This sermon emphasizes living by faith as the foundational principle for believers, highlighting stories of trusting God for provision, protection, and guidance. It encourages ongoing faith from salvation to every aspect of life, illustrating how faith leads to experiencing God's miraculous interventions and transformations.

Good morning, it's been a joy for me to be with you these days, and especially to be able to share with you in the breaking of bread. I would like to read the passage from which I have spoken these last days. It is from the Roman letter of the Apostle Paul, chapter 1, and verses 16 and 17. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith, as it is written, but the righteous shall live by faith. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith, as it is written, but the righteous shall live by faith. Just a further word of prayer. Beloved Lord, we cannot minister your word without recognizing that we need that anointing which you have provided through Calvary. And you have made that anointing a reality in the person of the outpoured Holy Spirit. We don't want just human words. We want to hear your voice. We stand, therefore, by faith into that anointing. In its fullest proportion, for both the speaking of your word and the hearing. And we shall be careful to give you all the thanks for answering this prayer, which we ask in the name of our Messiah, the Lord. I have been speaking about this phrase that every one of you who is a child of God knows very well. It is foundational. But because it is foundational, we need again and again to come back to it. The just or the righteous shall live by faith. J. N. Darby put it, made a comment, in Hebrew we call it a Midrash. He made a little comment on this verse. He said to understand it clearly, we need to read it like this. The justified shall live on the principle of faith. That principle is a cause and effect. When you exercise this faith, God reckons it as righteousness. That is how he justified you at the beginning of your Christian life. When you first believed on the Lord, when you first received the Lord Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, how did that happen? It was the gift of God's faith. It was not something natural to you. For the word of God puts it very clearly. In Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8, By grace are ye saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Now what I want to underline this morning, is this wonderful little word, listen to it here in the passage we read. For therein, that is the gospel, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. From faith to faith. That is how any child of God, any servant of the Lord, lives on the principle of faith. It is a progress, it is an onward march. From faith to faith. Did you exercise faith at the beginning of your Christian life? You need again to exercise faith, if God speaks to you about baptism. It is by faith that you get baptized. In many countries it costs a person their life. In Islamic countries, once a person is baptized, or Hindu, you are thrown out of your home. Brother Buck Singh, when he was baptized, his father and mother threw him out of the home. He said, you choose your religion or us. His wife left him, with the children. He cost him everything. But it made him the great servant of the Lord that he became. This is not just something initial. It is an ongoing experience. The problem with so many Christians, is they think it is only something to do with being converted. Something to do with being born again. Which it is. But the matter, the essential matter, is what you do with the salvation that God has given you. Do you bury it? Do you ignore it? Do you leave it behind? And become religious? Or do you have an ongoing experience of the risen Christ? You hear him. You see him with the eye of the heart. You follow him. The justified shall live on the principle of faith. From the moment you were saved, to the moment you appear before the Lord Jesus, you live on the principle of faith. That living, working, active faith, joins you again and again to the Lord. It brings you into the fullness of your salvation. It brings you into all that God has given you in the Lord Jesus. It brings you into an understanding of God's eternal purpose. It means that the Holy Spirit, where there is such living faith, it means that the Holy Spirit can change you into the likeness of the Lord Jesus. What is the problem with church life? Now I'm going to be very honest. You may not like it, so I forewarn you. We have a whole lot of very crabby people who are saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus, but have never changed. They are not being changed into the likeness of the Lord Jesus. This is the problem with church life. If only we were all sweet and loving and beautiful and gracious, but the fact is we're not. Many of us remain the mean, narrow-minded, legalistic Christians. And do you know what? The Lord uses them to make the rest saints. The Lord uses them, the crabby people, to make the rest saints. How can you enter into the power of his resurrection? Only by living faith. How can you enter into being crucified with Christ? Only by living faith. How do you put to death the deeds of the body? Only by living faith. How do you receive the anointing for service? Only by living faith. That's how you live on the principle of faith. For instance, forget the church for a moment. Think of your business life. Think of your work life. Sometimes we have sweet, unsaved, unsaved employers. Sometimes we work with very pleasant workmates. But sometimes there's a person in our business life, our work life, that spends their time crucifying us. And every time they walk over us, everything in us rises up. It brings out the worst in a child of God. Instead of being filled with love, they're filled with bitterness and hate. It destroys their testimony. They are not living on the principle of faith. The principle of faith is that you die, and you die again, and you die again. And every time you die, there is a resurrection. You come out just a little bit more like the Lord Jesus. Sometimes he uses the church, as I've said. Sometimes he uses relationship. Sometimes he uses our work life. But how is it possible to live this Christian life without living faith? What did the Lord say through vision to John the Apostle? He said, They overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony. We know what the blood of the Lamb is. That is the finished work of the Lord Jesus. But what is the word of their testimony? It is when you can say, I belong to the Lord Jesus. He has saved me. He is my life. He is my everything. That's the word of your testimony. And every time you are able to say that, in some measure you have overcome Satan. Then you turn all these problems that we have into the means of making us like the Lord Jesus. Is there someone in your life that is a tribulation? Now don't answer out loud. Say it in your heart. Is there someone who is your tribulation? This person is total tribulation as far as I'm concerned. That person with living faith, that person is the means of changing you into the likeness of the Lord Jesus. You should start thanking the Lord for them. I've heard some of you, no doubt, I've been in many prayer meetings, and I've heard people say, Lord, make me more like yourself. But they seem to think that the only way they can be made like the Lord Jesus is by some archangel coming to them and smoothing them, and cuddling them, and rocking them to sleep. Then with a magic wand, waving it over them, and say, be like the Lord Jesus. It doesn't come that way. God uses Satan and the powers of darkness so often, in flesh and blood, to change us into his likeness. There is no other way. That's why we need living faith. Jesus said, in John's Gospel, chapter 12, that if a grain of wheat falls into the ground, it beareth much fruit. I defy anybody to fall into the ground and die. That is not a pleasant experience. What does the Lord do? He brings a storm. He brings a wind, a gale, shakes the corn until it falls and dies. But whenever a person with living faith allows the Lord to shake them into the ground, it always produces fruit. From faith to faith. Did you only think you would have to exercise faith to be saved? No. You have to exercise living faith all the way to your appearing before the Lord Jesus. Let me go back again. Isaiah I don't know, perhaps in Canada you do say Isaiah. In America they say Isaiah. I don't know what you say here in Canada. But Isaiah was one of the most remarkable prophets of the old covenant. He was utterly faithful. From the moment God appeared to him and he answered the call of God, who shall go for me? And he said, here am I. Send me. He lived on this principle of faith. He was martyred in the end by the evil king Manasseh. He fled into one of these great, huge, thousand-year-old oaks. Not oaks, olive trees. Sorry, I'm giving you a bad time. I mean, this circular, from here to that corner and circular would be the size of many of the olive trees we have in Israel. And grapes. And also in Greece. He fled into it. And they sawed through it. And sawed him in half. In Hebrews chapter 11, it refers to those who were sawn asunder. One of those was Isaiah. And he said this in the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 12. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. For the Lord, even the Lord, is my strength and song. And he has become my salvation. First, the declaration, the statement of faith. God is my salvation. God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. So many of us Christians suffer from fear. But the Lord understands. The first thing he ever said to anybody when he speak to them, fear not. Again and again and again, he says, don't fear, fear not. Behold, listen to the statement. Listen to the testimony of his lips. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. Then in the Hebrew, it's a little different. In the English, it says, for the Lord, even the Lord is my strength and song. It's interesting that song and strength, spiritual strength, are linked. But listen, in the Hebrew, it is, for even Yah, that is one of the wonderful names of the Lord, for even Yah, and then it is the unmentionable name of the Lord. That name of the Lord was only ever pronounced three times on the day of atonement in the house of the Lord. Listen again. I will trust and not be afraid for the Lord, even the Lord, I am. is become, is my strength and song. Listen, yes. And he has become my salvation. Now in Hebrew, salvation can not only be forgiveness and that kind of salvation, it can also be deliverance. In Hebrew, this deliverance includes salvation and deliverance. Listen again. The first is a statement of faith. Then the word, I will not fear. I will trust and not be afraid. Then the Lord becomes salvation in an ongoing experience. Not just at your conversion. Not at the point when you were born again. But now, again and again and again. And again. That is living on the principle of faith. He is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. For the Lord has given himself to me. In one sense, you do have to understand some Hebrew to understand this because sometimes Jews say to me, well if your Jesus is so, the Messiah is so important, how come he is nowhere in the Old Testament? And I say, he is everywhere. The name of Jesus in Hebrew is Yeshua. Listen to this wonderful testimony of Isaiah. Kiyah, the unmentionable name of the Lord. Uzi v'shemrat. Listen. V'shemrat. He lea me. He lea Yeshua. Yeshua, Yeshua. Now listen. Therefore, with joy, shall ye draw water from the wells of Yeshua. Everywhere. Everywhere. Oh, this thing. It just seems to me that we, if a saint in the Old Covenant could have an ongoing experience of the salvation of God, how much more we who are in the New Covenant. Then think of what the Apostle Paul says in his Philippian Letter, Chapter 4. He says this. I have learned the secret of how to be a base and how to abound. What does he mean? He says, I have found the key. To having nothing. To being without. And I found the same key for when I have everything. Now before I go on, let me put it this way. In my estimation, it is far more difficult to have nothing than to have everything. Let me explain. I have served the Lord since I was in my late teens. Eighteen. Onwards, I am now eighty. Well, if I take Chinese reckoning, I am eighty-two. But I, if I had a call to go and speak to some believers in Tahiti, I would immediately respond. I would not ask the Lord. I would praise the Lord, Tahiti, oh how wonderful. Blue sea. Golden sand. Palm trees. Balmy wind. I can't think of anything more wonderful. But if I have no money, I can't go. Unless the Lord provides the money. Then I am saved from doing the dictates of my flesh. You understand? It's much easier to have nothing because then you're dependent on the Lord. When you've got everything, you may say you're asking the Lord, but actually, you may be doing what you think would be good. Then he says this. Listen, listen. I can do all things through him that strengthens me. The justified shall live on the principle of faith. I can do not most things. A few things. I can do all things. In the Greek, it is in him. In the English, we've put through. Through him who strengthens. Who is the one that strengthens you? The Lord Jesus. When you're in him, when you're abiding in him, he is in you. And he is the power, the strength, the anointing, the fullness, the resurrection. He is everything. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Now, let me make a little confession. I must watch myself for the time being. Let me make a little confession. I am a terrible moaner. I'm always moaning. I don't know where I got it from, but I always moan. And when I became a Christian, I became a Christian moaner. Always, my attitude was, help me, Lord, help me. I can't do it, Lord, help me. Support me. Be behind me. Push me if necessary. Help me. And after a long time when the Lord met all my needs, he stopped doing it. And I nearly became a neurotic. Have I gone wrong? What has happened? It was a young brother, one of the brothers who's helped me. He was twenty. And he heard me saying, help me, Lord, help me. And he said, just simply, I can do all things in him who strengthens me. And it went into my heart. I found it very interesting. As I get older, I can't sometimes tie my shoes up. Sometimes I have difficulty getting them on. I can't sometimes put my socks on. You know, the Americans say, it's always talk about growing old gracefully. I don't find it easy to grow old gracefully. Gracefully. All kinds of things you once did with ease, you didn't even think about. You can't do it. You need glasses. You need hearing aids. You need a stick. I don't know what else. How do you grow gracefully? Elegantly? Old? One of my dear American sisters said to me on one occasion, growing old is not for sissies. Absolutely right. But listen, I've suddenly discovered that when I say, no longer, help me, help me, Lord. I say, I can do all things through you. I say, it works. I find I can put my socks on, and I say, thank you, Lord. I can tie my shoes up. I can put my shoes on. It is amazing. It's all in the book. The justified shall live on the principle of grace. I wish I could tell you many stories. I remember when we were in our early twenties, in a prayer meeting, we had, this was a nightclub that had been shut down for immorality by the police. We prayed for this place many times that the police would close it down. So when they closed it down, we discovered that it was for rent. So, I went to where it said, and I asked this old man, I've come about that place in such and such. I told him where it was. Oh, he said, did you not know that it was not for rent? Until an hour ago. So I said, no, I didn't. He said, you can have it. You will pay very little per week. you can be turned out at a week's notice. So we all were happy in there. We had wonderful big curtains that shut out the traffic and carpet from wall to wall. Nice chairs. We were very happy as a fellowship. And then suddenly in one of our prayer meetings someone said, I think the cloud of the pillar of cloud and fire is moving and we must follow it. And I thought, silly person. We've only just got in here. We've been here for one year. The curtains, the material was provided by a survivor from Auschwitz. And the curtains were made by an old lady who was also a survivor in the synagogue. Then I felt I had to be a right spirit. So I said later, well, we should pray about this matter. I thought it was stupid myself, but I didn't say so. So at the next prayer meeting we started to pray. And to my horror, three people had the same obscure verse. The Lord's house shall be on the mountain and nations shall flow to it. And nations shall flow to it. Three people. One who hardly knew his Bible. And I thought, what kind of? I thought, are we all mad? This is about the temple in Jerusalem. Not a place for us to meet. But as we prayed, the whole group became convinced. We had to pray for this house. We went everywhere looking for this house. All up to the top of Richmond Hill. We saw wonderful places and the Lord never provided a single penny. It's too long a story to tell you the whole thing. Then, it's very strange. One Tuesday morning, Tuesday was the day we had our big prayer meeting. One Tuesday morning I woke up with a strange compelling thought in my spirit. I should get it. I should go through all the estate agents in the area. Now, I'm not like that. That's not the way I do things. But anyway, I started right at the first one which was in East Twickenham. And I went through one after the other. We are looking for a place for us Christian young people to meet. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. I went to all of Richmond. From estate agent to estate agent. We have nothing. Finally, I ended up in an old place I've known from childhood called Pennington's opposite Richmond railway station. A young man dealt with me. I was myself only in my early 20s. But then, a young man about my age said, Have I helped you, sir? Yes, I said. I've come about obtaining a house for us young people to meet as Christians. I said, I saw that one on Richmond Green. He said, Oh, sir, that went this morning. He said, Can I have your address? So I gave him my address. When he saw my address, it was the most highly rated my parents' home in the area. So then, his whole attitude changed. Sir, I'm sure we can find something for you. So he took the details down and I thanked him and I turned my back and suddenly I heard a voice behind me and it was saying, Just wait, sir. There's something on our dead book. It's been there 13 years I will drown and it was an old man as old as I am now with white hair and he held his hand up to his head and he was talking to himself. Oh, he said, he wouldn't be interested in this. So I said, Excuse me, I might be interested. Where is this? Halford Road, he said. Then, I said, I've known Halford Road since childhood. Where is this house? He said, Sir, it's been there since 1710. Well, I said, I'm rather interested. Then he changed his voice and said, Sir, be advised. This is not for you. It's got wood-boarding vehicle. It has no electricity. No good water. He said, I don't think it even has a damp course. A damp course. It's under the walls to stop the damp. He said, it has dry rot. Be advised, Sir, we'll find you something. No, I said. I would like to see it. So he said, Well, Sir, we'll arrange it. And he was waiting for 2 o'clock and I asked two other brothers to be with me. When we walked in, the smell that hit us was terrible. I put a handkerchief over my nose. There was fungus growing on walls. When we took the door of the library, the handle came away in our hands. Then part of the door came away and I thought to myself, no, in my head came the word. Every good and perfect gift cometh down from the father above. And I thought, this isn't a perfect gift. But the other two brothers were business people. And they said to me, we could get a hundred in here, we could get three hundred in here. Where else could we find a place so near to the center of Richmond? That night was the main prayer meeting. I said to the brothers, don't tell the people that you too think it's wonderful and I think it's awful. We won't say anything. We'll let them pray. We got on our knees and to my amazement the whole crowd was of one mind. They wanted three thousand pounds sterling. What is that marked about? Four or five thousand? Five thousand dollars at that time. We prayed. We're all young people except for two older men. We prayed. We offered two hundred pounds. I'm embarrassed to even say it. A letter came back almost immediately from the trustees. We think your offer is a little small. This is typical English politeness. We think your offer is a little small. Could you reconsider? And we prayed again. We had a special prayer meeting. We doubled the money to four hundred and added fifty pounds that we had in hand. We offered them four hundred and fifty pounds. That came a letter within a day. We know you're young people. We know you're going to do a good work. We accept your offer. That place today is worth millions. The same place we bought for four hundred and fifty pounds. We didn't have the four hundred. We only had the fifty. We had to trust the Lord for the four hundred. But it all came. It was on Richmond Hill. We never had a meeting unless there were something like twenty different nations represented. Exactly what the Lord said, it came true. And what about those great curtains? They fitted exactly from the ceiling to the floor. What about the carpet that I thought was going to be hopelessly thrown out? It exactly covered the downstairs meeting room. The Lord never makes a mistake. Now, I could add one more, but I have to watch myself on time. And one more story. We were all young people, students. We had nobody. We believed from the beginning we would not advertise. We would not tell anybody about our need. We would only play. Every penny we needed came in. But I'll never forget this Cockney builder. He was a huge man. His legs were bigger than my, his arms were bigger than my legs. He was a weight builder and a really, a very strong man. Incredible. When he first came to us, I said to him, Bill, we are Christians. We are mostly students. We had no money. But every time we need it, we get on our knees. the Lord to meet the needs. And he does. So Bill said, Oh, I'm an atheist. But he said, I respect people who believe in God. Then I said to him, Bill, you may not realize it, but if you do this work, we are not employing you. God is employing you. You, you do the work right, God will meet the needs. So every, every time he came to me, I need 200 pounds, I need 300 pounds, I need this, I need that. We prayed and it came. Then came the famous occasion. We needed a certain sum of money. And he told me about it. And we prayed. But nothing came. On the day that we should be paying him, he came to me. By now, he knew our Christian phraseology. Has the money come? I said, no. It hasn't. And the second post has come only with bills. So I said to him, Bill, have you done the work properly? Go, go, go. I've done it properly. Maybe a screw here and a screw there. Then I said to him, go and put that screw here and that other screw there. What time do you need this money? I need it by 2 o'clock to get it into the bank. By 3 o'clock. And I said to him, I could hardly believe I said it. I said, it will come. Then I saw him go, oh, he thought I was going down to the bank and taking it out. That wasn't so. So I said to Margaret who looked after the house, call all the workers in the garden and the house. We will all have an early lunch. We'll go up into the library and we'll pray. So we went up into the library and prayed. There was 14 of us in a big circle and we were all kneeling. Bill came in into the back door looked in the kitchen no one there. Crossed the main downstairs to my study looked in no one there. Then he thought, where are they? Then he heard voices. So he said, oh, they're in the library. So he came past the front door on the inside of the front door up the stairs and opened the door and to his enormous surprise he saw 13 people on their knees and he heard an old man also a cockney from the center of London that old man saying to the Lord, Lord, we ain't got this money. We need it by 2 o'clock and it's almost 2 o'clock now. Please provide it, Lord for your namesake. Bill was shocked. I heard him shut the door and I heard him groan and I heard him saying oh, God they ain't got money they're praying for it and he stumbled down the stairs like a half drunk man and at the bottom of the stairs on the doormat on the inside of the front door was a huge pile of banknotes he scooped it up ran up, I heard him coming like an elephant up the stairs blew open the door and said you can all stop praying the money's come. From that moment Bill was no longer an atheist he believed in God we counted the money it was exactly what he needed where did it come from whoever put it on the doormat had faith as we had faith to believe that it was one of Bill's workmen not so honest could have come in seen the money and taken quite a bit of it or did some Christian stand at the door our front door with a small opening like that flicking in all these banknotes or did the Lord make the money I don't know all I know is it happened we experienced the justified shall live on the principle of faith on one occasion I'll finish now I won't but on one occasion some of our brothers who were businessmen they came to me and said are we insured no I said of course I said what happens if we have an accident with the builders supposing Bill falls off the roof what are we going to do there could be all kinds of lawsuits so we took it to the Lord in prayer and the Lord said to someone in the prayer meeting some trust in horses and some in chariots but we will make mention of the name of our God and he goes on to say we will set up our banners in the name of the Lord we all felt including the businessmen no insurance this house was a picture of God's house we didn't believe it was God's house we didn't believe we believed God's house was living stones together but they said this house is very special it's a sign of what God wants to do shall we insure God shall we insure God so if he makes a mistake we get it from the bank or from the insurance company now we believe that in your own homes we should insure no problem it was just with this particular house and the way the Lord was leading us so one day and I'm finished with this so one day I was having a cup of tea with dear Margaret we were in my study and suddenly there was a terrific thump and the whole place shook 22 rooms and I said Margaret what in the world is that oh she said Bill is working on the chimneys he's thrown something down but he almost the next moment as I was relaxing we heard a scream and we both jumped out went out to the back door and walked round just to meet Blanche and Eunice who was a top nurse coming and there was Bill spread eagle on the concrete he had fallen the equivalent of four and a half floors his body had shaken all of those 22 rooms Blanche had said to Eunice oh Eunice go look through the window what was that noise this top nurse looked at and saw Bill and she screamed there's no way he could come down he's dead but as we met together Bill was getting up oh I said I thought to myself I've seen this before this is nervous reaction he's dead spontaneous nervous reaction he's going to fall back and then we'll know he's dead but he got up and he began to go like this and shake himself and I said Bill are you all right yes not a scratch he began to do all these kinds of things with his arms and legs I said you must go home you must see a doctor I don't need to he said so then I said to Blanche he needs a cup of tea now in Britain we have a cup of tea you have a cup of tea when you're dying you have a cup of tea when you're ill you have a cup of tea when you get married and the first thing after you've given birth to a child mother has a cup of tea always a cup of tea so I said he needs a cup of tea this I didn't know until years later but June Blanche and Eunice went off to the kitchen made a cup of tea and Eunice says he needs a bit more than tea so Blanche said what do you mean she said he needs a bit of brandy then Blanche said we don't have any brandy but she said my husband is storing one bottle of whiskey Eunice said that's enough we'll put that in so Eunice poured in a little she was a New Zealander not British and she poured in this little bit of whiskey out that cane I was still there with Margaret Bill was still shaking himself to prove that he was lonely in June they gave him the tea and I thought it was rather strange he took the tea and went I'll have another one of those he said he had three in a row only years later did Eunice and Blanche come to me and confess that they'd put whiskey Isn't that amazing the just fight shall live on the principle of faith if God says something you can trust him may the Lord bless this word Father from faith to faith there is no other way thank you thank you we thank the Lord for giving us this word so that we know whom we have trusted let us sing again the refrain of the hymn we just sung hymn 431 we only sing the chorus twice just the refrain let us sing twice we sing in English let us sing in English let us pray together Lord we thank you and praise you we thank you for the word you speak to us through our brother that we are from faith to faith we ask that you strengthen our faith in you that we may truly know the one whom we believe because you are the one we trusted until that day we give you thanks and praise we ask that you keep the word you have given us into our hearts we look to you again to thank you for the word you give us in the name of our Lord Jesus Amen we thank the Lord for our brother Lance in our midst tomorrow night Monday night