Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): The just shall live by faith. That's a truth that can revolutionize your life. We'll explain next on Abounding Grace.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Get ready for a great Bible study on faith today on Abounding Grace as we turn to Galatians chapter 3. God gives us many promises in His word, but do we believe Him? Truth be told, very often we experience a lapse of faith. Well, be encouraged to go back to a place of trust. Here's Pastor Ed Taylor with part two of The Just Shall Live by Faith.

The just shall live by faith is very important. It takes us back to a time in the life of a man by the name of Habakkuk. There's a Bible book in the Old Testament, it's called Habakkuk. It's actually the name of the man who wrote it. He was a prophet or a messenger of God. He was living in a time of moral decline and religious decline in the nation of Israel and he was upset about it.

Even as many look at the condition of our country today and get upset about it, that's where Habakkuk was on a spiritual level. He looked at the leaders, he looked at the people in the country and he said, "God, don't You understand? Why have You abandoned us? Don't You see the decay? Don't You see they're a bunch of liars? Don't You see the corruption? Don't You see what's happening in the leadership? God, You know it's bad and You're not doing anything about it. You don't seem to care. You don't care about us anymore. You've abandoned us."

God was so gracious. He didn't have to, but He did. He answered that. Listen to what He said in Habakkuk chapter 1, verse 5. God tells him, "Look among the nations and watch. Be utterly astounded, for I will work a work in your days which you would not believe though it were told you."

God is basically telling him, "I know exactly what's happening. I'm going to take care of it. You don't need to worry about anything. Just trust Me. Don't worry about it. And Habakkuk, I'm working something that if I told you, you wouldn't even get it. You wouldn't even understand."

God was very gracious to give him the plan. The plan was that God was going to use the nation of Babylon as a tool of judgment against the nation of Israel. He told Habakkuk this is what He was going to do. He was going to send Babylon and they were going to be judged. You would think that's what was on Habakkuk's heart. He wanted to know. Well, now that he knows, he's upset about it.

He's upset. He can't believe it. God's going to use Babylon? They're worse than Israel. Why would He use them to judge Israel? They're worse than the Israelites. Then he goes off to a tower and he sits there and waits. It's while he's waiting for what God's going to do that God speaks to him and the understanding and revelation comes. Habakkuk, here's what you're supposed to do: the just shall live by faith. There is nothing you can do about this. You're just going to have to trust Me, God says.

While it's very important and relevant for our study today in choosing grace over the law, I also believe it's a word from the Lord because we carry these things in our own hearts and sometimes believe falsely that God doesn't care or that God isn't going to act or He's abandoned us. So we cry out, "What's going on? God, don't You know? Don't You see?"

We have these lapses of faith. I had one yesterday. I've got an ongoing thing in my life that's been going on for 12 years now. The Lord's given us strength and I'm walking in faith on it. I was listening to a song on my way to church on my playlist. Sometimes I choose songs, sometimes I let my playlist play. It's just there. I've heard that song hundreds and hundreds of times.

I love it. It's beautiful and that's why it's on my playlist. I was listening and this phrase just jumped out. God used this song to show me my Habakkuk unbelief in some ways. I didn't even know I was dealing with it in the moment. I thought I was in a good space. This is how good God is. He'll reveal these things to us as we're seeking Him, even though I'm not sitting down in my car going, "Okay God, I'm seeking You because I'm going to church and I'm going to teach and I'm ready." This is my life. I want my car to be filled with the Lord. I want to listen to songs that are going to build me up.

I want to read it to you because I jotted down the lyrics to get the exact words. I think I might even have posted it, but listen. This is the phrase from a great song: "Far be it from me to not believe when my eyes can't see." It just went boom. Far be it from me not to believe.

In the last couple of weeks, I've looked at the situation and thought, "It's not going to happen. It's just not going to happen." I'm not really complaining about it. We've gone through the ups and downs of this for so long. But I just came to this: it's just not going to happen.

And I'm just going to have to learn. Really what God was saying is, "No, what's happening, Ed, is that you don't believe Me." On the other hand, God has given us promises. My family, He's given us promises. I believe those promises, but for a moment, isn't that the Lord? Pastor Ed, heading to church, ready to teach a Bible study on faith, and at the corner of Smoky Hill and Reservoir, he's the most faithless man on the corner.

Why would God do that? Because He lives inside me. That's the power you have. He lives inside of you. You don't need an external list of your problems and difficulties. God said in my car in a very simple way, "Ed, the just shall live by faith." He used that song to remind me. The just shall live by faith. Trust Me, Ed. Go back to a place of trust.

You're not in a place of trust in your heart right now. Go back to a place of trust. No striving; you don't need to do anything. You don't need to make any phone calls. You don't need to go take things into your own hands. You don't need to do anything. Just trust Me. It was subtle. It was good. It's a great song, encouraging and faith-affirming. The Lord knows you.

This verse is revolutionary. If you'll just believe this truth, it'll revolutionize your life. It's what it did to a man by the name of Martin Luther. He was a very faithful Roman Catholic priest, dedicated to living his life for God and going the extra mile. He would beat himself. He would strive. He would read extra, pray extra, and do extra, and he was empty.

Something was missing. He was one of the few that could read and had access to the Bible. He began reading the book of Galatians. Imagine that. He's reading Galatians in his own life and he comes to this verse and it hit him. It's a life of faith, not works. It revolutionized his heart.

It started in the heart of Martin Luther what we know today as the Great Reformation. Martin Luther went with these reforms to say this is wrong. He nailed them up on the Wittenberg door. This is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. The reward of religion is they kicked him out. They wanted to kill him. But there were many people that were set free by the truth of the Bible. The just shall live by faith. It's very important.

This truth can revolutionize your life. It's not just for Martin Luther three or four hundred years ago; it's for you today. Listen to those of you that are striving today to please God, struggling to keep a list of laws, or even the law, working to gain blessings and acceptance of God. You are living in shame and condemnation because the cycle of sin is so brutal. You beat yourself up and shame yourself because you never really measure up to the perfect standard.

You know it, but you try, and it's frustrating. The person that wakes up in the morning with all these affirmations lives a frustrated life because they can never do it. So there's always Tuesday and there's always Wednesday. You've been doing that for 100 years. It's time to live by faith. There's always today to choose to yield your life to Him. Why? Because you have a relationship with Him. You don't have anything to prove to God. You don't have anything to earn.

It's like in our families. For you parents and grandparents, but even if you're not a parent or grandparent yet, you're a kid. Can you imagine making your kid prove to you that they're your kid every day? Little Johnny gets up and comes into the room where you're making your affirmations in bed. Little Johnny comes up and you open your eyes and say, "Who are you?" "I'm Johnny, Dad." "Well, prove it to me. How do I know that you're Johnny?"

He pulls out of his pocket a list. "I got the list, Dad. I'm this, I'm this, I'm this, I'm this." "You missed one." "I know." "Come back tomorrow." Who does that? If that's you as a parent, you need to come up after the service because that is the wrong way of parenting. Nobody does that. Johnny's your kid and he doesn't need to prove it. He doesn't need every day to earn your favor and honor. He doesn't need every day to try to somehow prove to you that there's a natural love.

I apologize ahead of time because I know that not everyone grew up in a home like that and I'm sorry. But you have a perfect heavenly Father who's ready to restore even what you lost as a kid. You don't need to prove to God that you're His daughter. You don't need to prove to God that you're His son. You are by faith in Jesus Christ. You are well-loved and beloved and accepted in Christ. The result is to live by faith. This is the verse that sets you free.

You believe what God says about you. You don't need to prove it. You don't need to pull out a list. You don't need to work hard. I think of going back to the Ten Commandments for a moment. For those of you who say, "Wait a minute, what about the Ten Commandments?" Just pick one of them: "Do not lie." If you approach the Ten Commandments like that and say, "I'm going to take that one and I am not going to lie."

"I'm going to make sure that today I will not lie. Tomorrow I will not lie. Next week I will not lie. I am not lying." How do you live your life? You live your life so paranoid that you're perfectly telling the truth in every situation. You don't want to mess anything up because you made the commitment not to lie. You made it to yourself and others. "I will not lie, I will not lie, I will not lie."

There are a lot of lies. You can exaggerate. White lies, gray lies; they're all the same. You cannot tell the whole truth. There are a lot of different ways to lie. Now that you've made that commitment outwardly, you're paranoid about it because you want to make sure you kept it. That's all you're paying attention to. You don't care about the person in front of you. You're not really caring about the people in your life. You're caring about the rule.

But there's a better way. Instead of living by the law of "do not lie," you live by faith that God lives in you. When God lives in you, you don't need to worry about lying. It is good to know, so I'm not advocating the reality of not knowing what the Bible says. Of course, you need to know, but you don't need to worry about it. Because with God living in you, you will not be a liar. That's God's gift to you. You're not a liar right now.

And if you do lie, you know what'll happen? The Lord will convict you. He'll say, "No, we don't lie." You go, "Wait a minute, we? What do You mean, we?" Yeah, exactly. We don't lie. God lives in you. You're in oneness with Jesus. Jesus doesn't lie, therefore you don't lie. You don't even need to worry about it because your heart and desire is in relationship to please your Father. You won't be a liar.

I'm not saying occasionally you might not lie. But then the Holy Spirit comes and says, "No, we don't do that." I say, "I know, we don't do that. That's who I used to be. It's not who I am. Lord, forgive me." Then you go make it right. I was just thinking last night that before I got saved, I didn't make anything right because I didn't care. If I lied to you, I took something from you, I manipulated, whatever; it didn't matter.

I didn't make things right. But as a believer, that's one of the first things you do when you recognize you're wrong. You make it right. You just want to make it right. Ask for forgiveness, forgive, reconcile; whatever it is, you want to make it right. The Holy Spirit leads you and guides you because it's relational. Christianity is not, "Do this, do that, do this, do that. And when you don't, you're toast." That's not Christianity.

Christianity is not defined by what you do. Christianity is defined by who you are. You just are. You don't need to prove it. You're like little Johnny. Everybody knows Johnny is the son. Nobody needs to prove it. As the kid in the home, you own everything that's in that home. It's yours. It's your house.

Johnny in diapers can't even change his own diapers. He doesn't have a job, but he can go into the refrigerator and drink milk out of the gallon. He might get in trouble for it, but he does. It's his milk. It's his food. It's his couch. Everything in the house belongs to that kid. Why? He's in the family. It's all his. Just like you and me. The just shall live by faith. It's so important that you grasp this.

Which leads to the question that some of you are asking: Are you saying, Ed, that now I don't have to read my Bible? The answer is yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. You don't have to read your Bible. Wait a minute. Are you saying that I don't have to have morning devotions? That's exactly what I'm saying. You don't have to have your morning devotions and you don't have to read your Bible.

Let's keep going on the list then. "I don't have to pray?" No. "Don't have to give?" No. "Don't have to be in church?" No. You don't have to do any of those things. You're using the wrong language. You don't got to do anything because the life of faith and relationship is not a "have to." It's a "get to." That's a big change.

Why would you get up in the morning and have morning devotions? Because you want to, not because you have to. What kind of bad attitude are you going to have opening up the Bible and saying, "I'm going to do my devotions. It's Sunday and I know I'm going to meet some Christian at church and they're going to ask me something about the Bible, so I better do my devotions"? Then you open it up and think, "I hate this. I've been crucified with Christ. What does that even mean?"

Just close your Bible. You don't need to do that. It's not fun being in a relationship with someone like that. If you don't want to do it, just don't do it. Just be honest. Better to be honest than be a poser. Be honest and expect the Holy Spirit to ask, "Are you sure you don't want to meet with Me? What's your problem?" It could be a lot of different things, but you don't have to. You get to. It's kind of like hunger.

You don't have to make yourself hungry. When you wake up in the morning, you're hungry. Some of you get hangry, but you're hungry. You eat. Unless there is a medical condition, you're naturally hungry. As a believer in Jesus, you're naturally hungry for the things of God. You love Him. You care for Him. That's real relationship. You want to be fed.

So no, you don't have to do these things, but they're good for you. You want them. God gives you new desires. He gives you new thoughts. He gives you a whole new direction in life. God inside of you longs to be with you and you long to be with Him. So you get up in the morning and say, "Lord, speak to me." Sometimes you didn't even know lying was a sin until you read in the Bible, "Thou shalt not lie," and you realize you didn't grow up in a world like that.

But God is identifying something in your life that needs to be forsaken. Now He lives in you, so by faith, you become a person of truth because the Spirit is the Spirit of truth. You didn't have to do anything. You didn't have to read a book on lying or go to a seminar. The Holy Spirit just said, "We're not going to do that. That doesn't reflect My love and character to a lost world."

The life of faith is not "got to" but "get to." It's a whole different attitude. Grace says believe and then you'll live. What you believe is a matter of the heart and that belief will find its way into your actions. It'll find its way into the external life. But God is not concerned with all the externals. Externals are for people. God is concerned with what's inside us.

So you learn the just lives by faith. Not by religion, not by religious activity, not by the law, not by legalism, not by somebody coming up and saying, "If you don't do this, you're not right." No, you go to the word and God says, "No, that guy is not telling you the truth. Don't listen to him. Because you and Me, we see. I've done that work in you. I'm faithful. I'll wash you, I'll cleanse you, I'll make you holy. You're going to be holy like Me. Now live like it."

So many get it all backwards. You're born again, you get saved, you pray and you think, "Okay, now I need to change my whole behavior and I'll work hard, work hard, work hard." When the Holy Spirit says, "Just come to Me. I'll identify. You might want to work on this over here, but the real issue is this one. You want to take the easy one, but the easy one's easy. I want to go deep." Smoking cigarettes again is easy. How about this? "I'll never be angry again."

Anger is kind of deep. I grew up in an angry home. Angry dad, angry mom. I've been angry. It's just like my friend: anger. But you see, the Spirit of God in you is gentleness. If you believe God, He gives you gentleness. Lived out, His characteristics in your life become His character, His nature, His strength, His identity is you now. You're a Christ-follower.

It's not what you do. It's what He has done. You don't need to prove you're a son or a daughter. You are. Live that way. We'll stop right here for just a minute or two, but don't go away. Pastor Ed Taylor has more to say here on Abounding Grace. If you joined us late or would just like to give this a second listen, go online to aboundinggraceradio.com.

Hey, this is Pastor Ed here at Calvary and Abounding Grace Media and I'd like to let you know about our brand new book. It's only a few months old and it's titled Letting Go of Your Past. It was written during a time where in our church a lot of the issues we were dealing with had to do with unforgiveness, feeling stuck, and dealing with church hurt or family hurt. I began to teach a series of Bible studies for our church that we edited into book form that will help you greatly.

The neat thing about this book is not only will it help you move forward and get unstuck, but all the net proceeds go to our missionaries. So it's kind of a double win. You're looking for a resource like this for yourself or for a friend or a family member, the title Letting Go of Your Past by Ed Taylor. You can get it on our store at calvarystore.com. That's calvarystore.com. Or really you can pick it up anywhere. It's available wherever you get books. There's even an audio version. So if you like audiobooks, I'm really happy the way that came out. Thank you for supporting the ministry. I just know the Lord's going to use this book. He already is. So be sure to get a copy or two.

Guest (Male): Please remember that Abounding Grace is made possible through the support of our listeners. We look to the Lord to provide and guide. When you give a donation of $25 or more to Abounding Grace, you're invited to request a copy of Pastor Ed's book, Letting Go of Your Past. To order it today, call us at 877-30-GRACE. Now let's finish up today's study from Galatians chapter 3.

Pastor Ed Taylor: We'll get into this a little deeper next time, but notice a couple things before we close. He takes it in from verse 13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. He became a curse for us, for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree," that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. It's all by faith. Starts with faith, continues faith. It'll be faith to the very end till we see Jesus face to face.

The importance is that the curse has been removed by the cross. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. He has done the work. That's why you don't need a deliverance ministry, somebody to come along and say, "I'll deliver you from that." You've been delivered. Live that way. You don't need to be delivered. You are delivered.

You are in Christ. No part of your life can be overtaken by a demon. They can't just get in between your toes somewhere and have a little place. Now you can give yourself through your behavior to become a slave to sin, but you can break that right away by repentance. But you have been delivered. You don't need to go backwards. You need to continue going forwards. And how do you go forward? By faith. Believing what God said about you.

And this all the way goes back to Abraham. We've already seen this. What was it that drew Abraham to God's attention? It doesn't say. He wasn't doing anything. He was a heathen. He was living in a pagan home. But God spoke to him and he responded by faith. It was accounted to him for righteousness. No work. His life was actually going in the opposite direction. But he believed God. Got up, took his family and left. He said, "Okay, this what You want me to do? I believe You, God. I trust You."

Now Paul's tying it back to Abraham because he was so well-respected. Just like Abraham's faith, this is how you live: by faith. The just shall live by faith. It says in verse 13 that Christ redeemed us. That word actually speaks of buying a slave into freedom, paying the price of freedom to set a slave free in the first century. He has bought us by His own blood from the slavery of death and the curse of the law. As a result, we can be saved in Jesus today.

Let this truth spark a revolution in your heart today in all that you're wrestling with. Even things you didn't even know you were wrestling with. Only God can touch that stuff. Things that you had buried or moved on or forgotten about. This truth can spark a revolution in your Christian experience as you no longer live of what you have to do, but you rather live of what you get to do and you enjoy it. It's a joy to follow the Lord.

In His love, you get to do everything He wants you to do. When He wants you to do something, it's matched with your desire. His desire, your desire, and it just makes for the beautiful life honoring and pleasing God. Amen? God keeps His promises. That's the emphasis of our next study in Galatians here on Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed. Don't miss it.