What is Saving Faith?

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Well, good morning.
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My heavens, there's just nobody here.
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We got whole open seats.
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Really? Now, now are they gone? Are they working? Oh, wow.
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Well, tonight, you guys have one of my elders coming to preach at 630.
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Brother Mike there, he's gonna start coming once every other month.
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And another one, Brother Andy is going to come once every other month.
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So I, I hope that that works out good.
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I think you guys are liking.
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But the guy coming tonight is Mike Collier, Brother Mike Collier.
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He's an open air preacher.
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He goes and preaches out at stadiums and stuff.
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And, and I've been out with him doing evangelism, very evangelistically minded, heart for Christ, and just real bold individual.
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So I think you guys are one of our elders.
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Yes.
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Yeah, he's one of our elders.
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Well, he speaks loud.
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Yeah, but but when we go out, he used a megaphone.
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Yeah, he has a he has a little box and a recording headphones.
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So it's, it's not so much that he speaks loud.
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He just carries a big megaphone.
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Yeah, I think so.
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And then like I said, next month, it'll be Brother Andy, and they're going to rotate.
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So all right, well, open up your Bibles to Galatians two, we are continuing on.
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And as I mentioned last week, I consider this section of Galatians.
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One of the most important paragraphs in all of the Bible, certainly one of the most important paragraphs in the writings of Paul, if not the most important.
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So we're going to begin at verse 15.
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This picks up during the conversation of Paul and Peter, where Paul has confronted Peter.
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So when he says we in verse 15, he's he's talking to Peter, I believe, I don't think this is a separate situation.
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I think this is a continuation, even though it's a new paragraph in your Bibles, and some some of it has a new heading.
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I think it's a continuation of the verse 14.
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So when he says we he's referring to himself and Peter.
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Alright, so it says, we ourselves are Jews by birth, and not Gentile sinners.
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Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.
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So we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law, no one will be justified.
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Let's pray.
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Father, this morning, we are going to focus on the very heart of the gospel.
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As the reformer said, this is the article upon which the church stands or falls justification by faith alone.
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Father, may it be that as we seek to understand this foundational doctrine, that Lord more than anything, you would turn our hearts towards the truth.
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That you would keep me from error as I seek to give instruction from your word knowing that ultimately your spirit is the teacher.
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And I pray to be filled with your spirit.
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And I pray Lord that as we consider this doctrine that it would be more than a doctrine, but that it would be a true point of peace and joy and comfort for these men.
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And for all of us as believers in Christ, we have been told by your word that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and it is because of this truth.
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So Lord, let it be that you grant us an even greater understanding this morning.
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In Christ's name.
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Amen.
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Well, this morning, last week, we read verses 11 to 21.
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And this morning, I have focused us only on verses 15 to 16.
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And that's really all we're going to do is these two verses and then next week, if we get through it, we'll look at verses 17 to 21.
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It's all one narrative.
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It's all one thing.
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But the but the key passage is verses 15 and 16.
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This is the this is the heart.
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This is the this is the mean, or the main idea here.
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And I want to, I want to introduce you to some language today, that may be new to some of you.
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And it may be old to some of you.
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So I would encourage you that if you already know some of what I'm saying, to take this as a refresher.
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And don't allow your, your mind to wander and your eyes to glaze over because I'm certainly not doing this to bore you.
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But as Peter tells us in his epistle, it's good to be reminded of the things that we already know, because it affirms us in what we believe.
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So if you know these things, then just be re encouraged.
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I'm reminded of Martin Luther, who said that every week, I preach justification by faith, because every week, my people forget it.
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He's every week I preach the gospel, which is justification by faith, because every week they forget, and I have to remind them.
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So we're going to look at several things.
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The first thing I want to do is go over the five solos because again, many of you know this, but if you don't know this, you should and this should be something that is just in your mind and in your heart.
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So how many of you don't know when I say five solos, you know what I'm talking about? A couple of you Okay, good.
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Good.
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Well, then this is an introduction for you all.
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And for those who do know it, this is a refresher.
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The five solos refers to a Latin five statements in Latin, that were the banners of truth that were that were stood upon during the Protestant Reformation.
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In the early 1500s, there was a man by the name of Martin Luther, who took a stand against the false teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.
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It began with a with a stand against indulgences.
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indulgences were certificates that were sold by the church to people to pay for their sins, people could literally buy a certificate of forgiveness.
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And those certificates would then pay for their forgiveness, and would allow them to escape purgatory, which is a false teaching in Roman Catholicism of a place that you go when you die to continue paying for your sins.
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And it's called purgatory because it means to be purged or to be cleansed.
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So when you die, you have to go to be cleansed and sometimes can be there for hundreds of 1000s of years of cleansing.
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And you could buy these certificates and get time off of purgatory or have your entire purgatory removed depending on how much you could afford.
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It was quite the scam.
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And on October 31 1517, Martin Luther nailed 95 points of contention against that teaching of indulgences to the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany.
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That's the posting of the 95 theses and happened on October 31 1517.
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This year, we every year we celebrate our church.
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So on this on the weekend following October 31, we have Reformation weekend and we have a celebration.
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So that being said, that led to what would became known as the Protestant Reformation.
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Protestant means to protest and they were protesting the false teachings of Rome.
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And if you are a Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, Lutheran, well, you can go down the line of the different denominations.
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If you if you come from any of those backgrounds, except Roman Catholic, if you come from any of those other backgrounds, you can trace your history back to the Protestant Reformation.
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That's where all the denominations came from.
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Because after Luther, there were men like Calvin and Zwingli.
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And out of those men came in like John Knox and others.
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And there were the Anabaptists who came out and then you had the Baptists in England who who were part of the what brought the new world came to the new world and the Puritans and all of those things are all it all started from that one movement.
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And again, the banners that they stood on were five points of truth, five statements of truth and they all begin with this word sola.
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Now in Latin, the there'll be a different ending for two of these but but the first three are sola.
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So we'll start with the first one, sola scriptura, sola scriptura in Latin means scripture alone.
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So so that helps us know what this word means.
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This word means alone.
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So sola scriptura, scripture alone, the Roman Catholic Church believed that the Pope was invested with a certain amount of authority that the magisterium which was the teaching office of the church had its realm of authority, and they had what they called church tradition.
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Church tradition was not in Scripture, but it was held as belief by the church.
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And they believe scripture and tradition had equal authority.
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Therefore, if you say to a Roman Catholic, the Bible doesn't teach you to pray to Mary.
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They say yes, but church tradition tells us to pray to Mary.
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Or if you say that the Bible doesn't teach you to pray the Rosary, and they say yes, but church tradition teaches us and so they have this equal authority with Scripture and it's called church tradition.
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The reformer said, no way.
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Yeah, that's it don't work that way.
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We have one God breathed authority.
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That's what the Bible calls itself.
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And first Timothy, or second, second Timothy 316.
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It says all Scripture is inspired.
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That word to stay on new stocks, and it's Greek, it means God breathed.
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Scripture comes from the mouth of God.
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And there's only one thing that's ever said to be God breathed.
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And it's the Scripture, not tradition.
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In fact, Jesus said, Whoa, to you, who teach as doctrines, the traditions of men.
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So but he's talking to the Pharisees, but that equally applies to anyone who would teach traditions as doctrine.
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So we have Sola Scriptura.
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That's the first one.
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That is what everything else really is built on.
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Because everything after that, you know, we have to say the Scripture, if that's if this is our ultimate authority, everything else comes from here.
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The second one, Sola Gratia, Latin, grace alone, grace alone.
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And so there was a belief and I believe still a belief among Roman Catholics, that salvation is somehow achieved through what we do, and our accomplishments, our works.
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And the reformers were saying, No, you cannot work for it.
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And you certainly can't buy it through the purchasing of indulgences.
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Salvation is by grace alone.
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Grace is necessary that the Catholic Church would agree.
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But the reformer said, Yes, but grace is also sufficient.
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Not just necessary, not just needful, but able to accomplish what it intends to accomplish.
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So grace alone.
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People say, Why are you saying pastors because you're a good person? No, by grace alone.
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You ever heard the phrase but by the grace of God, there go I, you see somebody in a bad situation, you say, Thank you, God, because that could be me.
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But by grace, grace alone, right.
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And so that's the second point, Sola Gratia.
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The third point is called Sola Confide.
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F-I-D-E.
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Now when I first saw that, because I'm an English speaker, I thought it was Sola Fide.
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Because it looks like Sola Fide.
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And it kind of sounded kind of cool, like Sola Fide.
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Yeah, I got Sola Fide, you know, but but that was just my, you know, ignorance of how Latin would would be pronounced.
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And if you're familiar with anybody in here Marine, or were in the Marines, okay.
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All right.
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The Marines have a phrase Semper Fidelis, right? The root of Fidelis, which which Semper Fidelis is always faithful.
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Semper means always and Fidelis means faithful.
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The root of Fidelis is Fide.
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F-I-D-E.
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So faith is the root like faithful and faith.
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Fidelis and Fide have the same root.
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And that's that word.
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And so this, it's important because the Reformers were saying salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone.
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So this is a, it's salvation by grace, through faith.
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This is how it comes.
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This is how we receive it.
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We receive it by faith, not by works, not by what we do.
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All right.
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Huh? Yeah, no payment, no works, no, only by grace and only through faith.
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So that's, we, the Scripture tells us we are saved by grace through faith.
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Now, the next one, the Sola is written differently because the endings change how they would correspond to the, to the word.
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So the next one, instead of Sola, it is Solus Christus or Solus Christus, depending on how I'm feeling that day to pronounce it.
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But Solus Christus.
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So we have salvation is taught in Scripture alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
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You are not saved through the church.
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You are not saved through the teaching office of the church or through the pronouncement of the Pope or through the absolution of the priest or anything else.
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You were saved in Christ alone.
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Nothing else and no one else but Him.
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So this is for I said there were five.
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So let me give you the last one.
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The last one is it looks totally different because it's still SOL but it's SOLI.
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Sole Deo Gloria.
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So by faith or by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, for the glory of God alone.
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You are not saved for your glory.
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You are saved for God's glory.
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In fact, I would go on to say your salvation is not really about you.
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Your salvation is about God glorifying himself in his grace toward you.
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And God will glorify himself in you in one way or the other, he will either glorify himself in saving you, or he and that glorifies his grace, or he will glorify himself in your judgment, which glorifies his justice.
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And either way, you will glorify God either as an object of his divine grace, or an object of his unmitigated wrath.
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But you will glorify God.
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One way or the other.
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So we say all is to the glory of God alone, not to the glory of the Pope.
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Oh, far be it not for the glory of me, but for the glory of God.
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And so these are the banners under which they they they took their stand.
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These are the five things that we stand upon.
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And I would say that as much division as there are among Protestant denominations, those that are faithful, and there are those that are faithful by God's grace, even though a lot of them have gone really weird and wayward, and have have departed from Scripture, among the faithful, these five things still stand.
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And they still stand as a unifying post upon which we can all hitch our bridles and say, here's where we all stand together.
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And this is and if you read the Council of Trent, which is known as the anti reformed council, it was a council held by the Catholic Church.
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It was the it was the response to the Reformation.
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If you read it, they'll say you're not saved, not by faith alone.
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And if you say you are, you're a heretic.
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So this was not only the reformers position, but the Catholic Church came and said, we oppose that position.
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So this is the dividing line.
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This is the line of division.
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And in the center of it, and I've written in a very specific way, because I could have went in a different order.
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But I want to show you that at the center of all of this is sola fide.
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This is called the this is what Martin Luther called the article, upon which the church stands or falls.
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This is the article upon which the church stands or falls.
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You're either justified by faith alone, or you're not justified at all.
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Yes, sir.
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Council Trent.
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t r e n t.
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Yep, just like it sounds.
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Now, we talked about Martin Luther saying this is the article upon which the church stands or falls.
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I want to tell a story.
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There was a, you probably don't know, but you may have heard this name.
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There's a man that I was very fond of, and he's gone to be with the Lord now.
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His name is R.C.
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Sproul.
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Ever heard that name? R.C.
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is a great teacher.
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R.C.
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He had a group of people come to his office.
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Now he was pretty well known evangelical teacher, and pretty well known, you know, by people.
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And so a group of people came to his office.
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And they said, R.C., we have found the secret to unity.
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And we are you and they were people of all different types of denominations and Roman Catholics and everything.
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We have broken down the wall of division.
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And we are now completely unified.
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We have found a spirit of unity.
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And we want you to join with us so that we can bring unity to the church.
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And R.C.
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was, he said, great.
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That's wonderful.
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He said, but let me ask you, is a man justified by faith alone or not? He said, within five minutes, they were fighting with each other.
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He said, he said, he said, what my intent to divide the group, but I wanted to show them that this is what divides truth from error.
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This is the dividing line between the gospel and everything else.
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And I would argue this is what Paul is teaching.
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Let's read it again.
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Just listening now.
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We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners.
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Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.
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So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law, no one will be justified.
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He says it three times, no one will be justified by the works of the law.
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And he says twice, we are justified by faith.
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Now Martin Luther translated the Bible into German.
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And when Martin Luther translated the Bible into German, he added the word alone.
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Now I can't get down with that.
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Because I didn't end up adding things.
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But his his his reasoning was that that's Paul's point is if you if you're if you're justified by faith and not works, then you then faith has to be has to be understood is that's it.
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It can't add anything to it.
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And so he added the word alone here.
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And and and so that's been sort of a contentious point.
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I don't think like I said, I don't really get down with adding the word but but to tell you how committed he was to say that's the point Paul is making.
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And I think that I think that he's I think that he's correct in his understanding.
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I just don't think I would agree with the methodology of adding the word.
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So let us for a moment, talk about what it means to be justified by faith alone.
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If this is true, if this is the article upon which the church stands or falls, then we need to understand three things we need to understand first, what does Paul mean by faith? What does Paul mean by justification? And what does Paul mean by works of the law? That's three phrases that are used here works of the law is used I think three times.
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Let's go back and look.
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Yeah, works of law three times faith is twice and justified 123.
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So we have so we have the same statement basically being made three times that you are justified by faith, and not by works of the law.
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So we need to know what faith is.
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We need to know what it means to be justified.
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And we anyway, and it's a good thing to know what works law means.
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In fact, when we get there, you'll see today if we have time, that's actually the most contentious point, because people argue about what he means when he says works of the law.
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So let's let's begin breaking it down one at a time.
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Anybody need this before I erase it? Because I want to start writing again.
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Go ahead.
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While I'm erasing the first four are concentrated on a line.
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Why was the fourth one? Why was the solar solar solar day of Gloria? No, that's the last one before that Christ.
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Solus Christus.
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Why? Why was solar changed? Just because Christ? No, it's the form of the word.
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Notice the ending of Christ is the US that changes the modifier.
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So you're going to use in we don't have in English, we don't have the same what they call stems and endings that they use in Greek and Latin and some of the languages that built into English, but we do sort of have in a sense we do, we have what we call prefix and suffix.
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Right? So if you have the word structure, if you add con at the beginning, it becomes construction, right? But you even had to change the end, you change the beginning con that means with and the IO in means it gives it form.
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So you say construction, main structure, construction, same root.
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It's the same idea, the word sola, sola, soli are all the same.
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It's just based on how the ending is.
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And so it's formed by the words modified.
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Yeah, so yeah, absolutely.
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Absolutely.
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Alright, so we're going to look at three phrase.
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Yes, sir.
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Okay, we'll look at three phrases.
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We'll look at faith, justified works of the law.
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Let's start with faith.
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Now, I wrote it in English and in Greek only because I want to point out something.
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The word faith in Greek is pistou.
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And it's also well, it can be pistis as well.
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I guess that might be the easier one.
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So pistis, notice the ending, the roots the same ending can change depending on how it's used in the sentence.
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So pistis, pistou.
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It's also the word for belief.
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So faith and belief in Scripture in general, in Greek, it's the same word.
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So when you hear, for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that pascha pistou on would not perish, but have everlasting life pascha pistou on pas is the word for all ha is the article and pistou on refers to those believing or the believing ones, right? So pistis is the root pistou on the one believing or the ones believing that's where you get the word whoever believes or whoever will believe is from that pascha pistou on.
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This phrase, belief is all through the New Testament, right? We're told whoever believes has eternal life, the man in the jail comes to Paul falls down and says, what must I do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, right? And then we see that used all through especially in John, John, you know, I've come that you would believe on me, right? And you believe on him whom the Lord, the God has sent, you know, all these this word beliefs over and over and over and over.
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And yet, we know that there is such a thing as false belief.
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Yeah, that will happen soon.
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Oh, Delphi is false brother.
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Yeah.
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But how do we know there's such a thing as false belief? Not necessarily pseudo pistos, even though I would probably be correct.
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We see it.
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For instance, Matthew chapter seven, Jesus said, Not everyone who calls me Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.
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Right? That's Matthew 723.
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Not everyone who says Lord or 21 to 23.
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It says that not everyone who calls me Lord, Lord, that they called him Lord, right? Meaning they at least verbalize some form of belief, and they even knew who he was by virtue of his title.
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But they didn't truly believe because they ain't going to heaven.
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Right? So there's a false belief.
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My favorite passage to point this out is in the book of James.
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James says you believe and you do well actually says you believe that God is one and you do well because he's referring to monotheism, which was a belief that the Christian shared with the Jews.
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He said you believe God is one you do well.
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But even demons believe that.
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So there's a point at which he's saying that all belief is not saving faith.
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That is that is key.
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And in fact, I think brother Mike's gonna talk about this tonight.
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So you might hear this again.
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All belief is not saving faith.
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And let me let me hasten to add then the reformers because of their commitment to clarity came up with a way to understand the different types of belief and I'm not hitting you with a bunch of Latin today to show I swear I'm not just trying to come in and look like the brain or anything like that.
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The only reason why I use Latin for me honestly, it's how I know it.
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Right.
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And so I give you these things, because this is how I remember it.
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It's how I know it.
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And it's how I've been taught.
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So don't think that this is a, you know, exercise in pride or anything like that, because it doesn't matter.
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But in the end, again, remember the time when the reformers were writing Latin was with the Bible in Latin for them.
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For many of them, this was the Bible they had was the Vulgate was 1000 year old translation that Jerome had done in the fourth century.
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So we have they they use Latin as the language of learning.
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And so and it's still even today, doctors learn Latin and everything because it was a it was our language uses is pretty much same alphabet, you know, and everything.
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So anyway, what is false belief? False? I'm gonna explain right now.
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That's about three things.
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The first one is called Gnosis.
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Starts with a G.
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Gnosis.
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Gnosis in English, we would call it knowledge.
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It's a root of Gnosticism, but it's not the same.
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It's not what we're talking about.
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But yes, Gnosticism would have the same because it's the same Greek word is Gnosis.
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But you're right.
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Yeah, that's Gnosticism was a belief that was prevalent in the first and second centuries and even beyond.
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But it was a belief that you were saved by a special kind of knowledge that God would would bequeath upon you or give to you.
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And only the people who had that special knowledge were saved.
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And thus they were called Gnostics or knowledge bearers those who had that knowledge.
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So that's what you're that's what you're referring to.
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That's not this stuff.
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Okay, let's make sure quick distinguish.
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Gnosis is a type of belief.
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And I'm going to give you all three and I'll go back and explain.
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The next one is called a census.
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In English, we would say a set or agreement.
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Ascent means to agree.
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If you say something and I ascent to what you're saying is I agree with you.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Same idea.
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Yep.
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Alright, so the last one is for Dukia.
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Sounds fun.
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All right.
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For Dukia is what the word for trust? Well, you can say it's the word for faith.
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But since we're defining faith, I would I would say, you know, the better word to use would be trust.
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Because if I said it's faith, we're defining faith with faith, that's a little hard.
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So we're going to use the word trust.
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All right, because it's actually the same root as Fide.
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So Dukia, Fide, same root.
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All right.
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Now, with this, the best way I can give you this is an illustration again, Brother Mike may use the same illustration.
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If he does, it might get mad at me because we both love this.
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When we go share the gospel, we talk about this, we use this illustration.
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You may have heard me say it before.
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But there's no better way I can understand the different types of belief than the way I'm going to share with you.
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Gnosis means I know something is true.
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A sense means I agree that it is true.
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Actually, let me go back.
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Gnosis is I know the claim.
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I know the claim.
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A sense is I agree with the claim.
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For Dukia is I trust what the claim is saying.
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Here's the illustration.
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I know Gnosis, that a parachute is designed to take the weight of a human being if they jump from an airplane or high cliff, that a parachute is designed to deploy to stop the rate of descent and slow them and carry them safely to the ground.
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I know how a parachute works.
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Therefore, I have Gnosis or knowledge of how it works.
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That's one type of belief or one type of because I know.
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A sense is I agree.
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I agree that it works.
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I agree that if you strap a parachute yourself and you jump out of a plane, that it will deploy, it will grab your weight, it will carry you safely to the ground.
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I agree.
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I've seen it happen.
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I've seen it on movies and television.
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I've even seen people falling from the sky.
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And then a little mushroom pops out of their back and they go safely to the ground.
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As it looks like, you know, it was like a mushroom in the sky.
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So not only do I know it, I believe it in the sense of I agree that it's true.
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But I am putting on a parachute and jumping out of no plane.
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Therefore, I lack trust.
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And I really do lack trust because you ain't getting my behind.
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You would have to it would take every one of y'all to throw me out of that plane.
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I would be grasping y'all be going with me.
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There ain't no way because I don't trust.
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I mean, think about a bungee cord jumper.
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I mean, maybe you've been bungee cord jumping.
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No way no how I've seen the rope come under.
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Yeah.
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And the guy that guy didn't know it.
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And that was it.
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That was it.
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I ain't playing that game.
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So that being said, I'm sorry, it's not funny.
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But you understand it's the way there's just no way.
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And that is the best way when somebody comes up to me, and they and I'm sharing the gospel with them.
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And they and they don't seem to understand what they say.
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Yeah, I believed in Jesus when I was six.
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I got baptized.
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And I say, Yeah, okay.
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How has he changed your life? How is he changing your life today? I have a real hard time believing you trust in him.
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I really do have a hard time believing if he's not changing your life, that you really placed your trust in him.
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Huh? Well, yeah, which means it's not saving faith, because the reformers would say there's only one type of saving faith.
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And it's this right here.
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Every time I'm sorry, brothers, I was This is it.
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This is saving faith.
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Everything else is this is what the demons have.
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James tells us he said they believe and they even fear they shudder.
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But they don't have saving faith.
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The guy who says didn't I do this that and the other Matthew 721 23 didn't I do many mighty works in your name do many miracles didn't I do these things.
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And Jesus said I never knew you.
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They didn't have saving faith.
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So this does.
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This says faith is more than words.
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Faith is a giving of ourself wholly and completely to Christ and trusting him as you would trust the parachute as you would give yourself completely.
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When you step out of that plane, you're saying parachute, I'm all yours.
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You are you're you have nothing else.
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There's not like there's somebody there's no net.
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Yeah.
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That's right.
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There's nothing else.
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But you and the ground and that parachute, you're giving yourself wholly to it.
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And my question today, I'm not even going to get into the next two things, which are justification and the other because just too long.
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And I did a lot of things I want to say about it.
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And I have next week, we'll just do it next week.
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But I want to ask you really today, as we're starting to draw to a close.
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Do you just know about Christ? Do you just believe he is who he said he was? Or have you given yourself to him? That's the difference between those people who will be saved on that last day.
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And those people who will say, Lord, Lord.
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And Jesus said, I know you knew me.
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But I didn't know you.
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You knew about me.
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And you even believed I did what I did.
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But you didn't trust me.
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It's all about trust.
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That's what faith is.
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That's what it means.
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And we give ourselves completely to him.
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We believe that he is who he said he was, that he's done what he did do.
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And that he's gonna do what he said he's gonna do.
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What did he do? He came and he died on a cross to take our sin on himself.
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He died.
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He was buried.
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And three days later, he rose from the dead.
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Do you believe that? Do you believe that a man came out of the grave? And that he walked and ate and lived for another 40 days and was seen by over 500 people.
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He was on a shore.
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And Peter saw him.
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And he dove out of the boat.
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Do you believe that happened? Do you believe that on that 40th day, he brought his people up on the mountain? And he said, all power in heaven and earth is given to me.
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Go therefore and baptize, make disciples, baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son, the Holy Spirit.
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And the Bible says he was taken up, literally lifted up.
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And the people stood there looking amazed as any one of us would if we saw somebody lifted up and two guys stood by and dazzling apparel and said, what? Why do you look up in the sky? He's going to return the same way he left.
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So go and do the things he's commanded until he comes again.
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So now we live in expected trust.
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You know, the Christian idea of hope is not the world's idea of hope.
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You know, if I take you know, I hope you're going to be here next week, or I hope I'm going to see you in church on Sunday or whatever.
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That's I don't know, just I hope that's the world's view of hope.
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The Christian view of hope means assurant expectancy, to be assured of what the promise is.
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And the promises as he left, he's going to return.
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And when he returns, he's going to judge the quick and the dead, the living and the dead, those who are living in him, and those who are not living in him, and he is going to bring his rod of iron and he is going to break the knees of the nations and every knee will bow.
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Every tongue will confess that he is Lord.
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And he's going to take that kingdom.
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And he's going to deliver it over to God, the Father, First Corinthians tells us, and at that moment, God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit are going to be all in all when the kingdom of God is established, the new heavens and the new earth are brought down, and we have a new life, a life even better than Adam and Eve had, because we won't have any more, even the opportunity to fall.
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Yes.
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I'm sorry.
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Hope is assurant expectancy.
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It's yeah, assured or assurant expectancy.
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Hope for the Christian is not something we just are thinking might happen.
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We're assured of it because we have a promise.
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So that's the hope when Paul talks about the hope of glory.
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It's not assurant expectancy.
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We expect it to happen.
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Jesus said, When you take the Lord's Supper, you do this, and remembrance of me until I come again.
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So we're remembering what happened.
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And we're looking forward to the promise of what's coming next.
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And again, I'm asking you today, do you trust in that? Do you look forward every day? This could be the day? Are you ready? If it were today? Are you ready? If Jesus opened the sky today, would you be ready to welcome him? Or would you say, Oh, no, I'm not yet prepared.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for the opportunity to talk about what it means to believe Lord may it be that the men that are here will trust in Christ, Lord, if they haven't already Lord that they would place their whole self in his hands like a parachute Lord, that they would lay themselves at the foot of the cross.
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And in mercy, say, Lord, save me.
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And we know Lord just as Peter was on the water with you.
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And when he fell and said, Lord, save me, you reach down, you picked him up.
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You will do that.
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Even now, to the man who calls out to faith in you.
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Lord, thank you for saving faith, for we know it is a gift from you.
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Thank you for everything in Christ's name.