The Role of Faith in Revival - Part 1 — Richard Owen Roberts

Repentance, Faith, and the Need for Reformation

I'm very grateful for the emphasis last evening on the subject of repentance, but repentance without faith is dangerous, and faith without repentance is impossible. We live at a time when it is not sufficient to be burdened and prayerful about revival.

We live at a time when reformation is absolutely mandatory. There are millions and millions of people that belong to evangelical churches of America who sincerely believe themselves to be Christians, who have nothing but wasted faith.

Tragically, no one has ever enabled them to understand the difference between faith and mental assent. Now it's on my heart this morning to do something that, for me at least, will be close to impossible to unburden my soul on the subject of faith in less than an hour.

Recently, I was asked to speak on the subject of faith in a church, and it was made plain. I mean, you have two hours each evening for five evenings to do so, and there was at least a measure of satisfaction there in being able to do more than skim the surface.

But I believe that even a skim over the surface will be better than nothing at all upon this subject. Now I have two passages that I want to draw to your attention. The first is in the second epistle of Peter in chapter one, and in that particular passage I want you to observe with me the source, the appearance, and the conduct of saving faith.

The second passage is Hebrews chapter 11, where I want to speak about five of the incredibly important accomplishments in the heart and life of the believer that are part and parcel of true faith. So second Peter chapter one, and as I've said, I'll just simply skim over the top, but I believe draw to your attention for further consideration in your own private studies and prayer life these incredibly urgent matters of source, appearance, and conduct of saving faith.

The Divine Source of Saving Faith

Simon Peter, a bondservant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who received a faith of the same kind as ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Now two of my points are there.

What is the source of saving faith? It is given to you. Now the part of the tragedy of the hour is that people are trying to muster up faith. They hope perhaps they have inherited it from a grandparent or a parent.

They think that perhaps by exposure to people of faith, faith is there. No, faith is a gift of God just as repentance is. We had it well established last evening that repentance is a gift, and obviously faith is as well.

But my second observation, the appearance of saving faith, what does it look like? Well, it's perfectly plain, a faith of the same kind as ours. Peter had saving faith. Took a long time to develop. He made an awful lot of tragic errors along the way, but it is crystal clear he got it.

Paul had saving faith. Stephen had saving faith. Every individual named in Hebrews 11 had saving faith. Multitudes through the centuries have had saving faith. All saving faith looks alike. You wonder whether you've got the real thing?

Compare it with what the Apostle Paul had. Look at Peter's situation and discern whether or not you've got the real thing. Verse 2, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord, seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence.

For by these he has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

The Seven Qualities of Growing Faith

Now, for this very reason, applying all diligence in your faith, supply, number one, moral excellence. Number two, to your moral excellence, add knowledge. And to your knowledge, number three, add self-control.

And in your self-control, number four, add perseverance. And in your perseverance, number five, add godliness. And in your godliness, number six, add brotherly kindness. And to your brotherly kindness, number seven, add Christian love.

Now, faith that has not been added to by these seven qualities is not saving faith. It's something quite different. It is, as I said already, wasted faith. You may be one of those who says we're saved by faith alone.

You think you're smarter than Peter? You think you've had a greater revelation of the truth than he had? We'll come back in a moment to those seven qualities, but look at verse eight. If these qualities are your and are increasing.

Now, get that. Not enough to have them. They've got to be added one by one. There's a sequential order here. You don't add Christian love when you're in the grip of hypocrisy. You've got to have moral earnestness before you can have true perseverance.

But if these qualities are not yours and they are not on the increase, you're in a whole lot more trouble than you ever guessed. If you have the qualities, verse eight, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But he who lacks these qualities is either, number one, blind, or, number two, short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Now, let's get a hold of that. If you don't have these qualities, and if these qualities are not on the increase, there are two possible reasons why.

Number one, you're blind. Now, that's a pretty serious state to be in. In 1 John, there's a powerful passage about blindness. And our Lord Jesus Christ made it crystal clear that the blind man is the man who doesn't know the Lord.

You can have what you call faith, but if these qualities are not yours and on the increase you're blind, you've been deceived. You've been taken in by some false teacher. He may pose as an evangelical.

He may give an altar call after every service. But saving faith is busy adding qualities. And those qualities are ever increasing. Now, the other alternative is you're either blind or you're short-sighted.

You've forgotten the reason for your former deliverance from sin. Now, Christ did not save anyone to deliver them from hell. Christ saves us in order to enable us to bring him glory and to impact our world and to advance his kingdom.

If you think you receive faith and you think that faith you received is the same as the apostles received, but you haven't been busy adding these qualities and they are not on the increase, then you miss the point when the grace of God was shown to you.

You cannot live after the entry level of Christianity. We all have to start somewhere. But it cannot end there. It's got to go beyond that. Well, let's go back just for a moment and reflect upon the seven qualities.

Quality number one. The translations vary. Some say virtue. Some refer to holiness. The translation that I've read uses the expression moral excellence. At the very heart of it is the concept of moral earnestness.

There is something so urgent, so vital, so real, that it puts you in an altogether different class from the Pharisees and the scribes and the lawyers of the New Testament. It separates you dramatically from the world around you because there is a moral earnestness that grips you.

But much of the church knows nothing at all of moral earnestness, much more earnest about everything under the sun than Christ and his kingdom. And when he speaks in the second quality of adding knowledge, it's not just Bible knowledge.

It's discernment so that you know what to do with what the Holy Spirit teaches you. Some of you may remember that lovely, earnest, godly fellow who taught so long in Southern Baptist circles, Louis Drummond.

And I remember his saying to me on at least three occasions. This matter really stirred him. And he told me about a time when at Southwestern Seminary there was a real touch of the Holy Spirit. And he said that there was a student who somehow got it in his head that he was to be the leader of the next great revival.

And so he went up on the highest roof on campus thinking to himself, I'll jump off the roof and the angels will bear me up. And then I'll be thrust into a position of leadership. But the angels didn't notice when he jumped.

He smashed his body up. Knowledge. In seasons of revival, there is desperate need for discernment. What matters? What is silly? Many of the movements in recent years focused upon physical phenomena which draws attention away from Christ.

It's absurd to be burdened for revival and yet not be seeking discernment so that you will be able to keep the focus on Christ. Because after all, revival is very fragile. In a revival, it's all eyes on Christ.

And all the devil has to do to destroy a true revival is to get the eyes off of Christ onto some bit of foolishness or something that in and of itself may be legitimate but it is of minor consequence.

So add moral excellence. Add discernment. Add self-control. The high percentage of the church doesn't know anything about self-control. The divorces that were described a few moments ago are a clear indication of a lack of self-control.

I'm not sure how you would dare to call anybody godly. Who lacks self-control. But not only are we to add self-control but perseverance. Over and over I've observed people who come under the burden of revival and then a few months later they're under some other burden.

We have a phenomenal lack of perseverance in our day. And to perseverance, true godliness. Well, you get the picture. I said I just have to kind of rush along the top of this. But every one of us ought to be burdening ourselves with this passage.

If you preach, the bulk of the people in your congregation know nothing about this kind of faith. You better start seriously teaching and preaching what the Word of God says about faith. But now, let me just simply finish this passage and move to Hebrews 11 by reading and briefly commenting upon verses 10 and 11.

An Abundant Entrance into the Eternal Kingdom

Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling in choosing you. For as long as you practice these things you will never stumble. For in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

I think there are a lot of folk who feel well, if I can just somehow manage to slip in to the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that's about it. No, no, Peter is saying if these qualities are yours and are on the increase then you're going to experience an abundant entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And even an abundant entrance can be to His glory. And how much glory will the Savior receive as everyone who enters the eternal kingdom enters with a vast oversupply of grace. But now as I said, Hebrews 11 where I want to draw to your attention five things at least that are part and parcel of true saving faith.

Five Marks of Faith in Hebrews 11

And in the hopes that some of you might actually remember the truth I want to lay it out in as simple a pattern as I know how. How many letters are in the word faith? Well most of us are able to figure that one out.

And let's let each letter stand for a part of Hebrews 11. The letter F, facts in focus. The letter A, active obedience. The letter I, intimacy with God. The letter T, tenacious valor. And the letter H, hope.

Faith Makes the Unseen Certain

Look at verse 1 of Hebrews 11. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The conviction of things not seen. And in keeping with those words listen to these words from Romans 8. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.

But those who are according to the spirit the things of the spirit. For the mindset of the flesh is death. But the mindset of the spirit is life and peace. Because the mindset on the flesh is hostile toward God for it does not subject itself to the law of God for it is not even able to do so.

And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. A high percentage of all those who think they have saving faith still have the mindset of the world. But true saving faith always brings a person into the mindset of the spirit.

And verse 1 makes this profoundly clear. When you have saving faith the things that you hope for are given substance. And the things that are unseen are brought into the realm of absolute certainty and assurance.

And the consequence is the things that are unseen the things that are of a heavenly nature the things of the world of the spirit the things that are eternal become much more dominant than the things of the flesh the things of this earth the things that you can taste and touch and see.

But multitudes again who think they have faith know nothing of that mindset of the spirit. And thus I go back to what I said to begin with. A reformation is desperately needed. A time when we return to true biblical teaching and preaching.

Doctrine Separates Sheep from Goats

Now people regularly tell me you cannot preach doctrine. Doctrine is divisive. Well of course it's divisive. It separates the sheep from the goats. Now some of you pastors have worn yourselves out trying to shepherd goats.