The Nature of Saving Faith

Providence Baptist Church

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now the second Sunday of the year I Cannot tell you what all this year will bring

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I can't even tell you what today will bring in the amount of Snowfall that we may or may get if you watch it one hour.

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We're gonna get one inch you watch another hour. We're gonna get 13 inches or whatever the case may be

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I made that last part up don't panic But I don't know what the future holds

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I don't know what's going to happen this fall in regards of the next president of the

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United States I don't know what will or won't happen with foreign countries though.

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The Lord is not pleased to reveal these things to us But there is something he has revealed.

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There is something I do know there is something So sure we could take to the bank.

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In fact more sure than tomorrow sunrise Christ is building his church

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And this is happening. I was overwhelmed today Listening to your voices as we

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Sang these songs we sang the God thing about that. Who are we?

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That God is building his church here in Central Arkansas and turning your

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Bibles to Ephesians 6 What is God doing in the world today

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He's building his church in Ephesians 6 reminds us that God is building his church in enemy occupied territory and so His people must be clothed in Christ's armor

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What we've learned here is in the armor of God we have Sufficient weaponry to sustain to withstand the evil of our day and specifically the text talks about the devil himself the evil one himself and the forces of evil seeking to destroy the church

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So this morning we're brought to the fourth piece of Christian armor The shield of faith and I want to preach to you this morning on the nature of saving faith.

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We'll we'll get to that Ephesians chapter 6 would you stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word?

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Let's take this again as a whole so you don't forget Sometimes you can miss the force for the trees as it were

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We don't want to get so focused on one verse you forget the entire context. So let's start in verse 10

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Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might put on the whole armor of God That you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil

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But we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the cosmic powers

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Over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places

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Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand The evil one and having done all to stand to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm

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Stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth Now having put on the breastplate of righteousness and his shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace in all circumstances

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Take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one

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And take the helmet of salvation the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God Praying at all times in the

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Spirit with all prayer and supplication To that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the

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Saints and also For me that words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel

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For which I am an ambassador in chains that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak

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Father would you equip your church this morning? We want to be Clothed in the complete and full armor of Christ.

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We want to take up each piece of the armor We want to examine it appropriately and we want to put it on by faith.

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We want to trust Each aspect of the armor knowing that ultimately it points us to our blessed

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Savior We pray that you would protect us that you would be our shield at this church as you were

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Abraham's shield we pray that The unregenerate among us this morning would hear the gospel

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You'd bring them to faith in Christ by your sovereign power and mercy We pray the church would be edified and encouraged

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Lord, we're thankful that you are sovereign over the weather We know that this afternoon there will not be one snowflake fall to any place upon this earth that is not under the power of your sovereign authority and we know

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That you do this Even for the good of your church For you work all things

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According to your purposes for the good of those who trust you who have been called according your purpose

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We rest in this increase our faith the Lord in Jesus name. Amen.

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You may be seated Christ is building his church and there is an enemy a great enemy of the church and sometimes we

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Forget we look right here now and we can think oh, it's that political party, right or it's that leader

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That's the great enemy of the church But this text reminds us that there is that is there's truth in that but this text reminds us behind those physical enemies of the church

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There stands a greater enemy the evil one himself and the powers of darkness

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Over this present darkness and so we've walked through each piece of the armor and here we come to verse 16

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Notice the language change just a little bit instead of put on its take up in all circumstances

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Take up the shield of faith. We move from now the foundational

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So this is kind of groups of three We move from the foundational pieces of armor the the belt of truth the breastplate of righteousness the shoes of readiness produced by the gospel of peace external pieces if you will and Now we have the shield of faith the helmet of salvation the sword of the

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Spirit verse 16 here functions as a command Take up the shield of faith some some translations say

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I believe the King James may say above all I don't want you to think that as that this means the shield of faith is like the most

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Important armor. I don't think that's what it's communicating I believe that The ESV gets the sense of it here.

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That is Don't forget about this arm like don't just put on the foundational pieces of armor the belt of truth the breastplate of righteousness the

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Prepared shoes and then forget about these other things You also need to remember the shield of faith or as the

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ESV translates it here in all circumstances now, I like that Just because it is a helpful reminder

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That is there's not a circumstance in your life that you don't need the shield of faith

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When the Sun is shining when everything is going right you need the shield of faith

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When dark clouds are on the horizon or you're caught in a snowstorm Whatever the case may be

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You need the shield Ready, why? Good times bad times all circumstances.

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Why? We have an enemy in all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of The evil one now

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I think maybe some translations might say evil, but the idea is there's the article there.

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It doesn't just mean evil It's means the devil the evil

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One and notice it says there in verse 16 All circumstances, but also there all the flaming darts, which

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I know Flaming darts, right? That's not a great translation because Flaming dart may not sound all that intimidating to you

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But don't think in your mind about like a dart board Where you're throwing darts at a dart board the

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Greek word is the idea of sharp projectile so arrows, right? They are arrows and they're not just arrows

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They're arrows on fire In all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming

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Arrows, right? This is a physical metaphor for a spiritual reality

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Satan is shooting flaming arrows at the church this is serious

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It is the shield of faith That protects us the text says from all the flaming

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Arrows now think about that for just a moment because Satan is crafty He doesn't just shoot one arrow right like like the guy to shoot one arrow and it's just always hitting the shield

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No, no, sometimes he shoots arrows at our hands Sometimes he shoots arrows at our feet

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Sometimes he aims his arrow at our heart. Sometimes he aims his arrows at our head and don't you dare?

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Turn your back on him, right because he's not afraid to shoot you in the back

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Arrows are Not only a serious weapon remember physical

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Analogy here for a spiritual reality But arrows are not just a serious weapon

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But if you think about arrows, they remind us that Satan doesn't have to be near you if you will to deal you a serious

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Injury he can shoot arrows close. He can also shoot arrows far away

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I don't know if you know about the man named Chris Kyle. It's a

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Fascinating story. He is the one that the movie American sniper is about he wrote a book

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He wants he was tragically killed not to ruin the story, but he was tragically killed

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That's a different story, but he was an amazing sniper in the u .s. Army. He once killed an enemy 21 football fields away with a sniper 2 ,100 yards one point two miles or almost two kilometers

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McConnell couldn't even shoot a deer that far away But Satan Can shoot at the church from even farther if you will spiritually speaking

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What do I mean by that? I mean you may think everything's okay. There's not a cloud in the sky The church is in unity.

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The church is great. The marriage is great. The marriage is wonderful The kids are great.

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Everything is going well, and if you are not prepared Here comes a flaming arrow the arrows of doubt the arrows of temptation to disobedience the arrows of Division Satan can attack from near and he can attack from far thus the church is to be arrayed in her full armor including here

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The shield of faith in all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one this word for shield is

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The big shield of the Roman soldiers. So you have in your mind. It's not like the little shield. It's the big one

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Four feet high two feet wide. It's big enough to protect the church from every arrow of Satan It's sufficient for our battle

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In fact, John says it this way first John 5 for for everyone who has been born of God Overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world faith

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Now we're going to get to an outline in just a moment But as I was thinking about this text something else

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I thought about was Maybe there are some among us who don't really see such a need for this shield of faith

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So you hear these things I'm talking about and in you give a nod to the importance of faith

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But as far as daily battle goes you're like this doesn't seem that important to me. Well, why is that it's because perhaps

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Those behind the battle those back at camp if you will don't see much use for a shield so maybe you think you know what this isn't me you guys go fight the enemy and We're just gonna hang back here while the rest of the church engages in battle

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But I remind you this morning that this text Ephesians 6 10 through 20. It's for the whole church

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This is not for specific individuals within the church. You guys fight the battle you go

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Hey, you know what next business meeting. Let's appoint a soldiers committee And assault the soldiers committee will fight our battles for us and the rest of us will just go about our lives

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No This is for the entire church There is the church militant and the church triumphant if you're in heaven.

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So look around real quick. Check your pulse Are you in heaven? No, if you're in heaven, you're the church triumphant But if you're here on earth today, and I assure you you are

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You are the church Militant you need this text.

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Let me just offer a warning if you read this text You have zero hunger for its application.

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You see no Necessity to its command you could take it or leave it. You're in a very dangerous

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Spiritual state maybe Satan's not shooting at you Because you're on his side consider

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But what we want to do in this sermon is consider The word faith for a moment.

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This is after all the shield of Faith this Greek word just means

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Trust or believe it's used some 600 times in the New Testament The faith is quite an important concept of Christianity The text says that we're to take up the shield of faith

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Sometimes faith is used to mean like the whole body of belief in Christianity so for example if you think about in the book of Jude we are to to contend for the faith and If that was what

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Paul meant here then it would mean that we're to the shield would be doctrine doctrine shields us what there's some truth in that, you know, but Really?

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We've already covered that in the belt of truth. So Paul is not talking about doctrine by faith rather he means the faith of believers personal faith of believers by trusting in what

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Christ has done by by trusting in the promises of God by looking to God and Reminding ourselves and being reminded from one another and in his word that he is our good father by depending on The the power of the

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Spirit in these ways and more as we'll look we disarm Satan We the text says it this way we extinguish in all certain circumstances.

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Take up the shield of faith, which which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one

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So historians say they would dip their shields in in water sometimes

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So like when the arrow hit this the shield it would be put out it would be harmless That's the analogy

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Paul is bringing to our minds the faith of the Saints extinguishes the fire of Satan but as we will see

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That's not because of our great faith or whatever. It's because the object of our faith is

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Christ. I Think there are some themes in Ephesians That Paul has developed in in context that the church

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Particularly should trust when it comes to spiritual warfare And to help us extinguish his fiery arrows, and that's just a preview for next week

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We're gonna look at that more next week. But today I want to look at the nature of saving faith

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You know why we want to look at saving faith. Well, I have two reasons for that First it is the nature of saving faith that that indeed does help us

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Extinguish these fiery arrows So I'll just so just know this up front there are so many arrows of Satan that would be extinguished if we would just stop looking at ourselves and would look to Christ and be

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Reminded of Christ and and quit looking so much inwardly and we would look outwardly to the

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Lord Jesus in his saving work and away from self, but There's a second reason for looking at the nature of saving faith and That is any aspect of faith that goes beyond saving faith.

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So I'm going to give you an example for next week next week we're going to contemplate

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That the church ought to believe in the church's success. The church is victory

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I think Paul has developed this in Ephesians and we'll talk about that more why next week, but When we trust the success of the church that that God's plan is the church

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It does help us extinguish Satan's arrows But that's not the same like while trusting believing in the church's final victory.

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It's not the same as trusting Christ for salvation Of course, it's not but it still flows from the root of Saving faith.

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So let me put it more theologically connect this here the substance of justifying faith and Sanctifying faith is the same

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The substance and their object is the same Christ They just have different applications.

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So justifying faith Rests on Christ alone for forgiveness of sins and imputed righteousness sanctifying faith

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Produces an eager joy in the believer to pursue Jesus to follow him to do what he's told us

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So faith working through love, that's Galatians 5 6 that's sanctifying faith so we

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Distinguish rightly so if you don't if you don't keep justification and sanctification

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Distinct you will ultimately lose the gospel But it's important to note that the substance of faith is

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Is the same biblical faith is is faith that is you don't have? Faith doesn't change into something else, right?

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So what I'm trying to say to get us into the outline is Understanding saving faith better Will help us be better prepared for more specific application of this text next week

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Okay, so maybe for some of you that was boring aspect there, but it's important to have these things distinguished

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So let's get into our outline. So number one. I want to explore what saving faith is not so verse 16 in all circumstances take up the shield of Faith we're trying to understand here the substance of faith so that we can rightly apply

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Paul's command to the church That is this shield is made up of faith.

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Okay. So what is faith? That's what we're trying to talk about and understand so we'll start by saying what faith is not number one

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Saving faith is not mere factual faith

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Saving faith is not mere factual faith Notice I said mere because saving faith is factual right and it's not the suspension of reason

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It's not like well, you got a okay if you really want to believe you see that wall.

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It's white Okay, it's red That's what you got to believe. No, that would be the suspension of reason, right?

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We're not talking about abandoning reason We're just saying that saving faith is more than mere facts

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How about I illustrate it with the Bible in Luke 4 24 a demon says this to Jesus.

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So listen carefully this Ha What have you to do with us?

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Jesus of Nazareth. Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are the

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Holy One of God Now there are a lot of facts in that statement.

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In fact, there are more facts in that statement than some professing

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Christians can articulate This demon knows that Jesus is from Nazareth.

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He knows the Sovereign power Jesus has over the demonic realm.

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He knows that Jesus is the Holy He says I know who you are and yet This is not saving faith

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James says even the demons know there is one God and tremble knowing the facts of the gospel is not faith

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To saving faith is not temporary faith The shield of faith in our text is not made out of temporary material

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Judas had a temporary faith, but it ultimately showed itself to be a false faith in the parable of the sower

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Jesus teaches of professing Christians who leave the faith either Persecution is too much for them or the cares of the world are too much for them

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Their faith is only temporary because it was never genuine. So we're not talking about people who

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Were born again, and then became unborn again. They became saved and then they became unsaved No, they had a temporary profession of Christ and then they fell away

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Thirdly so saving faith is not merely factual and it's not temporary

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Thirdly saving faith is not circumstantial faith for this one I want you all to see it yourself in the scripture.

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So turn to John chapter 2. This is right before And I think not by accident obviously

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John chapter 2 This is right before John 3 and the encounter of Jesus and Nicodemus, but I want you to see the language yourself

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So I'm just gonna read the last three verses. In fact, I'll say this if We were redoing, you know, the chapters and verses came later

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In the Bible so the chapters and verses aren't inspired So if we were ever going to redo the chapters and verses

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I actually think chapter 3 of John should start in verse 23 of John 2

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God think it all goes together It makes the point This is why you need to be born again But verse 23

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John 2 now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast many believed in his name

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Many Believed in his name now if this was a typical

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Southern Baptist scenario, we'd be baptizing these folks, right? They believed in Jesus Listen what the text says

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They believed in his name why when they saw the signs that he was doing

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Okay, but how do I know this was false belief verse 24? But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them

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Because he knew all people and he needed no one to bear witness about man for he himself knew

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What was in? man You understand this word belief in our text.

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It's the same word for our for our Word for faith. It's just it's the same idea here.

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They they believed on Jesus the problem is it wasn't real belief.

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It wasn't saving faith It was a faith a circumstantial faith. It was based on Circumstances it was based on this miracle.

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So they're like, okay Jesus you did a miracle Wow I believe that do some more.

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Hey Jesus keep on doing good things for my life Keep increasing my finances keep blessing me keep my belly and my bank account full

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These are the things you're doing Jesus. Yeah, I'll believe in you false faith

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Saving faith is not based on mere circumstance. So that's what saving faith is Not secondly what saving faith is so the text says

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I'm back in Ephesians 6 in all circumstances Take up the shield of faith. So what is this made out of them?

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What is this shield of faith? What is faith? Historically Saving faith has been understood to have three components and you there's

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Latin phrases and all that weird We don't have to dig into that this morning. Not that it's not important What I'm going to do is

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I've put it into a language that we can understand right here But what you need to know is that all three of these components are necessary for faith to be saving faith

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Some of you need to hear these and you need to consider is The faith that I possess saving faith, or is it do

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I just have a factual faith? Do I just have a temporary faith? Do I just have a circumstantial faith?

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Well, how do I know? well one way we can know is all three components of saving faith are

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Necessary for it to be saving faith so you can check this yourself So the first is saving faith requires number one content

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When Paul says take up the shield of faith He's not saying here that what you need what the shield of faith is is just faith in faith

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That's that's not what he's saying or or or worse just faith in anything. This is what our culture says today

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It doesn't matter what you believe But what you just got to believe in something right

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I believe in leprechauns I believe in socialism, right? No, they're both fanciful by the way, both equally as fanciful

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It's not just faith in faith It's not just faith and whatever you want it to be in its faith in Christ All other shields of faith and whatever will crumble

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So if it's faith in Christ that means saving faith so the point requires content there are

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Saving faith is not merely factual however There are facts to be known

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So when we go preach the gospel We do not go and say believe have faith trust

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Because I want to be careful here hear me out those words are meaningless Separated from content you understand

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When we go door -to -door We often ask people this question. What is the gospel?

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Sadly a lot of people get this wrong They say the gospel is God's love or the gospel is the Bible the gospel is the good news

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When you say the gospel is the good news, you're not actually saying anything you're just giving a synonym for the gospel, right?

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You're not actually articulating that What I'm arguing here is if we do not know the content of the gospel

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We cannot be saved saving faith is more than facts But it's it's not like you have to understand the facts

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What are the facts mankind is made in the image of God through Adams? Rebellion all mankind is now born in sin and misery and shame and we stand guilty before God Because of our fallenness in Adam and our own rebellion against him

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Our sin has has left us in a terrible state whereby we do not desire

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God It left to mankind. There is nothing within ourselves that would remedy the situation

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Oh people make up ways to get to God, right? Well, I'll do these five pillars of Islam or I'll I'll go to Roman Catholic mass

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I'll do these things and I'll find a way to get to God. No, no, but we just it's just idolatry

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We've rejected the true God and we've invented gods in our minds So left ourselves nothing we would do but God Two of the greatest words in the

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Bible God sent forth his only begotten Son The Lord Jesus that we read about this morning in confession truly

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God truly man Born of the Virgin Mary. He is the last

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Adam the better Adam where Adam failed He succeeded where Israel failed.

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He succeeded where you have failed. He succeeded He procured righteousness for his people through his perfect obedience to the law of God He fulfilled the laws demands both in his life and in his death for lawbreakers like you and I He bore

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God's righteous punishment by substituting himself in the place of sinners on the cross

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And then he rose again He resurrected from the dead in victory

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Securing justification for every soul that will trust him by faith Repenting of their sins and resting in Jesus alone as their only suitable and all -sufficient

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Savior Church That's the facts of the gospel There's no saving faith apart from content

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But that's not all If I passed you out an exam It said give me the facts of the gospel and you could give me the facts of the gospel that doesn't mean you're a

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Christian You could give me the facts of Islam that doesn't make you a

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Muslim So secondly, not only must there be content there must be conviction now

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I Don't mean conviction of sin though. There isn't, you know conviction of sin

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Necessary, of course, but but what I mean here is A conviction that these facts are true

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So there is the content. I know the facts there's conviction. I believe

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Conviction is true. Let me give you some content real quick. There once was a little girl.

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She had a beautiful red hood, I guess and she wore it one day

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To go visit her grandmother When she got to her grandmother's house a

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Wolf had actually unbeknownst to her eating her grandmother morbid. It's a child story and was sitting there and Pretended to be her grandma and little red riding hood.

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She's smart little girl, but Something's off here with grandma The wolf tells her to come a little bit closer a little bit closer and then he eats little red riding

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Now if the story isn't morbid enough a lumberjack comes in and chops the wolf in half and Rescues the grandmother and little red riding hood what

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I've just given you is With some I'm sure miss some points there. I've given you the content of little red riding hood

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You don't believe that's true, right? I hope I didn't spoil that for anybody. It's not true. It's a fairy tale

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That's the content there's no conviction that it's true I can articulate what the facts are

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But I don't believe that they're true. I can do that with Islam. I can give you the five pillars of Islam I don't believe it's true.

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I don't believe Buddhism is true or Mormonism or job, I don't believe it's true.

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So there's content there's conviction It's possible to know the content of the Christian faith without having conviction.

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It's true Now here's the third one saving faith requires content and conviction and then thirdly closure

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The object of saving faith is Christ it is Leaning on Christ it is resting our whole selves upon Christ now it is possible to know the content of the gospel and To believe that these facts are true and yet never close with Christ.

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Here's one example I'll give you verse 16 in all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the

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Evil one. So just here's my Here's my analogy for you. Does the devil know the content of the gospel?

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Yes, does he believe it's true. He saw it, right? Does he go to God for mercy of course not he rages against him now

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I'm not saying that angels or fallen angels can be saved. I'm not saying that I'm just using that as an analogy

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That theoretically it's possible to know the facts of the gospel to believe what the preacher is saying and not going to Christ in saving faith

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Closure with Christ is turning away from dependence on self and anything else and it's willfully

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Listen to this willfully trusting in King Jesus as our

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Savior John Owen says this without an act of the will No one can believe as he as he ought there is a volitional willful choosing response to the gospel that you must make if you hear us say if You hear us say well

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Salvation is a gift. It's all of grace and we talk about these big theological terms like election or predestination and what you hear us saying is you just sit over there in your corner and you're just You know if God zaps you you'll be saved and he does it you won't

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I Think you misunderstand You need to understand that you will be

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Cast off into the lake of fire Unless you choose

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Christ This is not just believing you're a sinner This is not just believing

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Jesus is Savior. That's mental ascent This is believing those things and then casting yourself upon Christ mercy

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William Grinnell writes the person who knows the truth only Intellectually without clinging to it does not believe

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Savingly and this is where I put a lot of people in the Bible Belt today They know well

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You'd be surprised a lot of them don't know the content of the gospel. Well, let's just use this They know the content of the gospel.

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They have a conviction that it's true, but they do not cling to it

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They've never had true closure with Christ Think about that for just a moment church

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How terrible to go to hell with these first two aspects of faith, but having never closed with Christ Francis Turreton describes the third aspect disclosure of Saving faith like this.

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He says in this aspect of faith We judge the gospel to be not only true

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But also good and therefore most worthy of our love and desire also the promises of grace to be most certain concerning the remission of sins and the bestowal of Salvation upon all believers and penitents and so also upon me if I shall believe and repent

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So this component of saving faith includes abandonment of all other schemes for atonement

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It leaves off all works. It leaves off all other faulty avenues and it goes completely and wholly to Christ alone in Trusting ourselves to Christ.

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It's falling off the ledge and I know Jesus is gonna catch me because I'm putting it all on him

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It sees the blood flowing from Calvary and Knows that it is my only plea and that Jesus is not just a good wonderful Savior but that he will be my savior if I come to him and Trust him and give my life to him

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Content conviction closure That is the nature of saving faith

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Without this there is no shield to defend from these fiery darts.

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In fact There is no shield to protect you from a greater problem Let's say this

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In all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one that may make

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You think that the greatest enemy of mankind is Satan But a more terrible enemy of mankind is our trying

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God Try him try Rebelling against him to the end and See What your eternity has in store

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If if you don't Have the shield of faith. Not only are you not protected from the evil one?

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There's nothing standing between you and God's wrath Because Christ does not stand in your place because you have not trusted him

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So before moving to our last point, let me issue an invitation Believe Believe Will you give your life to this like like quit?

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Quit saying yeah. Yeah, I know I understand the gospel I know it's true, but I'm gonna later later tomorrow when

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I get older Huh, maybe on my deathbed then I'll close then I'll trust

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Christ right now. I see the bridge. I believe the bridge I know what the bridge does. I know if I were to cross the bridge it would hold me up But right now

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I got a lot of stuff to do on this side of the bridge quit it cross the bridge. The bridge is

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Christ believe trust him This day as they say a weak faith may hold lay hold of a strong Christ Don't just know the facts.

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Don't just believe they're true open your hands and receive from Christ his own person full atonement for your sins and a reconciliation with God All right, thirdly

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You can feel the plane beginning its descent why Faith and where does it come from in all circumstances take up the shield of faith?

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Okay, I Wanted a shield made of adamantium The nerds get that one that's the

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That's the stuff that you know Wolverine's claws are made out of it's a made up. It's made up like but I want

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I Want a shield of that right? I want a tank But instead it's like I got this little the red and yellow tykes car, you know the little tykes car

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I Got faith that's my shield It's so weak

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Yet we're saved by faith so that all boasting goes to God That's the argument

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Ephesians 2 8 9 for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of yourself

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It is a gift of God so that no one may boast That's why faith is a gift from God It's it's not something you muster up and decide to enact one day

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Yes, faith is an act of the will in response to the gift of God. It is a gift of sovereign grace

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No one has ever believed on Christ through their own effort or their own reason

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It's only by God's gracious gift and in all of this God gets the glory for the salvation of sinners because You're not justified by your obedience

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You are not justified by your love for God. You are not justified by your worship

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You are not justified by your sanctification the only instrument of justification is faith

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Faith alone in Christ alone this faith

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Produces Obedience it produces love it produces worship

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In fact, you're foolish this morning if you believe that you rest Savingly upon Jesus while living in disobedience to him while loving the world while why?

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worshiping idols True faith will always produce a holy allegiance to Christ Because it's united us to Christ by the

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Holy Spirit and vital union, but but listen closely to John Owen here It is not any other grace as love and the like nor any obedience

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That gives life and form to faith It is faith That gives life and efficacy unto all other graces and form unto all evangelical obedience so hear me our allegiance to Christ our

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Baptism our membership in a church our love for Christ None of these things are the instrument by which

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God justifies us None of these other things are the instruments by which

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God imputes the righteousness of his son upon our account that instrument is faith alone and That instrument is given as a gift

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If God were to justify us by our acts by our works by our good deeds

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We would have a ground for boasting if we could conjure up faith if faith was just like hey

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If you can make the right decision you can go to heaven then you could look at other people and say you know what?

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I ain't got a lot. I'm just a simple guy But at least I was smart enough to accept

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God's offer at least I had enough righteousness in me to know

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That I needed God but in faith and That as a gift of our sovereign and gracious God There is no grounds for boasting

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It is simply all glory be to God and It is this gift of faith that produces in us all

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The Christian acts that that flow from a life of faith

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It is this gift that ultimately helps defend the church against the fiery arrows of the evil one

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In fact, let me say it this way faith is a strong shield because God himself is our shield

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Genesis 15 Do you believe?

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If you are here without saving faith You're commanded now by God Most High to repent of your sins and to trust his son to abandon all else

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To see your sin to understand you've broken God's law See the work done in your place by Jesus and to come to him to trust him to repent and believe the gospel

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You are responsible Don't walk away without this you are responsible to God to believe

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You said well, I thought that was God's sovereign grace and prerogative and all that you let

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God handle what belongs to God and You understand that if you walk out of this room and you don't believe on Christ At the day of judgment, it won't be

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God's fault It's yours You're responsible So look to Christ and believe now

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For the church and then we we do land the plane the wheels have come out the landing gears ready

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But I have something else to say We have more that we need to consider next week but know this today a

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Church resting securely in the gospel by faith alone is by God's grace a mighty force

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In all circumstances take up the shield of faith With which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one

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You know this from the movies and from history and such in the Roman Army The strength of these shields it wasn't just on their own

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Okay on their own they could stop a fiery arrow on their own. They could provide protection but you know what was amazing about these shields is when the army came together and When they put the shields together

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They made a mighty and impenetrable fortress

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Church likewise This command of verse 16 is not just for individuals

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Your faith is personal, but it's not private We need to see your shield

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We need you to take up your shield to come up to the front lines to place your shield by our shield

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So that we can march forward together With these shields as we go on toward Zion that celestial city a

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Personal faith in Christ results in a public faith with the church whereby we stand

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Together we stand together I'm not gonna let the flaming arrow of the evil one hit me, but I'm not gonna let it hit my wife

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I'm not gonna let it hit Steve or Gunner or or Jacob or Alex or Jerry or her

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Charles I'm gonna do my best to be marching forward with the shield of faith Not just for my own personal benefit, but for the benefit of the church

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We need you To hold up the shield together all for the glory of the

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Lord Let believers here praise God for the gift of faith in our life

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Let us look again this morning to Christ our King and Savior and friend

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Trusting ourselves holy to him and let us never venture to Set down our shield

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But to always take it up That we may extinguish our enemies wicked schemes

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He does not have the final say and let us brothers and sisters

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Do this together for Christ is worthy of a healthy church

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Father we thank you for the armor that you give us in Christ and let us this day take up these pieces of armor by faith and March forward

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We pray that we would dust off the shield as it were take it up walk forward in faith together

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We pray for any unbeliever in this room. They've heard the gospel They've heard your kindness.

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Oh God extend to them sovereign mercy and may they even this day Choose Christ not just believing the facts