The Foolishness of Faith Alone | Kingdom

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Welcome to the

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Kingdom Podcast. I'm your host, Jon Moffitt, the pastor of Grace Reform Church in Springhill, Tennessee, and I'm also the host of Theocast.

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It's a reform podcast about the Christian life. The title today is an important one.

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You get this wrong, faith alone, and really it changes your perspective of God and the Bible. You go from one who's begging and receiving only to one who's offering back to God as part of not only your salvation, but the relationship that goes on.

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And I would say there's two aspects to our understanding of the gospel and our relationship with God that we get wrong when it relies on faith alone.

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Many people embrace, yes, we are saved by faith alone, but we don't think that's how the relationship continues and sustained, which is also by faith alone.

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So in this episode, I want to talk to us about how we are in relationship with our King and how we function in the kingdom and the only way in which it is possible to find ourselves to be sustained while doing this work is by faith alone, is by faith alone.

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So let's start by what do we mean by faith alone? Sometimes when you listen to people talk about this subject, it sounds like their faith is in their faith, right?

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I know I'm a Christian because I have faith. Well, no, that's faith never saved anyone.

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Mormons have faith, Jehovah's Witnesses have faith, atheists, you know, and they believe in themselves, so they have faith.

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Everybody has faith. It's the object of your faith that saves you. When we say faith alone, we're saying there's one object, there's one power, there's one being that can save, and that's that one power alone,

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Jesus alone. No one can come to the Father unless they come through me, right? And Jesus then sets the terms by which you come through him.

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What does he say? He says, come to me by what? Faith, by believing. And that's so important when we're talking about sola fide, faith alone is what that means in the

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Latin phrase, is we are pointing to an object saying, believe in that person alone and you will be saved.

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If you believe in anything else, including yourself, then you have no hope because there cannot be any additive.

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I'm going to read to us a famous passage, and it's, there's really two parts, as I said before, we're going to talk about the salvation part, then we'll talk about the

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Christian life. And I know a lot of people really buckle under here because it's like, well, now you're basically making it sound like you can live however you want because of faith alone.

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Nope, that's not what we're saying. Very famous passage of scripture. This is Ephesians chapter two, and he just got done explaining your circumstance.

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He uses so many languages, right? He uses, sorry, word, pictures. He uses things like death, dead.

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You are blind. Your body is in the grave. You are only following Satan, you know, it's like, how many illustrations does he need to give?

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And then he gives you the object of salvation. He gives you the person of salvation. This is verse four, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, here's the key.

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He made us alive with Christ. Now, that's the part we somehow miss, that if you put your faith in Christ, it's because God put that faith in you.

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He made you alive. And what's the evidence of your new birth? What's the evidence of your life?

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It's your faith. Why would you say that? Because if you keep reading, he goes on to tell you, if you have any other evidences of that, then you have reasons to boast, right?

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Let's just keep reading. He says, by grace, you have been saved and raised up with him and seated with him.

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So he's telling you all the benefits that you have. Verse eight, for by grace, you have been saved through faith.

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And this is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God. What's the gift of God? Faith is. That's the antecedent, faith.

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And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not the result of works so that no one may boast.

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So the way you entered into this relationship is that it says by God's mercy, but God being rich in mercy, reached down, brought you to life.

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And in that life showed you the glorious power of the gospel, which is

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Jesus through the proclamation of the gospel. And in that says child belief. And when you put your faith on Jesus, you were the demonstration of his mercy.

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That's what it was. And some of you might be thinking, well, that sounds like Calvinism.

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Well, you know, sure. Calvin helped clarify that. But this is very clear in Jesus's teaching as well.

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If you read John six, no one can come to the father unless what? The father brings them, unless the father draws them.

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And who does Jesus lose? If he draws, it says he loses none. So when we're talking about faith alone, we're actually missing the whole argument.

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I know where the battle is because what people are worried about, they're worried about, well, John, if you really teach this, then people will just say,

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I said a prayer. I walked down the aisle, I wrote down a card. I had a moment and now I'm good.

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Well, that would be very complicated because that's not how it's presented in scripture. We read the next verse, right?

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So once God brings us to life and he brings us this new spirit being in us, the

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Holy Spirit, he says this in verse 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

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God prepared before that we should walk in them. Where does that come from? Again, that's right on the heels of not of works lest any man should boast.

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So he's like, I brought you out of death. I put my spirit within you. I gave you a new birth.

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I also put faith in you. You now have the benefits of faith, right? The benefits of faith are what?

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All of Christ. And part of my work in you, you were created, this new creation, to do good works.

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So I think we should be heralding sola fide all the more.

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Because if someone remotely at all reflects good works in their life, it's not because of them at all, so that anyone may boast.

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So I just think it's interesting. So let me ask you this. If someone is in your presence and you're looking at them in the way that they talk, the way they act, there's not the evidences of someone who had put their faith in Jesus.

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Okay? It's like, they're an unbeliever. Are you going to go over there and tell them they need to be doing good works, that faith alone isn't enough?

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Is that the gospel that you're going to give them? Because that's not a gospel. That's condemnation.

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If you tell somebody that faith alone also requires obedience, then you're missing it.

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You cannot require obedience. That is to require something of yourself.

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Then some people are going to throw this argument at me. Well, this is a let go and let God. This is all this is.

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You're just going to kind of sit back and wait for the Holy Spirit to empower you. No, that's not what Paul says, because if you keep reading it in chapter four, he's like, you can be duped, you can be tricked, and you can definitely fall back into sin.

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So what do we need? I think it's fascinating. What saves us is what sustains us.

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Paul says this to the Galatians, right? How did you begin? Then this is how you continue.

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We begin by faith alone and we continue by faith alone. I think it's interesting that in Colossians, he describes who they were.

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This is Colossians two. He describes who they were dead in their sins. Then he describes how they were brought to life.

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And then he describes all the benefits, who they are in Christ. He goes, and I insist on these things that you continue to teach and preach these things.

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I insist on them. Why? Because Satan is the father of all lies. And he wants to come in and not, he can't change the

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Bible, but he can cause our minds to be clouded with pride. And all of a sudden we want to take credit and be involved in it.

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If you ever get to the point where the gospel doesn't offend you, I think you are now comfortable with a false gospel.

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The gospel should always offend your flesh. It should always yell at you saying, stop trying to prove yourself to God.

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It's offensive. It's horrible. It's grotesque. God, you're asking

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God to pass up on his son. You're asking God to pass up on the righteousness of his, you're telling

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God that the death of his son wasn't sufficient, that his plan was wrong, that somehow your obedience is going to be involved in that.

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I'm not doing that. I'm not going to be involved. I am not going to stand before the father and say, yes, we appreciate

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Jesus's death. He got it started, but you know, I needed to obey to make sure I did my part. That's what it sounds like.

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And I'm sorry, but that is not the good news of the gospel, right? I think Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 may be the most clear portions of scripture that are in relationship to our faith in our relationship.

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I want to get to the second part, which is the ongoing obedience. Man, when to say that Christians are obligated to obey, or to say that Christians should obey to prove themselves, that is not the

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God I read of. Man, I could not imagine having a father like that.

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I just, I couldn't imagine treating my children this way, that they have to obey if they want to keep my affection and keep my relationship with them.

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Could you imagine living in a home like that? And yet we expect God to treat us this way.

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We don't treat our own children this way. And yet we think God treats us this way, that He is examining us.

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Now that is ridiculous. That is ridiculous. Now does God desire and even command us to obey?

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Absolutely. But what God commands, what God requires, He supplies.

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Read verse nine again. He, He, He what? He created us for these good works, right?

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It's why it's called the fruit of the spirit, not the fruit of the flesh, not the fruit of discipline, not the fruit of your effort.

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When you do good works, where are they coming from? The Holy Spirit. And you need to acknowledge those.

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And how is it that God grows the power of the spirit in us? He says, we walk by faith.

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Remember the object of our faith is Jesus. Looking unto Jesus, the what? The, the one who began our faith, the author and the finisher, the perfecter of our faith, right?

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And as we do that, we set aside the sin and we set aside the weight. So even after you have been brought to life and all of your acts of obedience are done by faith.

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Without faith, it's impossible to please God, right? That's what He means by that. So if you're gonna come to Him and think that somehow your good works and the sustainable of the sustainability of your good works over your life is what

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God's going to use to accept you into His relationship or into His kingdom, you're doomed because you now have reasons to boast.

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You have reasons to boast. I think it's no mistake that the man on the cross next to Jesus is in paradise with God today and had no opportunities to thank

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Him, to prove to Him, to obey Him. He was dying as a thief and woke up in the glory of God.

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What a powerful thought. I don't think that was a mistake. I don't think the apostle Paul was a mistake.

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The man was killing Christians. I don't think Peter was a mistake. What does Jesus say?

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Satan wants to sift you. He wants to take you out, but I prayed that you won't lose your faith. And Peter gets all messed up.

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He's like, I'm not gonna mess up. He's like, before the day's over, Peter, you're gonna deny me three times.

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He goes, but when, I love this. This is John eight. But when you return, strengthen your brothers.

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Why? Because the man's gonna be humbled by his own works and his own strength. And in the strength of the Lord, he's gonna go to his brothers and say, look, but by God's grace, who

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I am. Look where I can be. And what do we know about the three times Jesus asks

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Peter, you know, do you love me? Do you love me? It's a reminder, Peter, you're here because I love you.

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I loved you first. And the only reason you can love me in return is because I loved you.

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Jesus has given us so many reasons to trust in Him alone. So remember, it's not faith. It's faith in Jesus, our object alone that will save us, sustain us and glorify us.

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I know I came off kind of hot, but my encouragement to you is this. I'm gonna close with this. If you're sitting here and you're like, John, I just,

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I don't have faith. I'm having a hard time believing that. You know what?

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Satan does this a lot to people. He gets up inside our flesh and our conscience and he accuses us.

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That's why he's called the great accuser. So you just have to ask yourself this question. Is Satan stronger than Jesus?

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And if he is not, then you trust in the ultimate power in the universe.

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And if you, with the half a percent of faith, can say, I believe Jesus is powerful enough to save me,

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He will. It's not the quality or quantity of your faith. It's the quality of the

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Savior. And He's a perfect Savior. Hopefully that was encouraging to you. Hopefully that will sustain you through this week.

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If I don't see you in glory celebrating our King, I'll hopefully be able to encourage you next week.