your faith. In other words, if you're already in this position, this will increase your faith if you get rid of this in your life, okay? But 1 Timothy 6, verse 10. 1 Timothy 6, verse 10. The Bible says, for the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some covet it after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows, all right? So what's another way we can increase our faith? By not loving money, okay? By not chasing possessions, wealth, the riches of this world. It's just temporal, all right? It's just temporal things. Who cares, you know? I mean, it's nice to have a house and all these things, I know, but you know what? All it takes is like, it's a fire and it's gone. All it takes is a small, look, the fires happen all the time. People's homes burn up all the time. You know, don't chase those things in your life. Don't set your heart on those things. Obviously you need to put a roof over your head. And if you can afford a house, like, yeah, go for it, you know? But don't place your faith on the love of money, on the love of possessions, on the love of riches. Make sure your faith is on the Lord and the Lord provides that for you in His timing. Praise God. But if it doesn't, who cares? You know, have your love on the Lord because when you start having a lot of money, you start loving the money, you start loving those possessions, you're going to cause error in your faith. You're gonna cause your faith to be diminished, to be distinguished, to sort of burn out, I guess, because you're chasing after the money instead of chasing after the Lord, after the faith, walking in faith of the Lord. So look, maybe some of you aren't that way, but if you do, if you find yourself, you are someone that loves money, you are desiring to have more and more, well, how are you gonna increase in faith? Get rid of that love, okay? Nothing wrong with money, we all need it, okay? We all need it, but don't be someone that sets your heart on it, okay? And think your importance comes with how much possessions or material wealth you have, okay? Now let's go to Romans chapter one, verse 16. Romans chapter one, verse 16. Romans chapter one, verse 16. We're gonna look at another reference now where it says the just shall live by faith and it's just reinforcing what we've already discussed, but Romans chapter one, verse 16 says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Just wanna stop there, there's no difference between the Jews and the Greeks and the Australians, okay? Of how we receive the gospel of Christ, okay? It says here, it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Every Greek, every Gentile, no, it says here, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Regardless of your background, regardless, it doesn't matter. You enter the same way, okay? It's through the gospel of Christ. But look at verse 17. So we know that faith is required for salvation. Verse 17, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. See, God wants to reveal his righteousness to you. He's already revealed that righteousness through the gospel, but he wants to continue revealing a deeper appreciation for his righteousness when you go from faith to faith. What does that mean? Well, it tells us here, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. And so now we start seeing the double meaning of this phrase. We saw, first of all, that has to do with being saved. But now we're going from faith to faith. So the double meaning is the just, the ones that are justified, the ones that are saved shall live a life that we live every day until we die should be done by faith. Every day of your life should be a walk of faith, okay? Every day of your life, not just a day of your salvation, but every day moving forward, you need to go from faith to faith. And if you can accomplish that, God will show you, will reveal his righteousness to you, will reveal his goodness to you more and more every day, okay? What a beautiful thing, if we can see the fullness of his righteousness in our lives, the fullness of his goodness in our lives, all right? Now, if you guys can go back to Habakkuk now, chapter two, Habakkuk chapter two, all right? So the reason I turned to Romans one, just to show you, just to reinforce again, okay? That yes, faith for salvation, but we need to be walking in faith day by day. Let's go to Habakkuk chapter two, verse one, where this phrase came from, okay? The just shall live by faith. Habakkuk chapter two, verse one. Now, before we read this passage, just to explain the prophet Habakkuk here. So this, his time, he was a prophet to Judah, to the southern kingdom, all right? And this was prior to Judah being taken into captivity by Babylon. And God has revealed to Habakkuk that the judgment of God was gonna fall upon Judea, because they had turned their hearts against the Lord. And he says, the judgment's gonna be that you're going to be taken into Babylonian captivity, okay? So this is what he's revealed to Habakkuk. And this is what Habakkuk then speaks of here in verse number one, Habakkuk chapter two, verse one. He says, I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me. That's a great thing, right? You wanna hear from God? And this has nothing to do with my sermon, right? But it's a great thing. Well, look what he says here, I will stand upon my watch, because I'm waiting on the Lord. And he says, I set me upon the tower. And he says, he lifts himself up, he's ready, right? He goes, and will watch to see what he will say unto me. He's waiting, and he's expecting the Lord to answer him. He says, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. He goes, what am I gonna say when God corrects me? When he shows me that I'm wrong, right? He's wondering what is God gonna say? And then verse number two. And the Lord answered me and said, write the vision. So God gives him a vision, and make it plain upon tables. And once again, just for the preachers here, just remember, our job is to make it plain, all right? God gives us a vision, we have the word of God. That's how he shows us, and we need to make it plain. And then it says here, that he may run that reed of it, for the vision is yet for an appointed time. So the vision of this Babylonian captivity is an appointed time, it's going to happen. But at the end, it shall speak and not lie, though it tarry. That says, it might seem like it's not happening, you know, it's taking time. He goes, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry, okay? So he's saying, look, this prophecy, this vision that I've given you, it's going to happen, okay? It may seem like it's taken too long, but it's definitely gonna happen. It's got an appointed time. And then it says in verse four, behold, his soul, which is lifted up, is not upright in him. So this is talking about a proud person. He says that there's a proud person, if his soul is lifted up, he says, it's not upright in him, in that same man, okay? Someone that's filled up with pride, someone that's lifted up, he's not righteous with God, okay? He's not upright in him. But then it says this, but the just shall live by his faith, okay? The just shall live by his faith. And so what we, a few things we can learn here, okay, is that we need to have faith that the coming judgment of God will come, okay? Just like he was coming upon Judea, Habakkuk saw, I'm going to live by faith. Yes, it might take a little bit of time, but there's an appointed time for it to happen. It's going to happen. If we remind ourselves that the coming judgment of God is on its way, that the wrath of God is on its way, it's going to happen, okay? There's an appointed time of God where he's going to bring judgment upon this earth, when he lets loose all those trumpets and those vile judgments gonna come. If we remember that, and we know these people that take the mark of the beast, their time is over. They've got no opportunity. Then we need to make use of the time that we've got now, okay? We need to watch as it were. We need to be ready because we know, man, if we don't go out there preaching the gospel, who's going to do it, you know? There are people there wanting to hear the gospel. And if they don't hear the gospel, they're definitely going to go into the time of judgment and they're going to be utterly destroyed, okay? So having faith will move you to be understand the judgment of God. And you're not gonna be, wow, it's not gonna happen in my life, who cares? No, you're gonna be moved by it. It's going to cause you to live in faith, all right? But I also think this applies to knowing that, hey, man, we're going to be taken into captivity. We're going to be persecuted. You know, we're going to face tribulation as it were, you know, in this Babylonian captivity. Well, look, the just should live by faith, you know? Yeah, even when you go through difficulties, when you go for trials and persecutions, when you have problems in your life, you know what's gonna get you through those things? Your faith on Him, okay? Living day by day and knowing that God is there, He knows what's going on. He's the one that's appointed that on you, you know? And He's going to see you through it, okay? And of course, we see, you know, later on after the Babylonian captivity of 70 years, many of the Israelites went back and established themselves once again into Canaan, all right? If you guys can go to Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 38. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 38. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 38. Just the final time this phrase appears, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 38. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 38. The Bible says, now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. Do you wanna give God pleasure? You want God to look down and say, I'm pleased with this person. You know, I'm pleased with so and so. You know, this person gives me great pleasure. Then what does he want you to do? He wants you to live by faith, all right? Says, and he doesn't want you to draw back, all right? You see, and look, I can't really relate to this, but in some ways I can. But a lot of you guys got saved later in life. You made a lot of mistakes. You had a lot of sin in your life, right? And you've placed your faith on the Lord, praise God. Now you're sitting, you're walking His ways, you're learning things, you're overcoming sin, you're walking the Spirit, you're doing the great works that God has given you. There's gonna come times when you're being tempted to be drawn back to your old sins, to your old way of life. And when that happens, and if you do that, you're not pleasing the Lord, okay? There's no pleasure for the Lord for these people. And then look at verse 39. And this is a verse where people think you can lose your salvation. Obviously you can't lose your salvation, okay? It's eternal life, but let's just understand this. And it goes here, but we are not of them who draw back unto perdition. Look, I believe it's Paul that's right in here. He says to the Hebrews, look, we ought to be people that aren't drawn back unto that perdition. And perdition just means like destruction. It's not talking about going to hell, all right? This is just talking about going back to your destructive old way of life. We're not like that, he says. And it's got the confidence, no, I'm not going to go back to my old ways. We know how bad Paul was. He persecuted the Christians, he persecuted the church of God. He was involved with the stone of Stephen. Hey, he had a horrible life, but he goes, I'm not going to be like that anymore. He's going to persevere in his faith. He's going to walk in his faith, okay? And then he says here, but of them that believe, sorry, but we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. You see, you can, you can be someone, especially if you had a horrible past, you can be someone, this is why it's so important for you to crucify that old man every morning, remind yourself it's there. The horrible sins you've done in the past, the addictions you once had, the filthy things you once did, you could do it again, you could do it again, you could be drawn back. And when you fall back into those old ways, it'll destroy your life. You need to say in your heart, you need to say in the new man, you need to say to the Lord, I am not going to be drawn back. I'm not going those old ways. Lord, you've poured me through all these things. You've helped me grow. You've helped me grow in the faith. Help me continue, okay? Help me continue. So, you know, living by faith will prevent you from falling back to your old ways of sins, okay? Now, like I said, I can't really relate so much because I got saved at an early age at four years old, but still the old flesh was there. Still in my teenage years, I made some mistakes, all right? And because I made those mistakes in the flesh, I also can fall into those old ways, you know? I can do that. This is why it's so important that we walk by faith. All right? Now, I'm going to read to you some passages. I might get you to turn to, you guys go to 2 Corinthians 5, please. 2 Corinthians 5. And I'm just going to rattle off some verses here for you because I just want to show you that faith gives you the stability you need so you don't fall back in your old ways, okay? Faith gives you the stability. 1 Corinthians 16 verse 13 says, watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong, okay? Stand fast in your faith, okay? Be strong. If you want to be stable, you know, unmovable, you want to stand strong in your Christian faith, you need to be someone that walks in faith, okay? That establishes itself in the faith. 2 Corinthians 1.24 says, not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy for by faith you stand. Okay? If you lose your faith, you're not going to be able to stand, okay? You're going to stagger, you're going to fail. Galatians 2.19, for I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ. Why am I reading this one? I think I read this one before. Let me just keep going. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I must have copied that same verse before. Sorry, guys. But I just want to show you, that in order for you to stand strong, you must be someone of faith, someone that stands strong in faith. And in conclusion, guys, just 2 Corinthians 5, verse 7. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 7. You need to remind yourself of this, okay? Remind you, this is what we started with. We started with not having seen the Lord, not knowing heaven, not seeing God, not seeing the sacrifice of Christ, and yet we stand firm on that truth. We have confidence in that truth. And so we're going to end on this, here on 2 Corinthians 5, verse 7, just as a reminder, for we walk by faith, not by sight. What gives you confidence? It should be what you have, what you're seeing in your faith, and not by sight, okay? This world's going to throw things at you. It's going to cause you to be discouraged, okay? If you fill your mind with the media, if you fill your mind with worldly things, it's going to cause the stagger, okay? You need to be people that say, you know what? I've not seen these things, but it's in the word of God, and I'm just going to trust that these things occurred. And I believe that God created all things in six days, over some, you know, 6,000 years ago. You know, I believe there was a worldwide flood. I didn't see it, you know, but I believe that happened, and that shows me how much God hates wickedness. It shows me that he's a God of judgment, you know? And then to understand, well, he sent his son, so therefore he's a God of love. And even though I've not seen that sacrifice myself, I have faith that that was there. I have faith that he sent that, and he loves me, and he's given me that. Look, and I have faith that there's a coming kingdom, a coming thousand years, and I want to rule and reign with Christ, and I want to see the wicked destroyed during that time, okay? I want to see judgment come upon the earth at that time, because we're not seeing judgment today with the failed governments that we have. Hey, but these things and the new heavens and new earth, the promises of the mansions of heaven, the rewards for heaven to live, have eternal life, to have bodies that are without sin, resurrected bodies. We believe all these things, not because we've seen that. We believe these things because we have faith, okay? And when you're struggling, if you're struggling to believe some of these things, just ask the Lord, increase my faith. Let's pray.