Living by faith in Christ means a complete surrender of self, as articulated in Galatians 2:20. It defines faith by its definition in Hebrews 11, its illustration through the creation account and the steadfastness of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and its results. The core lesson is that true faith involves believing in what cannot be seen or empirically proven, trusting God's word and His promises even in the face of overwhelming opposition. The sermon concludes by urging listeners to cast themselves with utter abandon upon God's grace, just as these biblical figures did, and to believe in Jesus Christ for salvation.
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I'd like to echo Brother Dan's sentiments in thanking all of you. Thank you for inviting me in the first place. And thank you for the work in the kitchen and dining room and your fellowship. And I don't know about you all, but I've had a real nice time. Hate to go home. Very nice to just stay here, wouldn't it? Again, in Galatians chapter two, verse twenty, I'm going to read this verse one more time. I am 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 faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. The fourth section that I want to look at is this life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And the key word in this verse that I want to zero in on is the word faith. I want to look at it by definition. I want to look at it by illustration. I want to look at it and it's in result. Now another word that is similar to faith, a word that gets tossed around quite a bit in our modern way of life, is the word commitment.
Many times we hear that, well, you must make a commitment to this thing or that thing. And quite frankly, in our present-day society, it doesn't mean a whole lot. Contracts are easily broken. We read in the newspaper all the time of how someone has finagled their way out of a contract or someone signed a multi-million dollar contract and then they changed it. Contracts don't mean much. Commitments really don't mean much. And it's very difficult for us to really define what we're talking about when we start talking about something like faith, the reckless abandonment of self and putting ourselves into someone else's hand.
Commitment. You've probably heard the story of commitment. Just a quick illustration. There was a barnyard probably in Iowa. where there was a cow, a chicken, and a pig. And the cow and the chicken were talking, and they thought it would be a good idea to have a breakfast in the barnyard. The cow said, I'll supply the milk. The chicken said, I'll supply the eggs. The pig said, nothing. The cow and the chicken looked at the pig and said, well, And the pig said, just a minute, I have to think this over.
You see, for you it's just a contribution. But for me, it's total commitment. Well, that's a little way of getting us started on what I'm going to be talking about. Faith. Whenever we think of faith automatically, my thoughts immediately go to Hebrews chapter eleven. and the first few verses of that chapter. If we were to say, how would you define faith? Probably most of you in this room who know scriptures or familiar with the Bible would rattle off these verses. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders receive witness.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. In other words, everything that we see was made from nothing. And by faith we believe that. Now obviously, being those who believe in God and believe that God has created, people will call us creationists, obviously we have problems with those who say that all the molecules and all the different things just kind of fell in together. And bingo, we had a world and life. And there are those actually who believe, and if you think this is really incredible, I would say it takes more faith to actually believe in evolution. and it does in God.
But they say that all these certain chemicals formed together on the lip of a volcano, and then they were heated up to a certain temperature, and then a cloud came over, sprinkled a little rain on it, and bingo, that was life. One little cell came from that. Now the reason why they believe this is because the scientist did that. He had it over a Bunsen burner, put the chemical in, had the light, put in water, and he said he had one single cell. Now that's very interesting since the human brain alone has How many millions of cells? Another mathematician who is an evolutionist said that the probability of that ever happening in the first place and then the probability of those cells being multiplied to the extent that it become a horse was so improbable that it is impossible.
Whereas we who believe in God We look at this universe and we say this was made by a master designer, by a master plan. There is a creator. Now we weren't there. It's very similar to what the Lord was saying to Job. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Where were you when I had the oceans come up to the beach and say, there you have to stop? Where were you? Now what would you think if you were Job? I'd be sitting there and we weren't there. and no man was there to witness it. But by faith we believe that everything came about just as we read in Genesis one one in the beginning God. And it's always been exciting to me that the Bible began by not defending the existence of God or trying to even define the existence of God.
It just began by assuming there is God and it said in the beginning God that's it. And everything begins with God. By faith we believe that the things that are seen were made from things that do not appear, that He created something out of nothing. By faith we believe that there is God. Have you ever really thought about that? My daughter, when she first went to kindergarten and growing up in our home, being a Christian home and at the time We were in the Lord's work full-time, and the only thing she knew was the Scriptures and Christians.
That was it. That was her whole environment. She couldn't even say that her daddy worked somewhere. He was a preacher. Everything was related to the things in Scripture. And so she went to kindergarten, and on the very first day, she had her eyes open. A little boy said to her, there is no God. My little daughter, she had... pigtails on either side, you know, the blonde. And it's not how you remember your kids when they're little, especially now when she's turning thirteen and she's talking about dating someday. And I'm saying, you just remember that to me, you're still the little girl with pigtails going to kindergarten. But there she was. She shrunk her foot and said, no, there is a God. No boy says, well, look up there.
Do you see any God? No. She came home. She kind of scratched her head and said, well, Daddy, what about that? And I said, that's faith. By faith we believe. We enter into the reality that there is a God. We see the evidence of what God is. We see his handiwork, his creation. And we know from our own experience that an automobile, for example, just doesn't ooze out of the pavement. Somebody has to make it. It has to be put together by a master design. As a matter of fact, men today have to use computers to put these things all together.
But there's a master plan there and it's made. And so we look at creation and we say, God made that. Our Heavenly Father gave us this beautiful weather, this beautiful scenery, the blue sky, the fresh air, the stars in the sky he holds in the palm of the hand. These things come to us from our Heavenly Father and we believe that. And so faith is believing in that which we cannot otherwise attain to with the five senses. Faith is going beyond these five senses, touch, hearing, taste, smelling, feeling. Have I hit five? Sometimes I know in the past we tried to illustrate faith and we say faith is like sitting in a chair.
Well, is it really? And I look at that chair and I can see that, well, it's the Samsonite or it's a copy or something in that area. And I believe it's going to hold me. Well, of course I do, but I have physical evidence. Faith even goes beyond that. And some people think, well, that's really incredible to believe in something you cannot experience with your five senses. But that's not really true either. Just recently I had a class of young people and I was telling them, I said, Someone defined for me faith or illustrates me faith. One bright fellow raised his hand and said, the atom. The atom? He said, yeah, you can't see an atom. No one's ever seen an atom.
Isn't that interesting? And yet everyone in this room probably believes that an atom is made up of three parts, protons, electrons, and neutrons. Did you ever see one? No. But nobody has any trouble accepting that. Another bright fellow raised his hand and said, now, wait a minute, you can see the traces of an atom. as it moves. He said, well, my friend, we can see the traces of our God, of the Spirit of God. As our Lord said, the Spirit is like the wind that moves. You can't see it. It moves according to its own volition, but you can see the trees bend. You can see the leaves rustle. You can see the dust that has stirred up. You can feel it. It's forced against you.
So there are things in nature that we are familiar with that we accept by faith. Things that we really cannot attain to with the five senses, but we believe it's there. Faith is believing in that which we do not actually experience with these five senses, but we believe it. We believe it based upon the inspired, the Spirit breathed word of God. Faith illustrated throughout the Bible, faith is illustrated time and time again. Just recently I was writing a Sunday school lesson out of the book of Daniel. So the illustration that comes to my mind is in Daniel chapter three.
And I want to use that illustration this evening. In Daniel chapter three we have a familiar story. Nebuchadnezzar is the king of the city of Babylon. He has already taken captive. three young men, four we read, of Daniel has been taken captive, but Daniel does not appear in this story. And then there's the three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Ego, Ezra, Mesha, Ezra, and Hananiah with their Hebrew names. And these three young men were in Babylon at a time when Nebuchadnezzar decided to set up a great golden image. And he set it up in the plane.
And this was a nice idea for him. He had been told in chapter two of Daniel, that he was the head of gold in this vision that he had. Daniel told him that his vision had a head of gold, and then the breasts and the arms were of silver, and then down to brass, and then to lead, and then to lead and clay mixed together in the toes, and Daniel said, Nebuchadnezzar, you're that head of gold. You are this supreme Gentile monarch. Nebuchadnezzar was an absolute ruler, whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive. And somehow this has all kind of gone to his head. Nebuchadnezzar can now see himself as a God, little G, as one to be bowed down to.
And so he set up this image. And he said that at a certain time music would play, and everybody was to bow down. We'll break into the story of verse thirteen. The Nebuchadnezzar, in his rage and fury, commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-to-go when they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-to-go? Do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up. Now, if ye be ready, that at that time that ye hear the sound of the hornpipe, larch, sacchari, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship the image which I have made well. But if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.
And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. So if you get the picture that out here in the plane, all these people have been gathered around and they're confronted with this great golden image in the music sound and they all bow down. Now try to imagine your being there. And here's all these Chaldeans bowing down.
And I strongly suspect that there were some Hebrews bowing down too, because we read in the first chapter of Daniel that it was not only Daniel, Hanani, Amishah, and Azariah that were taking captives, but there were other friends And these friends don't appear here standing up. So I suspect that there's Hebrews bowing down and they're bowing down and someone looks out of the corner of their eye and they say, wait a minute. There's three guys that aren't bowing down. What about those three guys? Do you think that these men didn't know what kind of man never comes to well? They sure did. Do you think they didn't know what would happen to them if they didn't bow down? They did. Nebuchadnezzar declared, you don't bow down into the fiery furnace.
But there they stood. What would cause anyone to do that? Well, there's several things, perhaps in their background. In Second Chronicles chapter thirty-four, we read of a king by the name of Josiah. We believe that these men with Daniel grew up under the reign of Josiah. Josano is a man who had all of Israel come together and have the law read before them. And so these men were men who knew of the law and of the word of God. And the word of God said, Now shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I, the Lord thy God, and am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children under the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.
They knew that their Lord had said, Don't do it. That was based upon the word of God, and there they stood. But that wasn't enough. They had to be given a second opportunity. Nebuchadnezzar brought him into their presence. And he says, what are you fellows doing? These fellows were princes. They were men who were in charge of different providences of the Chaldeans. Nebuchadnezzar is not particularly fond of the idea of losing good men. So he gives them another chance. He says, listen, we'll go back. We'll give you another chance. You bow down this time. Notice their answer. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O king, that we are not careful to answer thee in this manner.
Or with all due respect, Nebuchadnezzar, we want to explain something to you. Our God is able to deliver us either through the fire or in death. But whether we live or whether we die, we won't bow down. You see how faith is illustrated here? Based upon the word of God, they stood firm. Everyone else is bowing down. Everyone else is going according to plan, but not these three. These three stand out of the crowd. These three, in the face of all adversity, stand and say, no, we believe God.
He has told us not to bow down, that is His word, and we believe He will deliver us. I don't know if they had the words of Isaiah with them or not, but Isaiah did say something that ties in a little bit. Isaiah chapter forty-three, verse two, we read, When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee. Through the rivers, they will not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. And that is a text in context that has to do with Israel's trial through the tribulation. But still, these would be words of comfort to Israel. And in their immediate context, in their immediate interpretation, that's what they were for, was to give comfort to Israel.
So I don't know if these men have access to that. Perhaps they did. Perhaps they had heard these words. But they knew that the Lord was going to be with them. In the New Testament, we read in Romans chapter fourteen in verse eight, For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord, whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord. Let's think a little bit more of this. Nebuchadnezzar was the king of the world. He had conquered all of the civilized world. His empire stretched over all people.
In another vision he will have, he will see himself as a great tree, and all the fowls of the air will find their home in the branches and the beasts of the fields beneath the shade of his great branches. Here is Nebuchadnezzar. Here is the king of this world, and the king of this world is saying, this is the way it is. The king of this world is setting himself up as the God of this age. And you will bow to this God. That was his order. But for these three men they said no. And be it known unto you, O King, we will not bow down. In Ephesians chapter two, there is something that is said about the human condition that is very much like this situation in Daniel.
Ephesians chapter two and beginning of verse one we read, And you who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now when I study my Bible, I always ask, What, where, when, why? How? I bang questions right away. So when I read, And you who were dead in trespasses and sins, I say, What is that? Exactly. So the text goes on to tell me. in which in times past ye walked or ordered your conduct according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all had our manner of life, in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as others.
Three areas unfold to us. We walk or order our conduct according to the course of this world, number one, according to the prince of the power of the air, number two, and according to the lust of our flesh, number three, that is the condition of man. That is, the God of this age is dictating to man what they will do, as Nebuchadnezzar back there. Bow down to this image. Bow down to this God. Now I know that people today feel very independent. One of the key things is be your own man, be your own woman, do your own thing. You can do it, tata, tata.
And people think that, well, they're really individuals, but are they really? Do you think that you're really your own man, your own woman? Do you really think that you have control on your own destiny? That you really have your life in tow here? Do you really believe that's possible? According to the course of this world, according to all the whims, factions, trends, everything that's going on around us. It says, you who are dead in trespasses and sins, that's what it means. You are controlled by the things going on in your society. One of the ways that I illustrate this, I was at a camp in New Mexico, and it was a junior high camp, and young ladies, well, young ladies at any age, including the gray-haired young ladies, They all have a sense of kind of like to work with their hair, you know.
And these young ladies, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, right in there, they had all had similar hairdos. It was kind of feathered, and that's, I don't know, back some time, that was when the hairdos were kind of short, and it was kind of feathered around here with the part down the middle, and they had these big tooth comb things. They looked like little pitchforks, plastic, and I stuck them in their hip pocket, and they wore jeans, and sandals, these floppy things. I don't know what you call them. We saw songs, yeah. They were these rubber thongs. And I stood one morning and watched them come out of the girls' cabin and up to the lodge. They were coming up to steps once. And I watched them, and each one of them had the same hairdo, jeans, in their hip pocket.
They had a comb and wearing these little floppies. And up they came, one right after another. And I said, now that's incredible. And I said, my children are never going to do that. did it and again it's time my daughter was she was she was quite young yet and well these girls they kind of took to my daughter and and they kind of took her in her wing and she said daddy can I stay over with the girls we thought okay sure go ahead and so the next morning I stood up there and I was watching again and here sure enough here they come and a line they come straight line on across the field not the path and I was watching I was sitting there thinking Boy, you talk about according to the course of this world.
You know, they all do what the other ones does, no matter what. And here they come. Dump, dump. The very last one in line was much shorter. Blonde, little pigtail. Jean, I don't know where she got this thing, but in her hip pocket, one of those pitchforks, and rubber thongs. Yeah? Open mouth and third foot. And as time wears on, what do you find? Where are our children? Well, they do it. They got one.
I want to get my hair cut like that. Why? It's what everybody else does. I told my daughter, I said, don't follow trends. Set trends. She said, all right. She came home one day with this ugliest looking pair of shoes. Fortunately, they've already gone home, so I can save it. She got the ugliest pair of shoes I ever had. They had holes in them, and they were putrid pink and color. And I said, what in the world are those? And she said, Dad, I'm going to set a trend. And I said, I hope not. But do you know that within a week, five of her friends were over at my house, and you don't know what they were wearing?
ugly, putrid, pink with holes in them. These plastic, they were just two dollars. They were us. Do you really think that we can be our own man, our own woman? No. We're all influenced by what's going on around us. It says, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience, my friends, Sin is a terrible captivity. It is a bondage. It is an imprisonment. Sin does not set free.
It bears down. It crushes beneath a tremendous load until the person who is bearing that load sinks further and further down in despair. And that is what happens to those who are dead in trespasses and sins. They are not their own man. They are not their own woman. They are confined by the course of this age, according to the prince of the power of the air, the God of this age. It's saying to men and women today, bow down to this golden image, and without exception, they're bowing down. And all the time, men and women are thinking to themselves, I'm an independent thinker.
all the time, they're bowing down to the same golden image. And if you're here without Christ tonight, don't think. Don't make the mistake of thinking that you are any exception to the rule. You're not. You're falling into the same mold, the same rut. I've been told in New York City that every morning, first thing, people just flood into the subway station. One fella said it looked like a bunch of rats running in. The rat race where only rats win and there they go. And there is the mass of humanity. Someday I'm going to go to New York just so I can see that.
So I can sit there and look at it. We're standing there and say, look at you. Just like the broad road that leads to destruction, there's all this mass of humanity, and they are gripped by the winds and the trends and the things of this world, dominated by advertising. The power of the boob tube and the radio and the magazine and the print, controlled, manipulated by the prince of the power, the air that now worketh, and the sons of disobedience. who ordered our conduct or had our manner of life in times past and the lust of the flesh.
The lust of the flesh to drive men and women to insanity. And there's no other term for it. It's insanity what's happening in our country and around the world. Brother Ray has already brought to our intention. The lifestyles and the morality and what's going on in this world today is utter insanity. And if we stood back and looked at it, we would have to say, even so come Lord Jesus, because this whole thing is just going to fall apart any minute. It's got to just all explode. The lust of the flesh. Back in Daniel, three men stood. They said, we won't bow down.
Because whether we live or whether we die, We belong to the Lord. And every Christian, every child of God can rejoice in that. And every child of God can rejoice as Ephesians chapter two moves on to read, But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath made us alive together with Christ by grace he are saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Digo were cast into the fiery furnace. Nebuchadnezzar said, Turn up the heat. I want to make sure these fellows get taken right away. The fire was so strong that the soldiers who threw them in were consumed themselves. But to Nebuchadnezzar's amazement, as he peered into the furnace, four men walked.
As the Lord had promised, when you pass through the fire, I will be there. and the flames will not kindle upon you. And the Lord was with them. And when they came out, they didn't even smell a smoke. You see, beloved, this is what God has done for us, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us. What is faith? Casting ourselves with reckless abandon upon the grace of God, who is rich in grace, rich in mercy. It's a checkbook that you can always write on and not worry about bouncing because it's an inexhaustible supply that goes on and on forever.
And as we have been hearing at this conference, He ever lived to make intercession for those who come to Him by faith. By faith just means casting yourself with utter abandon upon the grace of God. And like those three men in Daniel, you will not be disappointed. And you know how I know. I know from my own experience. If that's not enough, just ask anyone in this room, have you ever been sorry that you cast yourself upon the grace of God?
Have you ever regretted that day? I have never regretted the day, at the age of six, in childlike faith, I said, just as I am, without one plea, that that thy blood was shed for me. Here I am. Lord, it ain't much, but you got it all. We cast ourselves upon His grace. We do that day by day. Nothing's changed, beloved. It hasn't changed. We still come to him and say, Lord, here I am. You use me.
It's all yours. And my friend, if you can see yourself caught on this broad road, if you can see yourself confined within these boundaries of the course of this age, based upon the Word of God, that says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God has raised them from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For God so loved the world. At that same camp in New Mexico, there was a young fellow that always wore a baseball cap to meeting.
And every meeting I had to begin by saying, Eddie, take off your cap. Well, little Eddie, I never thought was listening. He always sat with his head down like this. The other kids called him Eddie Spaghetti and made fun of him. One night, Wednesday night, I was talking to some other young people who that night received Christ as their Savior. I came back into the chapel building. And Eddie's counselor was standing there riding on the chalkboard, for God so loved Eddie, that he gave his only begotten son, that if Eddie would believe on him, Eddie would have everlasting life.
There sat Eddie with his baseball cap on. So I sat down next to Eddie, and I looked underneath the bill of his hat, And tears were running down Eddie's face because Eddie had a glimpse of Calvary and of the grace of God. And that night Eddie cast himself with utter abandon on the grace of God. He believed. Who enter into you? Today Eddie is a little evangelist in a town in New Mexico. He had grown up on the wrong side of the track. And so he went back to the wrong side of the tracks and to this day he preaches the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God so loved you and me, each one in this room. And he's saying the same thing. I love you. Whatever your name is, whatever your background is, wherever you come from. The Lord knows who you are. He knows where you're at. He knows what's going on in your heart. You don't have to come forward. You don't have to raise your hand. You don't have to sign a card. You don't have to join a church. But you do have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ right now where you sit. You can do that because he loves you. And believing just means sitting there very quietly and saying, Lord, here it is. In my heart, with my life, I'm now ready to cast it with utter abandon upon your grace.
And he will receive you. and he will keep you in his hand forever and he will give you this abundant life that we've been talking about but God who is rich in mercy for his great love with which he loved us say no to the God of this world stand up right now I don't mean literally I mean make it stand as those men stand against the God of this world say no to the things of the flesh repent and turn aside believe the gospel and our preaching will not have been in vain. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the day of grace.
We thank you that it is here with us tonight. We thank you for the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, we thank you that even now He is able and willing to reach out and touch the sinner, to heal the leper. Oh Father, we pray. that there might be one here tonight who would see those hands and the nail prints in the hand, that they would see the marks of Calvary and that would break their hearts so that they would repent and believe. Safe souls tonight we pray and bless us as we continue to wait upon thee in his name. Amen.