Faith: the Consequence or Cause of Salvation?

Faith as a Gift and the Glory of God

Oscar Wilde came through customs in New York and was asked this question. Mr. Wilde, do you have anything to declare? Nothing except my genius. I'm wondering if some of you on Judgment Day will stand before God and He would ask you, what do you declare that maybe you might say, nothing except my faith.

I know you did everything God, you chose me in eternity past. Your son died for me at Calvary. But the switch that was flipped in order for you to be able to save me was that I exercised of my own volition, freely and without any of your grace.

I am here because I exercise faith and that's all I have to declare. Is that true? Does that give God the glory He deserves? Nothing less is at stake with the issue of faith than the glory of God. Does God get the glory or is God sharing the glory in kind of a cooperative program?

This morning I want to ask this question. Is faith achieving or is faith receiving? Is faith the cause of your salvation or is faith the consequence of your salvation? Is faith produced by man or is faith produced in man?

And you say, well, as long as I got faith, I don't really care where it came from. If you want God to get the glory, if you are determined and jealous about God getting the glory in your life, then I think this should be a very important issue for you.

Does God receive the glory even when I talk about Him? We like to hear testimonies from people about their salvation. And you know, I like to hear about what God did for the people, not about what our people did for God.

That's why we always go around saying it's a testimony, not a testimony, when every word starts with I. Unless it was I was a sinner and God saved me by grace. We live in a culture today that somehow at the end of the day implies that you can make yourself a Christian and you cannot.

On the first page of one of the most influential revival books of all time by Charles Finney, in his book Lectures on Revivals of Religion, it says this shocking statement, page one, quote, religion is the work of man.

You might say religion is, but not a relationship with Christ. But are you saved because God saved you or are you saved because you of your own volition, apart from the grace of God, flipped the switch and allowed God to save you?

Let's push the issue a little bit. Did you accept Jesus into your heart? Or should we talk this way instead? Did God accept you into His heart based on what Jesus did? Oh, it's all semantics, you say.

I think not. For the years I have left on earth, I want to preach the gospel that is by grace alone. To God alone be the glory. True or false, God said, I will not give my glory to another. We should be zealous and jealous that all the glory goes to God, even when it comes to our salvation.

When you tell someone you're a Christian, how do you explain that? Is it a man-centered way or is it a way that is making sure you're pointing to God alone for all the glory? Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die.

Another's life, another's death, I stake my whole eternity. We're not staking our eternity on our faith. We're going to learn today that faith is the consequence and not the cause of your salvation. I could ask you a question this way.

What is it that accounts for the fact that one person is a Christian and another person is not? Why does one person hear a sermon and another person hear a sermon and this one responds differently with affirmation and this one responds negatively?

Why is that? And this morning I'm going to painstakingly try to drive home that faith, salvation, is a gift from God. You say, well, we're a long ways from Matthew chapter 5 and the Sermon on the Mount.

Yes, I know, but this will be installment number 6 on the evangelism series. Why should we proclaim the gospel to others? I thought I was going to be out of town and in England on a sabbatical and I was trying to stall and do an evangelism series because we were going to get back into Matthew chapter 5 later.

Well, now I'm not going to go on to a sabbatical until next year so I'm trying to stall even more. So this Sunday will be, we want to really dig deeply into the issue of faith that is a gift. Next week we'll look at actually what the gospel is, a good way for you to memorize and understand the gospel that you proclaim with 12 words to describe that.

Then I'll have two more weeks before I go on vacation and we will do a jet tour in two weeks on a book that we want to preach here because last time I checked it is in the Bible and it's called The Song of Solomon.

So this week faith, next week the 12 words and then two weeks a jet tour through Song of Solomon. An amazing, amazing book. How many people have ever heard a sermon on the Song of Solomon? It will either split the church in half or we're going to have overflowing issues.

But today I want to continue to talk about salvation so when we evangelize we're understanding that it all comes from God, including faith. The way we'll work the outline this morning is this way. I'm going to ask you several questions.

If you're dying to know I have about eight, but we'll get through about five or six questions I'm sure that will test you to see if you really in your heart of hearts believe your salvation is by grace alone or you believe that somehow God has saved you because he did his part and then your part was faith.

You cooperated maybe with what God did. God made it possible and then you did it the rest of the way or if God in fact did everything so that you might give him more glory and so that you might knowing when you evangelize if it's going to take an act of God to save that person then why do we have to coerce them to somehow do what we want them to do?

And then at the very end this morning, time willing, we'll talk about what is commonly called the sinner's prayer. Question number one that should test you about your faith to see if there's any little smidgen or inkling or little iota of human goodness or works added in there to this great gift of God.

Question number one, these are yes and no, right or wrong, no open-ended questions. They're either going to be man-centered answers or God-centered answers and I'm going to try to push you against the wall.

You say, well, today's going to seem like a class lecture, maybe. One thing that will be different today is instead of going to one passage and just sticking there, we're going to be going everywhere in our Bibles and so you want to get the WD -40 out, spray it on the spines of your Bible because off we go today.

We'll camp in Ephesians 2 for a while, but then it's off we go. Last night, we went on a camping trip yesterday. It was a great camping trip and I was so exhausted when I got home I kind of took a nap.

So when you take a nap at 7 o 'clock at night you're usually awake until late. And so it was about 11 o 'clock at night and I'm in the garage and trying to lift a little bit and just break a sweat and then I thought, well, it's a good time for the oil change of the rider and so I was trying to change the oil and then I thought, you know, I'm not really that interested in fixing this thing but men, and you know this when you really want to feel like you've accomplished a lot when you're fixing motor equipment just get a can of WD -40 out and just spray it everywhere and when you're done you really think you did some stuff.

Boy, I did a lot. So I was spraying WD -40 all over that thing last night. Steering mechanism, spray it. Oh, it's just not smoother. So today we're going to take that WD -40 and you better spray it all over your Bibles or you're going to be sitting there hot and going, where are we?

I want you to be in the text and I dare you at the end of today's sermon for you to say, God, faith is less than gracious gift from you. I dare you because I'm going to try to put the whole corpus of the Bible on top of you where you'll go, you know what, if I'm saved it's because God gave me faith.

And if I want my sister, brother, husband, child, work friend to be saved, it's going to be God you're going to have to save them because I've tried and I obviously can't. Question number one about faith.

Do you believe saving faith is a gift from God or a gift of God? Do you really believe that it's a gift? Let's turn to Philippians chapter 1 please. I want to show you several verses where the Bible teaches explicitly that faith is a gift.

You say, well isn't it a command? We'll get there. But for right now, faith is a gift. I want you to realize that when Jonah chapter 2 says salvation is from or of the Lord, we're talking all of salvation, it's a gift from God.

Philippians chapter 1 verse 29, the verse that is there in Oxford, England where the three martyrs were burned, this is the verse that's up there focusing on suffering, but interestingly Paul says to the church at Philippi, for to you it has been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for His sake.

Do you see that? Not only suffering is a gift that is granted by God from His hand, so is what? Belief is granted by God. It is a gift. If you'll take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter 2 we've been in this passage before and I want to show you again that faith is not the active saving cause rather it is a result.

Ephesians chapter 2, you know the passage for by grace you have been saved through faith that not of yourselves it is the gift of God. Hey Paul, didn't you just already say that in verse 5? Didn't you just say something like that about grace you've been saved?

Look at Ephesians 2 .5, even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive. He made us alive together with Christ. There is that repetition, that emphatic repetition. By grace you have been saved.

Did you know Paul when he wrote the epistles used the word grace, charis, twice as often as other New Testament writers did. Why would Paul do that? We don't really know, obviously God wanted him to do that.

But could it be that Paul was so wrapped up in a works righteousness be good, debtor system of Pharisees and in the Sanhedrin that Paul has been blown away by grace and he says, you know, I am going to be avid proponent.

It is by grace you are saved and even when it comes to the word order. Here's what the word order is in the original to make sure it's front loaded so no one missed it. He could have said, if you look at your Bible, you're saved by grace.

No. By grace you are saved so you will be reminded. Grace is unmerited, demerited favor and action. It's generous, it's unselfish. It is something that princes give to paupers. Not the other way around.

It's not saved by grace but it's by grace you have been saved. When you work you get a wage, when you compete you get a prize. When you do something good you get an award. But when you can't run, you can't work.

You can't earn anything and God still gives it to you anyway. That's what grace is called. And did you see all the passages here in Ephesians 2, verse 8. All the words rather and phrases. You have been saved.

It's passive, we receive salvation and we don't co-sponsor it with God. God did it to you. Salvation is not do, do, do. Salvation is done, done, done. That's exactly right. It is His grace, His initiative, His energy His mercy, His son, His eternal decree.

That saves. And then do you notice, if those of you don't think we need words that are important. It says we are saved. What. Because of faith or through faith. If you are saved because of faith. Then you have something that you've earned.

God saved you because you believed. I have a friend, his name is Scott. And Scott and I grew up together. Scott and I are the same age. Scott and I worked together. We rode motorcycles together. We went kayaking together.

We did everything together. And Scott since shaved. Several years ago I saw Scott and he had a large beard. Down to about here, bald guy. Struggling with alcohol. And he had kind of a WWF nickname. And they called him the Anvil.

Because he just looked like this rough and tough guy. Child out of wedlock, etc, etc, etc. What is the difference between my friend Scott and me. I'm better, I was smarter. I did things, I could understand things better.

And I went to school. What's the difference between Scott and Mike. There's no difference except what. It's the absolute grace of God. I came up with my faith on judgment day. God, here's my faith. You're so lucky to have me believe in you.

I just did you a favor. I know you did it for everybody else. And Scott said no to you and yes to sin. But I just said yes, I believe. I had to believe, we'll get to that in a minute. But I'm trying to force the issue here.

To say it is not faith that saves you. As the causing agent. Do you see the text again in Ephesians. You're saved through faith. What's the cause, God and his grace. The instrument may be faith. But the instrument is not saving.

Those of you that want to study the Greek instrumental of means. You will find out that this is not the procuring ground. Our cause. Or let's put it this way. God, let's just transfer ourselves back to the Red Sea.

We're on the other side of the Red Sea. Remember on this side of the Red Sea. Mountain here, mountain here, Pharaoh's chariots here. And the Red Sea there. And Moses says something brilliant. He says start paddling everybody.

No, he said you stand back. I've got news for you Israel. Be quiet and you watch God save. He opens it up. And it was not a little trickle kind of a line, single file. Because it was in one night watch.

And to go through single file on a night watch. They'd still be going through right now, two million people. It had to be at least a mile to three quarters to one mile wide. So they could get everybody across in one night shift.

And on the other side. Everybody sang the song of redemption Exodus 15. God, thank you for opening up the Red Sea. Thank you for stopping Pharaoh. Thank you for drowning all these people. Thank you that it was dry land.

But God, we are on the other side of the Red Sea. Because we walked. Sounds stupid to you? What is the difference? Peter just said yeah it does. What is the difference? The reason why I'm saved is because I believed in my own power.

And they didn't. Faith is a gift. It is not a quality, virtue or faculty That man can produce by himself. Robert Raymond who preached here just weeks ago Said faith Is a divinely effected human response.

To God's effectual summons. I like what the Westminster Shorter Catechism for children would teach. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace. Faith is a grace that God gives. It's not the ground on which salvation is bestowed Says another.

When God looks down the corridors of time to see who would believe. Do you know what he sees? He sees Ephesians 2, verse 1, dead. Ephesians 2, verse 2, sons of disobedience. He sees Ephesians 2, verse 3, children of wrath.

But then God does something incredible. Amazingly through the words of Charles Wesley He describes salvation like this. Long my imprisoned spirit lay. Fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray.

I woke, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth and followed Thee. Do you believe this sentence? Two sentences. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above.

Coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation. Or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth. So that we would be kind of a first fruits among His creatures.

Do you believe those two verses? Do you believe those two sentences? I gave it away. You know what their verses are because Lewis read those. Does God bring us forth In such a gracious way that it includes faith?

He has to. Let me read to you Acts chapter 18, verse 27. And when He wanted to go across to Achaia The brethren encouraged Him and wrote to His disciples to welcome Him. And when He had arrived He helped greatly those who had believed.

Through grace. Did you get that? You believe through grace. You don't believe on your own. Let me prove it to you with one other passage. 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 1. If you'll turn there. You say well you're preaching to the choir.

I know I am and I love it. Last week was the first week in 13 years on a weekly preaching basis. I didn't get to preach. So I've got two sermons boil up in me. 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 1. Sometimes we race by these verses because after all it's only an introduction.

But the grace of God found even in the introduction. 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 1. Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ. To those who have received. What? A faith of the same kind as ours.

The people that have saving faith. The kind of faith that Peter says. Lord my God. I believe in you. My Lord my God. That is a faith that has been received. Faith is a gift. Charles Spurgeon said it is not thy hold on Christ that saves thee.

It is Christ. It is not thy joy in Christ that saves thee. It is Christ. It is not even thy faith though that be the instrument. It is Christ's blood and merit. Do you believe faith is a gift? Question number 2.

Do you believe that Christ primarily saves. Or that faith primarily saves? Question number 2. Do you believe that Christ primarily saves or your faith primarily saves? Let's go back to Ephesians chapter 2 for a minute.

Maybe you're still there. Ephesians 2, what is the cause of our salvation? If it's not faith, if faith is a gift then what is the cause? What is the causal force? Who is the causal force? And I love it that Paul in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4 tells us.

As Lloyd-Jones would call one of the great butts of all the Bible. If this word were and we would be in big trouble. If this word were therefore we'd be in bigger trouble. After chapter 2 verses 1, 2 and 3.

The state of man without God. And in his justice and in his righteousness he could say. Therefore I let them alone like Ephraim. Therefore I punish them like Sodom. But for us, his children, it is absolutely amazing to me.

It says there, not the first word but. And therefore, it doesn't say and or therefore It says but God. Here comes God on his white charger, stallion. Being rich in mercy. Do you want to know why anyone is ever saved?

Here's the cause, this is not anything except the director. The causer, the actor. Because of his great love with which he loved us. The cause of your salvation is not your faith, it is God himself. This is a different kind of construction to indicate cause.

It is not faith per se that saves. It is Christ who saves. Faith is active, no, faith is passive. Where there is faith, you know the grace of God has already trod. Faith is not a saving work. The Puritan Thomas Hooker said God justifies the believing man not for the worthiness of his belief.

But for the worthiness of him in whom he believes. If you think that you can come up with your own faith. You believe in a different religion. It is very prominent in this area. Let's keep going, let's keep building.

I like these questions. By the way, the other day I thought I should send my resume. And now that I got my doctorate to Quinn Sigmund and Worcester State. And Clark and some of these other schools. And asked them if I could teach their comparative religions class.

Are there Christianity as history or Christianity as literature class. And I could go in and just say I'd love to do that. These are the different genres and everything else. And then I will have an agenda.

And they won't even know it. And I can ask questions, true or false, yes or no. And then I was too sick to even get out of bed. I just kept laying there thinking Richard Baxter when he was dying. He said to him, how do you feel?

He said, almost well. Boy, we are frail creatures, aren't we? If I live to be 30 more years old or one more year old I want to guard the glory of God. I want to get into the recesses of your brain. Where you think somehow, I know it's grace.

I say grace, it's by grace I've been saved. But I think I'm the one that came up with my faith. You didn't, and I think if you think you did. You are giving less glory to God than you should. Question number three.

Question number one, is faith a gift of God? Do you think Christ saves or faith saves primarily? And number three, talked about a little bit already. Do you believe faith is the consequence or cause of salvation?

Is faith the consequence or cause? Is it active or passive in other words? Well, if you look at Ephesians 2 verse 8. You've been saved by grace, not because of faith, but through faith. And that not of yourselves.

Now this gets very complicated, but make it as easy as I can. Grace and faith, do you see those two words there? Grace and faith are feminine. That or this is neuter. And you've got to have the neuter match up with something that's neuter.

Our feminine match up with feminine, but the neuter and the feminine don't match up. Well, what do you do? What is this? Or what is that? You've been saved by grace through faith. And that, referring to grace, no.

Referring to faith, no. But referring to all of salvation, everything, grace through faith, salvation. Did not come from you, whether it's faith, whether it's election. No matter what it is, it didn't come from you.

How do I know that? Because it says right there. It's the gift of God. Why does God do it? Because He renders the glory for Him. Actually, it's very interesting there towards the end of verse 8. Literally it says, of God the gift.

For force, for emphasis. Salvation through grace, faith, it's all of God. Your salvation is determined by God. Through the merits of Christ Jesus' life and death. Confirmed by the resurrection. And God gives you the grace to believe.

You say, well, I already get that. You've nailed that a lot of different ways. But don't you have to believe, pastor? Question number 4. By the way, if you're looking for answers. Question number 1, do you believe saving faith is a gift?

Yes. Number 2, do you believe Christ primarily saves. Or that faith primarily saves, Christ saves. I guess I said they were going to be yes or no questions. But right or wrong questions. Do you believe that faith is the consequence of salvation or the cause?

It is the consequence. And number 4, listen. Do you believe that saving faith is commanded? Should you go around telling people to believe? By the way, if you just thought I was going to pass out right there, I wasn't.

Long ago I had surgery in both of my feet. And I don't have wide feet anymore. And so I very often can't balance very well. So I just was standing here like this and I started to lose my balance. I thought, Scott Ferret is going to rush up here to give me CPR.

It was just my 5th metatarsal, pal. Do we tell people you have to believe? Let's think about it. If faith is a gift. Then what are we going around doing? Man, believe, repent. Believe the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved.

It is absolutely true. Saving faith is commanded. Man must fully and freely and obediently Respond to salvation with saving faith. God doesn't believe for the person. I can make that easy. Does God repent for the person?

Does God have anything to repent from? God does not believe for you, God does not repent for you. But He changes your nature and that new nature says I freely repent and believe. Try to take a lion. And you try to give that lion oatmeal.

Give that lion Weight Watcher oatmeal. That doesn't have much sugar in it. And pour some brown sugar in there. Starve the lion or the tiger a few more days. You can do whatever you want if you want to give that thing.

A salad, chef's salad. It might lick a few of those things off the top. But lions and tigers are what? Herbivores? No. They are carnivores, carne. Meat, they eat meat. Why does a lion eat meat? Why won't it eat broccoli?

It won't eat broccoli. Now is about the time you should get me off the pulpit. You can pour a bunch of cheese goo on the broccoli too. It doesn't have it in its nature. Its nature doesn't like that. And so unbelievers have a nature that are opposed to God.

And God as we learned two weeks ago Freely and sovereignly and graciously Gives people a new nature. And he turns the lion Into a lamb. That lamb then does what lambs do. If that lion was turned into something that would eat salads.

Turned into a human, it would freely eat it. God's not there taking that lion's face. When he changes the lion into something else. And forcing it into its food like you're going to eat or else. You train a dog and a dog does something bad.

And you go put the dog's face up into it. That's not what God's doing. God's not taking us around like the old caveman parodies. Where there's some kind of caveman og. And og is going around with the long hair of his wife.

Dragging her off some place. One man said when Daryl Gates used to bust into the L .A. crack houses. With these tank like SWAT team devices. And it would just knock the door down and they would take out the criminals.

That that was like what God did in salvation. God doesn't need to do that because God says I know your heart is a fortress but I'm going to give you a new heart. And new disposition and new affections and new likes.

And new dislikes and you're going to be a new person. And what does that new person do? God I now love you, I believe in you. I'll follow you. Command to believe, yes. And they must. And the spirit and the bride says, Revelation 22, 17 Come Jesus said now on the last day, the great day of the feast.

The Bible says Jesus stood and cried out saying If any man is thirsty let him come to me and drink. The examples are numerous. Now here comes one of the things that when I was taught it so helped me. Faith is both a gift and faith is a command.

Repentance is both a gift and a command. Did you get that? How can that be? How can Jesus be fully God and fully man? How can Paul write the Bible fully inspired? There's all kinds of questions but I think this will help.

Not only is faith a command but it's a gift. Let me ask you this question, before the fall, before sin Adam was responsible to till the garden, to subdue the earth. To be fruitful and multiply, etc. Was Adam responsible?

Yes. Before the fall was Adam able to do all those things? Name animals, whatever he was given to do before the fall. He could do. What happened after the fall? Was Adam able to do that anymore? Let me ask you this question.

After the fall was Adam still responsible to do the things that God commanded him to do? That seems kind of bad of God to do, isn't it? Change his program after somebody else sins? No, God says here's my righteousness, here's my holiness.

Here's my will, here's my decree. You were responsible before the fall and you're responsible after the fall. But before the fall you were able to do it. After the fall you are no longer able to do it.

Therefore man is responsible to repent and believe. It's a command. But men and women can't believe. Therefore it's a what? It's a gift. Saving faith is not only a command but it's also a gift. And that is why we need the second Adam, isn't it?

Who believes. Well, he didn't have to believe but perfectly obeyed. If you can remember this, faith is a gift and faith is a command. Now you meet somebody on the street and you're preaching the gospel to them.

What do you do? Do you do anything? Do you need to do anything? Do you need to say, well, I know my pastor just said it's a command. But it's a gift and I don't know. No, you just keep preaching. It's for you, the evangelist, to know.

I know it is a command. Repent, turn, trust, follow, believe. We beg you, we beseech you, you must believe in the Savior. But knowing the whole time unless God grants them the gift. They never will. Your job is to preach that salvation is a gift of God including repentance and faith.

But you are still to tell them. The king has a decree, worship him. You are telling dead people, spiritually dead people. To rise up and live. It's just like Lazarus. It doesn't make sense almost. There's Jesus, Lazarus rise forth.

He never died, would rise forth at the power of God's command. He is unable but he is still responsible. Faith is not only a gift, it's a command. You say, okay, I get that. We tell people to believe.

We need to keep going, we're running out of time. We're going to skip ahead. Question number five. Do you believe saving faith is more than just intellectual? Do you believe that saving faith is more than just intellectual?

Let's turn our Bibles to John 1. We're going to go through this kind of speed verse of John. And I want to show you that faith is more than intellectual. Sometimes I call it intellectual, emotional and volitional.

Today we'll use what the reformers talked about which is Notitia, a census and fiducia. You say, well, what are those? We'll learn as we go. I want to just show you that saving faith Is something so great that it would take God to do it in you.

For you to come up with this on your own Notitia is basically knowledge, facts, creed. Data, information. And there's a way in Greek to put this together. And I said John 1, let's go to John chapter 8.

I want to show you lots of times that Jesus called people to believe In Him that He did something. And it's just a fact about Jesus. John chapter 8, verse 24. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins.

For unless you believe that I am He, that I am the Messiah. You will die in your sins. Chapter 11 of John. Again, these are all constructions of the original language that show That there is a propositional truth.

A right or wrong statement that has to be the content of saving faith. The data, the information. John 11, verse 42. I knew that you always hear me because of the people standing around. I said it so that they may believe that.

Every one of these is a believe that. That you may believe that you sent me John 14, verse 11. Again, just quickly trying to show you these believe that's John 14, verse 11. Believe me that I am in the Father and in the Father is in me.

Otherwise believe because of works themselves. The believe that's in the Greek, it's not here in the English. But these are statements, John 16, verse 27. That show there's a truth to be believed. It is a lie to think I just believe in belief.

I have faith in faith, I'm very spiritual you know. Well, what do you believe in? Spirituality? No, these are truths about God that you have to believe in. In other words, can you be saved not knowing that Jesus was a sacrificial substitute?

No, that's just a truth. John 16, verse 27. For the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came forth from the Father. There's a triune God. So there's an intellectual knowledge that needs to be believed in.

And then there's almost something that they would call an assent to that. It's factually true, but you would have a conviction that this is true. And there's a bunch of words in the gospel of John for that.

Let's go back to John 2 .22. This is a different construction. You say, well, why do I need all this Greek stuff? You don't really need to, I'm just trying to explain this. That there are some words in the Bible for believe that are believe in a truth.

And then there's to believe in a truth that you assent to. And there's a bunch of these in John, John 2 .22. So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this. And they believed the scriptures, they assented to that.