1689 London Baptist Confession (part 28)

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Well, as we're going through the 1689 Confession of Faith and we come to the chapter on saving faith, we talked about it last week, saving faith, and we're going to continue exploring that today because I want to discuss what it is and what it isn't.
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But last week we mentioned that faith is a necessary condition for justification. Those who do not have faith will not be justified.
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Why is it so important to be justified? There's an easy one. Why is it important to be justified?
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Declaration of not guilty. If you're not justified, if you're not declared not guilty, then you are guilty.
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We talked about the difference between semi -Pelagianism, what the
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Bible actually teaches, and Pelagianism. And let's just kind of summarize it this way. Pelagianism, that is to say, if you are a full -blown descendant of Pelagius, you don't have to give me all the beliefs, but what would be the main belief with regard to the will if you're a
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Pelagian? I can do it.
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Pelagius said that the sin of Adam and Eve, original sin, had absolutely no effect on you and me.
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In fact, the closest thing I can think of today to a full -blown Pelagian would be a
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Mormon, because they say in their articles of faith that we believe that Adam was responsible for his own sin and that we're responsible for ours, so that Adam had nothing to do with us.
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Everybody has a free will, a free unfettered will. Semi -Pelagian, the semi -Pelagian viewer, or you know the brother of Pelagius, his brother semi, said that Adam's fall had some impact on us.
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Now, there was no semi -Pelagius, by the way, in case you're wondering, but there's a modified view of Pelagianism because some people realize that Pelagianism is too far.
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In other words, this idea that Adam had no effect, why would that be a problem? Why is that a problem, this idea that Adam's sin had no effect on us whatsoever?
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I'm sorry, I heard something. Why would that be a problem? Because then the Bible's not true.
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It says in Romans 5 that Adam had an effect on all of us, that through Adam sin entered into all mankind.
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So, we're all born with a sin nature. Now, what the semi -Pelagian does is says, yes, sin does enter our nature at birth, but it doesn't so impact our will that we lose all ability.
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We're only, you know, in other words, in the immortal words of the princess bride, we're only mostly dead, spiritually dead.
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And mostly dead means what? This is a Biblical term here. If you're mostly dead, it means you're partly alive, right?
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Well, just a little bit alive. There's still a Miracle Max pill that you can take and believe in the gospel.
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All right, enough of that. So, let's get to back to where we were.
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Waldron, the author of the commentary on the 1689 that we're going through, says this.
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He says, faith is conviction of the truth of the gospel. Faith is conviction of the truth of the gospel.
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Is that true? Is that a true statement? Faith is conviction of the truth of the gospel.
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Yes, I think it's true. This is what the 1689 says about it.
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It says, by this faith, a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the word for the authority of God himself, and also apprehendeth, or understands, an excellency therein above all other writings and all things in the world, as it bears forth the glory of God in his attributes, the excellency of Christ in his nature and offices, and the power of the fullness of the
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Holy Spirit in his workings and operations, and so is enabled to cast his soul upon the truth thus believed, and also acteth differently upon that which each particular passage thereof containeth, yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of God for this life and that which is to come.
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But the principal acts of saving faith have immediate relation to Christ, accepting, receiving, and resting upon him alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of the covenant of grace.
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So we're going to break that down a little bit in what remains, the time that remains here this morning.
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It goes on to talk about how there may be different degrees of faith and whatnot, but let's first talk about how faith is not merely acknowledgment that certain things are true.
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Faith, biblical faith, saving faith, does not merely mean assent.
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It doesn't mean acknowledging, simply acknowledging that certain things are true. Can you think of a biblical text that would underscore that principle?
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It's very good. Do you know where that is? And without looking at my notes, I know where it is. Oh no, sorry. Where is it?
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James? How many think it's in James chapter six? Okay, that would be wrong because there are only five chapters.
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James chapter two verses 19 and 20. Why don't we turn there for a moment?
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It's fun to do that, you know. Let's open our Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 14 this morning. What, did they add a chapter to it?
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Good times, good times. James chapter two verses 19 and 20. And who would read those, those two verses?
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Oh, it's a heavy lift when it's minus 14 degrees. Yes, go ahead. I just had to include verse 20 because I really like, you know, you foolish person.
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That's a, that's a fun thing to throw in there. Okay. What, what's he saying here?
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What's James saying? You believe that God is one. Well, what is that, what is that a reference to?
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When you think about God is one, does that ring any bells for you? If I said
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Deuteronomy 6, 4, you'd say, absolutely pastor. That's exactly what I was thinking of. Deuteronomy 6, 4.
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Hear O Israel, the Lord, our God, he is one, right? The Shema of Israel.
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You believe that God is one. You do well. Congratulations. It's true. But did everybody who said
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Deuteronomy 6, 4, the Shema of Israel, was every one of those persons saved? Is everyone who says the right thing, are they saved?
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If you're able to confess some biblical truths about God, does that necessarily say that you are saved?
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And the answer is no. And he goes on and he explains it. The demons believe and shudder, or I prefer tremble, right?
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They know the truth about God. Who knows the Bible better, you or Satan?
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I think if we put, if we just, if we could just put Satan in a Bible class, he would be the guy who knew all the answers, right?
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This isn't, this isn't the issue. It's not intellectual knowledge. Verse 20, do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
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And this is so misused, this verse. Because what do people say that it means?
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What's that? That you have to have works, which is sort of true.
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Has to be qualified. Why is that? Because people will say, well, you know what? Here's how I show my faith.
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I heard somebody say this just recently on TV. You have to watch where you get your news because I listen to news people and they say things like they know that the gospel means doing something.
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And is that what that's teaching? Faith apart from works is useless. No, it's not teaching that you are saved by your works or that works produce faith.
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It's quite the opposite. Faith produces works. If you believe your life will exhibit that, your life will show that.
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So faith is not merely acknowledgement that certain things are true. It issues forth in action.
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A faith that does nothing is not faith that saves.
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You have to believe the truth, but that truth has to have an impact on your life. Faith, saving faith, also involves commitment.
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Let's look at John 2 .11. John 2 .11.
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The Bible frequently uses what would be seen in the
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Greek as believe into. Believe into to convey the idea of commitments.
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And here in John 2 .11, we see that. Would somebody read that, please? John 2 .11. OK, his disciples believed in him.
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They committed themselves to him. I mean, they were they had been committed and they saw this and they believed in him.
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They trusted in him. They were committed to him. B .B. Warfield says this expresses an absolute transference of trust from ourselves to another, a complete surrender to Christ.
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That's what saving faith is. There is this idea floating around in evangelicalism that either mere assent.
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You know, in other words, acknowledging the truth about God, about Jesus, who he is, that that saves you or even that professing to believe that you'll go to heaven is enough.
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I mean, I get so grieved. I, you know, I shouldn't probably confess this, but I belong to a secret
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Facebook group. Don't tell anybody. It's a secret group and it's retired police officers, sheriffs, deputies.
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And this week, somebody who was two years older than me recently retired and committed suicide.
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And a number of the people in there, I mean, I you know, this is not a theological discussion group, but a number of the guys in there, what do you suppose they said?
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Yeah, he's at peace. He's no longer suffering. You know, rest in peace, brother.
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You know, and I just read this and I get grieved because the idea that somebody,
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I mean, I don't know this man at all, but the idea that you would have absolute trust in Christ, which is what saving faith means and then commit suicide.
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Those two things don't really go together at all. Does that mean that he couldn't have been a
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Christian? There's no real reason to think that he was based on what I read about him.
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But we live in a society that says, you know, salvation by death, salvation by any means other than what?
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Faith alone. It's salvation by doing something. It's by salvation by being something, being a police officer.
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If you're a police officer, blessed are the peacemakers. I see that used all the time.
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You know, how do we know he's going to heaven? Well, because God loves cops and, you know,
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God loves firemen. God loves ambulance workers. And if you go around to the prisons, you know, apparently
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God loves prisoners too. I mean, whatever group you belong to, it seems amazingly that God loves those people.
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So commitment is another evidence of saving faith. Another frequently used phrase in the
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Bible is to upon. We talked about believe into, how about believe upon? And it means to rely upon.
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Let's look at Luke 24, 25, and we'll have to explain the context a little bit, but it'll be a familiar context.
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Luke 24, 25. And again, we're going to see that word foolish. Keep showing up here this morning.
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Luke 24, 25, who would read that please? Okay. So what's interesting here, a couple of things. I had to like highlight the word in red for me, believe, because they leave out the preposition, which really is, it's epi or upon or on.
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But here's the context. There are a couple of disciples. I mean, we could read the whole thing, but there are a couple of disciples after the resurrection of the
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Lord. And they're walking down the road and they're talking about him and Jesus shows up. And he says, well, what are you guys talking about?
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And they explain, they start talking about Jesus and what's happened. And he says to them, foolish ones.
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But here's the point. Slow of heart to believe all of the prophets have spoken.
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Or if we read it the way the Greek reads, to believe upon all of the prophets have spoken, to be reliant upon, to believe upon, to be invested in.
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Well, what did he mean? He meant this, that if they had believed the prophets, then when
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Jesus was crucified, they would have understood this, that he was going to be raised from the dead and they wouldn't have gone to pieces the way they did.
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They didn't trust all that the prophets had spoken. They didn't believe the old Testament. In other words, sometimes we get the idea that maybe saving faith is being persuaded.
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And Waldron wants to go out of his way to help us understand that it's not, again, assent to facts.
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And it's not, neither is it kind of assent to a superior argument.
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You don't get brow beaten into the kingdom of God. It's not like, you know, you have to wait, you're an unbeliever and you wait until James White comes in with his argumentation, his debate style and everything, and you leave there and go, that was so good.
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I guess I believe. It's not like that. Waldron says this, he says, it is reception, obedience, coming appropriation.
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Faith is a conviction which moves us to an appropriate response. It is not merely passive persuasion of our intellect.
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It is not mere assented certain doctrines. It is a whole sold conviction of the truth leading to a commitment to the
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Christ of the gospel. And I think that last part is so important because people want to change who
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Jesus is. They don't want to believe in the Jesus Christ of the gospel, fully
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God, fully man. They like the little baby. They don't like the coming judge. They don't like the one who is, in fact, the author of all scripture.
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Saving faith is grounded in scriptural truth. And this is the important part here.
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You know, you say, I believe in Christ. I trust in Christ alone for my salvation.
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Here's where the rubber meets the road. God's children believe God's word.
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How much of the Bible do you have to believe in order to be saved? That's kind of a trick question, isn't it?
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How much of the Bible do you have to believe in order to be saved? How much did you know when you were saved?
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If you tell me you have to believe all the Bible in order to be saved, I'm going to say, I'll just turn it around and say, did you believe?
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Did you know all the Bible? Had you read all the Bible? Had you heard all the Bible read when you were saved? So how much of the
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Bible do you need to know to be saved? The gospel, you have to understand and believe the gospel.
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But ultimately, if somebody reads something in the Bible to you and you say, I don't believe that.
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I reject that. Then what? Okay, keep reading.
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Find something that you do believe, Becky says. Hold on to the good stuff. Throw the rest of it away,
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Andrew. Okay.
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I think that's exactly right. We need to submit to scripture. So here's the untricky part of it. If you just think about this way, what do
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I need to believe to be saved? I have to believe the gospel. And then when things are brought to me from scripture, when
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I'm reading scripture, sometimes I might not readily like those things.
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I might not really want to just think, oh, that's so lovely. All these wonderful things that the
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Bible says, sometimes they're hard things. And sometimes the only answer is I need to submit to that.
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I'm not really sure I like it, but I know it's true. And that's the key. I must submit to scripture because it is the word of God.
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And because he said these things, and I believe in him, I trust in him. Therefore, I submit to the word of God.
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We're going to talk more about that in a minute, but Waldron says this. He says, there are many in our day who are supposedly committed
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Christians who did not believe the great truths of Christianity, creation, sin, hell, or the deity atonement or resurrection of Christ.
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Now, some of these things, some people will say, well, is that really necessarily something that you must believe?
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In other words, do you have to believe in the creation, the biblical creation account in order to be saved? What do you think?
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Probably not, but it'll hurt your theology. My answer is
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I don't really want to find out. I thought I was saved. Then I started believing in evolution.
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Here's what I would say. It is going to hurt your theology, but if you give yourself over to certain things like that, then where does it stop?
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If I don't believe the first six chapters, first 11 chapters of Genesis or even the first three chapters, when do
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I actually start believing it and why? But there are certain things that you have to believe in.
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I think creationism, evolutionism, I would just say this.
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I know what's true. Whether you have to believe it or not, that's really kind of above my pay grade.
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I would say I wouldn't go to a church where the pastor taught evolution or believed in it. But what about sin, hell, deity of Christ, atonement of Christ, resurrection of Christ?
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Those things are all the gospel. Those things are all the good news. You can't get around that one. I would say
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I do think the creation thing is a problem because there are so many places, even in the
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New Testament, where the creation is taught. So I don't know how you would get around that ultimately.
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It would be very problematic. It would not give evidence of serious study of the
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Word of God, let's put it that way. Other thoughts? Because we're going to get back to more things about...
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Yeah, go ahead. What do you think? I mean, well, give me an example. If they say, well,
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I believe the gospel. I'm trusting in Christ alone. I just don't believe He physically raised from the dead.
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I don't know what that means. I can't reconcile those two things, right? You know,
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I believe in Jesus. I believe that He was God and He was man. I just, you know,
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I just have a trouble with how the Bible defines sin. What?
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Either God gets to define sin or He doesn't. And if He doesn't, then what are we doing in the
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Bible? So I don't know. I mean, it would depend on the... But I would be concerned. I mean, there's ample reason.
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And we'll talk... I have some more specific examples here in a couple minutes, which
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I think we'll get to today. John? Yeah. Oh, I totally agree. What you're saying is if you go to somebody for the first time and you preach the gospel to them and they say, you know,
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I believe and it seems that they give evidence and all that, I don't think the first thing that they're thinking about is, you know, the creation account or whatever.
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Yeah, I totally agree with that. That's right. Yeah, Acts 2. Yeah, I think the trick, you know, and I think why he included creation in there is when you think about people who want to incorporate evolution and everything, well, then you have to go back and say,
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OK, Jesus spoke of, you know, from the beginning, it's, you know, when
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He talked about marriage and He describes, He quotes Genesis. And so what do you with that?
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If Genesis 1 and 2 shouldn't be taken literally, then what? So, yeah,
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I think there are ultimately issues. But yeah, when you go to somebody and you're preaching the gospel to them, do you have to include the creation accounts?
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You know, no, absolutely not. That's an interesting point. It's a good point.
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A lot of people will say that, you know, basically want to boil it down to it's a debate between science and religion, you know, like the two are in conflict.
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So maybe we need to address these things. And here's what
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I would say, you know, the science or the Bible is not a science textbook, right? It doesn't comprehensively cover everything.
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You know, I mean, you can't you can't do your Ph .D. on chemical reactions and use the
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Bible as your source, because you're going to have some, you know, gaps in your knowledge and whatnot, right?
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I don't know. I didn't think it was that funny. But, source of the
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Bible. But everything that the
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Bible speaks to is true, whether it's science or anything else. Now, here's the question, though.
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Unbelievers want to debate this as or want to frame this as a debate between science and religion, between science and the
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Bible, and science disproves the Bible. So then we feel like we have to stand up and say, well, no, here are all the evidences that prove that what the
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Bible says is true. And you can have those kind of debates if you want to.
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I just choose not to have them. Why is that? Never ending. True.
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Corey, because and if I could just skip to the end, go ahead, Corey. The end is this.
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This isn't a matter of science versus the Bible. This is a matter of belief and unbelief, right?
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I'm going to make a mockery of your faith by showing how much superior, you know, how superior science is to the
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Bible. That's the whole goal, Corey. Yeah, it's all about, you know, sin, salvation, these kind of things, and not about whether I can refute every scientific objection that somebody wants to bring up, because that is a never ending battle.
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Yeah, they want to avoid the moral question. And that's why, you know, I say it on my
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Facebook page. I say it all the time. I don't debate doctrine with unbelievers, because even if I win, you know, and that includes evolution or whatever else,
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I'm not going to debate evolution versus creationism. Other people, you're welcome to do that.
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Knock yourselves out. I'm not going to do it, because when I win the argument, do I win the soul? No. And it's ultimately a moral problem, and that's what
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I want to address. I can't be bothered, you know, debating an unbeliever on whether, you know,
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Jesus is fully God or not, or whatever they want to debate about. I don't care. You know, was
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David a real person or not? I don't care what they think. And the answer is yes, and it's been attested now, but it doesn't matter.
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Ultimately, we want people to come to faith, not to just win arguments. Waldron, again, if you say that you believe the
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Bible, your life must be radically altered by its truths. If they do not change you, your faith is not genuine, nor is it saving.
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The point is, if somebody says they're a Christian, and you say, oh, really?
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Here, let's just make it easy. Really? Well, what's changed about you since you've been saved? Nothing, right?
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There's a problem. When somebody wants to give their testimony, when somebody wants to get baptized, well, tell us about your life before Christ, right?
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Not about, you know, I've heard dramatic testimonies, and sometimes people feel bad. I remember one person saying that, you know, their testimony was boring, because, you know, their sins were somewhat trite, somewhat trivial.
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And, you know, when you're in a place like Grace Community Church, and you hear testimonies like this every week, you know,
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I was a junkie, I was laying in the gutter, I was, you know, I'd been in and out of prison my whole life, you know, and then
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God saved me. And now this is what I've been doing since then. You know, well, okay, that's pretty dramatic, and you know, there's not a dry eye in the house.
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But there ought not to be a dry eye in the house when somebody gets up and says, you know, the biggest sin in my life, you know, as I examine my life, and I feel really horrible about it, and I'm ashamed to, you know, tell you people
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I lied to my parents, you know, or something like that. You just go, okay, that's the worst thing you've ever done.
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Now, here's why we just think, oh, that's no big deal, because we all know that we all do that. And what we forget is that one sin, one sin is enough to send us to hell.
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So we like the dramatic conversion stories, and we forget that every conversion, every person who comes to faith is, in fact, a work of God, and in that sense, a miracle.
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So there ought not to be a dry eye in the house, you know, relatively speaking, anytime somebody gets saved.
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The finished work of Christ saves us. We appropriate that salvation through faith, which is the gift of God.
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And Walter goes on to explain why faith being a gift is so important.
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Not only does Scripture teach that, we went over that last week in Ephesians chapter 2, but it also teaches that we are incapable, and we talked about this too, of generating our own faith, believing in our own strength, coming to saving faith on our own.
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I wrote this, and it's kind of convoluted, so I'll read it and then try to unpack it a little bit. We are saved by the uninfluenced sovereign grace of God, uninfluenced by any external power, meaning there's nothing that constrains
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God to save anyone. He's not obligated in any sense to dispense grace.
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He does it for his glory and for his own purposes. Waldron says, the essence of saving faith is to humbly entrust ourselves to another.
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One Puritan has called faith, quote, a self -emptying grace, and described it as, quote, a grace that takes a man off himself and gives all the honor, all the honor, excuse me, to Christ and free grace.
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And this is the point. Nobody ever thinks, oh, I contributed in my salvation, I did something good,
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I believed on my own. They understand that it's all of God, that their salvation is all due to Christ.
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And I like this. Let's look at Judges chapter 7. We might not get further than this today.
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And this is going to seem kind of an odd thing to do. Are you familiar with the story of Gideon's army?
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You might be thinking, well, what does this have to do with saving faith?
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And I think it's a good illustration. So let me just read this,
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Judges chapter 7, and I'll just start with verse 1, why not? Then Jeroboam, that is
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Gideon, and all the people who were with him, rose early and camped beside the spring of Herod.
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And the camp of Midian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh in the valley.
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The Lord said to Gideon, the people with you are too many for me to give the Midian knights into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, my own hand has saved me.
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Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home.
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We're about to have a big battle. If you're worried about it, go home. Let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.
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Then 22 ,000 of the people returned, and 22 ,000 went home, and 10 ,000 remained.
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So we still got 10 ,000 strong in the army. And the Lord said to Gideon, the people are still too many.
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Take them down to the water, and I will test for you there. And anyone of whom I say to you, this one shall go with you, shall go with you.
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And anyone of whom I say to you, this one shall not go with you, shall not go. So he brought the people down to the water.
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And the Lord said to Gideon, everyone who lapsed the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself.
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Likewise, everyone who kneels down to drink. And the number of those who lapped, put in their hands to their mouths, was 300 men.
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But all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. Now I'd be thinking,
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I want the 9 ,700, right? And the Lord said to Gideon, with the 300 men who lapped,
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I will save you, and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go, every man to his home.
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So the people took provisions in their hands and their trumpets, and he sent all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, but retained the 300 men.
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Then he goes on, and they defeat the Midianites with these 300 men. Now, how does that relate to saving faith?
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Should be evident by verse two, right? The objective of this whole incident with the
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Gideonites, with the
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Midianites, is that he didn't want Israel boasting over him saying, my own hand has saved me.
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In other words, that the nation of Israel had saved itself. So when it comes to saving faith, why does it have to be of grace?
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Because if it wasn't sovereign grace, the unmerited, demerited favor of God, if we thought that we had some part in it, then we could boast.
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We could brag. We are natural born boasters, and if there's any room for boasting, we'll do it.
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But faith as God's gracious gift removes all boasting, takes all the pride out of it.
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Now, let's see if we have... Well, we can, but are there any questions, comments, thoughts?
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Okay, we're going to move on to false faith, because if there's saving faith, then there's a faith that does not save, false faith.
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What we would maybe refer to as profession without possession, let's look at John 2, verses 23 to 25.
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John 2, verses 23 to 25. Now, when he,
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Jesus, was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.
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Now, this sounds great, doesn't it? Remember when I preached to this, it's very encouraging to think many believed because they saw the signs, and it's all good.
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Verse 24, but Jesus, on his part, did not entrust himself to them.
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They said they trusted him, and he is not trusting himself to them. Why? Because he knew all people, and he needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
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He saw the inherent goodness in this crowd, knew that their hearts were true.
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No, no, no. 2
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Corinthians 13, verse 5 says what? Examine yourselves, see if you're really in the faith, test yourselves.
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And the very notion that there is a faith that does not save should concern every Christian, right?
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Paul says, see whether you are in the faith, test yourselves, or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail to meet the test.
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What does he mean? Does he mean that there's some kind of objective thing that you have to do? It says you have to meet the test.
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What is the test? What is the test here in 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5?
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Is it something that we do, or is it something that you genuinely believe?
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It says whether you are in the faith. How would you do that?
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How would you determine whether or not you are in the faith? I think it's all the things that we've been talking about this morning that have so convicted you that you could readily recount them off the tip of your tongues.
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It is entirely trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation. And as we look back, and we think of the times in our lives when we've failed, we've stumbled, and we've neglected to do the things that we ought to have done, and we've done the things that we ought not to have done.
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Even so, we think to ourselves, I see where I am now, and I'm here by the grace of God.
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And even when I was foolish, even when I was sinful, everything else,
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God saw me through it. As I repented, God forgave me, and here
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I am today. I can see the work of the Lord in my life. Not that I'm perfect, and that's not what the test is here.
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It's have I entrusted my soul, my care, to the Lord Jesus Christ and to him alone?
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We don't really have time to talk about false faith, so we'll pick that up this morning. But let me just say this,
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I'll give you a little preview, because we talked about believing what the Bible says.
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I think there are many areas today, especially where people want to pick and choose what they believe about the
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Bible. Can you think about some? Professing believers, what might they want to discard from the
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Bible, or at least not worry about living out? I wonder how many
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Christians this April will think it's no big deal to cheat on their taxes. After all, the government is bad.
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I wonder how many Christians do we even know who live together and then get married?
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How many Christians do we know that make excuses for the way they speak to other people? How many
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Christians do we know that have really good reasons for not forgiving people?
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What does the Bible say about those things? Do we really believe what the Bible says? Well, on that light note, let's pray.
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Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the conviction that you grant your children, that even though as was said this morning, we may not fully understand something, we may not even like it, but we submit to it because we recognize that your word is the truth, that your word is the standard.
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Father, teach us to test ourselves to see whether we are in the faith, to do so frequently, not as a means of keeping ourselves unsure, but as a means of pushing ourselves toward godliness, towards obedience.
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Father, I pray for each one here that we would, in our discussions with unbelievers, not get caught up in minutiae, but always push back to, as Pastor Bob said, the moral issue, because that's what this is.
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It is belief and unbelief. It is salvation and non -salvation and condemnation.
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Let us preach the gospel to ourselves often and to others even more often.