The Saving Faith of Abraham
Notes
Transcript
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
What was I going to preach on? Joe suggested I go basic and preach on “what it means to believe.”
Spoken to some of you recently about this
We are going to use Abraham as a kind of model for what the Bible says about what it means to believe.
And when I say “believe” I am talking about what the Bible says about believing God - about what it means to be, as we would say, a believer. What is the belief that makes a believer a true believer?
Christianese - “saving faith” is not a phrase found in the Bible - in fact, in our English Bibles the concepts of faith and salvation are joined together in surprisingly few passages in the Bible.
Luke 7 - Jesus eating at the home of a Pharisee, a woman comes in and starts kissing Jesus’ feet and she anoints His feet with ointment and when the Pharisee objects within himself Jesus talks about forgiveness and then tells the woman that her faith has saved her. He tells her that her faith saved her, because of what she did.
Eph 2:8-10 - (For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast).
But we usually stop there, and we shouldn’t because Paul doesn’t. He finishes his thought by saying (For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them).
We are saved by grace through faith - for works
In the book of James, we read that faith apart from works cannot save. It’s the point of the whole letter.
In 2 Timothy Paul says the Old Testament scriptures are able to make one wise for salvation through faith - why?
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Once again, we see that we are saved through faith for works.
In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus offers two opposite ends of the faith spectrum - there are those who are the seeds on the path. The devil takes the word from their hearts so that they may not, according to Jesus, “believe and be saved.” On the other end of the spectrum are those who believe and bear fruit.
There are other passages that I could point to. I just want us to realize that all over the New Testament: when we read of salvation through faith or belief, works are part of that.
And understand, in English we have two different words: faith and belief. They are the same in the Greek. Sometimes the same word is translated “faith,” sometimes “belief.” Sometimes the verb is translated “believe” and sometimes “have faith.”
Regardless, the point is that belief and faith are never spoken about without works being somehow part of the salvation that “faith” or “belief” results in.
Now, while I am not saying that works are required for salvation - because the Bible says they are not - what I am saying is that just “believing” in some abstract sense or as a mental ascent to certain truths is not what we’d call saving faith. Because the Bible says it is not.
Because works do not result in salvation, according to the Bible. But salvation always results in works, according to the Bible.
And the problem, as I see it, is that we have fallen into a trap in American Christianity thinking that “saved” simply means “saved from” going to hell. Saved from the righteous wrath of God.
But if that is all our salvation is, then it isn’t salvation according to the Bible.
Alex not understanding “when Lee was saved” - “what does that mean? When he started following Jesus?”
It would seem that she understands the Biblical idea of salvation better than many Christians. Because that is a great explanation of what “saving faith” is. It is following Jesus. It is faith that results in something. It is faith that does.
Because we are not just saved through faith from something - that’s very important, obviously - but we are also saved by faith unto something - and that is the primary focus of the New Testament when it talks about our salvation - what we are saved unto, not just saved from.
There is only true healing when you move towards something. Not when you just move away from something else.
anxiety - you can’t overcome anxiety until you move toward understanding and healing (I can take medication that save me from the anxiety, but I will always find myself right back where I was. That is not salvation)
if I break my leg, a good doctor isn’t going to give me pain medicine so I can leave the pain - it’s not about getting away from the bad. He’s going to set my leg to move me toward healing, toward restoration - toward permanent salvation from the bad.
We are not just saved from the wrath of God. From judgment. From punishment. If you want to be saved from these things just for the sake of avoiding them, you aren’t saved from them. You will always find yourself right back where you started.
We are saved unto Christ. It is our moving towards Him that moves us away from the judgment and the wrath. You are saved unto new life - it is the fact that we are reborn as something new that saves us from the death we deserve.
And when the New Testament talks about salvation, it talks about the fact that we are saved from the wrath of God, but then spends a lot of ink telling us about how we are being saved as we move more and more towards Christ and towards Christ-likeness as we live out this new life.
The Bible is written to believers to instruct us in how believers live. It doesn’t tell us how to avoid the wrath, first and foremost. It assumes we already have that salvation.
The Bible tells us what real faith does.
Bible does not teach Easy believism - say the sinner’s prayer, walk the aisle, raise my hand, “commit my life to Christ,” and you’re going to heaven, good game.
No. “Committing your life to Christ” is not a momentary decision. It is a lifetime commitment. It’s right there in the Christianese phrase “committing your life to Christ” - I can in a moment commit to lots of things.
I committed to serving in youth ministry this year. What if I don’t show up for any of the meetings? Was that a commitment?
I committed to my wife when we took our marriage vows. What if I never take care of her and I cheat on her all the time? Regardless of what I said or felt in that moment, did I commit?
How do I know if I am really committed? I’ll know when I’m doing what I committed to do.
And understand, I am not saying any of this to espouse one doctrinal system over another. I am saying this because too many Christians are so accustomed to the idea that somehow my commitment is just letting Christ save me. That I am simply “accepting” what He has to offer and now I am “saved.”
That isn’t what the Bible teaches. We can pull a few verses from Romans 10 out of context and think we’ve proved something - that we can simply confess with our mouth the Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead and we will be saved!
But the rest of that chapter, the rest of that book, and the rest of the Bible tell us what it means to believe this in our heart.
Please hear what I am not saying. I am not saying that we are saved by works. We cannot do anything to earn salvation from the just judgment of God. Christ did it for us because we can’t.
In that sense, salvation is not by works. The Bible is clear on that.
But neither is salvation by simply believing something. The Bible is clear on that.
Neither of those constitute what we’d call “saving faith.”
So how does the Bible describe true saving faith? Well, taking the whole of Scripture and the whole history of redemption, here is my stab at a definition of saving faith.
Saving Faith is believing God enough to live loyal to Him! (Repeat)
Believing Who He is. Believing what He has done. Believing what He will yet do - that He will keep every promise He has yet to keep because He has kept every other promise He has made!
But if we just “believe” it. If we know it up here (head) - that isn’t faith.
If we believe it in here (heart) and have an emotional reaction to hearing the Gospel or some really good songs and “commit” our lives to Christ - but our lives are not then committed to Christ - that isn’t faith.
That isn’t how the Bible talks about faith anywhere.
And we don’t get a simple definition of faith in the Bible. Peter doesn’t preach in Acts and say “here’s a definition of faith.” None of the writers defined their terms that simply.
The closest thing we get to a definition of faith is in the book of Hebrews:
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
But to understand what the writer is saying here, we need to go back a few verses to get the context.
The writer talks of Christ’s sacrifice, talks of how there needs to be no more offering for sin because of His sacrifice, he talks about how we are to draw near to Christ and hold fast to our confession of hope, how we cannot go on sinning if Christ is our sacrifice, and then he says:
For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
And then he offers this explanation of the faith he is talking about:
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Faith has two aspects here. It is the assurance of things hoped for, and it’s the conviction of things not seen.
Faith is being assured - begin confident - believing God - about everything He has told us in His Word. It is believing God about a whole lotta stuff that happened but we didn’t see. It is believing God about a whole lotta stuff that hasn’t happened yet and resting in the fact that we are confident that it will.
Furthermore, faith is itself the conviction - the evidence - the proof - of those things not seen. Of those things we are assured of based on nothing more than God’s Word.
How is that? How is faith the belief in what God has told us is true and at the same time the proof that what God has told us is true. That’s what the writer of Hebrews is saying here.
Faith is believing God, and it is proof of what we believe. What is that proof? How is what we believe proven through our faith?
Well, who knows what Hebrews chapter 11 is about? It’s what some call the “faith hall of fame” chapter. The writer says this, and then spends the rest of a very long chapter giving examples of what the Old Testament saints… believed?
No. What they did. What they did, because they truly believed. How they lived - and in some cases even died - because they believed God enough to be loyal to Him.
Because that is all God ever required of His people. Living loyal to Him.
Adam and Eve
Cain
Whole human race - flood
Noah (and Ham)
Whole human race - Babel
Abraham
Abraham was told to live loyal to God.
Covenant of grace does not mean unconditional covenant. There are conditions to every covenant in the Bible.
You don’t need to write up a contract if there aren’t responsibilities for two parties.
Before God makes any promises to Abraham He gives him a command. Leave your life as you know it and follow me to where I want you to go.
He tells Abraham he needs to make a change in his life - a big change - if he is going to follow God.
Does this read like works were not part of the deal here?
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
That sounds like both sides have some responsibility, doesn’t it?
Then when God reaffirms it as an official covenant, is it as one sided as we have somehow been taught it is?
When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”
Abraham is told by God - you have a responsibility in this, Abraham. A huge responsibility. Walk before me - it means walk in my presence - and be blameless - it means to be perfect or without blemish.
Was Abraham perfect after this? No. So what made him different? What made Him different from Adam and Cain and Ham?
He believed God enough to be loyal to Him:
And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
God counted Abraham as blameless. Because Abraham believed God. He had faith. Knowing that God called him to make a wholesale life change if he wanted to follow him. Knowing he had a great responsibility in his walk with God.
Abraham still believed God.
This is saving faith.
This is what God called all of Israel to - all of those of Abraham’s family that were part of the covenant. He saves them out of Egypt. He preserves them in the wilderness.
Were there works that went along with that grace? You bet there were. There was the Law.
And what does God require of them?
“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.
This is responsibility. God says “my salvation is supposed to result in something.”
It wasn’t enough for Israel to believe God saved them from Egypt. They all believed that.
They were supposed to believe it enough to live loyal to Him.
Then when they get into the land and begin to drive out the inhabitants as they were commanded, and Joshua is about to die, God reminds them of His grace and His salvation:
Joshua 24:1–15 (ESV)
Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel … And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel … I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac. And to Isaac I gave Jacob … Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in the midst of it, and afterward I brought you out … I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan … and I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you … you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the leaders of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And I gave them into your hand. And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before you … I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.”
God says over and over again: I did. I saved. I provided. Israel was saved by grace! That is how God works!
But is that the end of the story? No. Israel had to believe God enough to live loyal to Him.
Joshua 24:14–15 (ESV)
“Now therefore [because of all those things God graciously did to save them] fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Israel was asked to commit their lives to God after they were saved by grace. This is about loyalty. Salvation by grace, through faith that believes God enough to be loyal to Him.
Faith that changes what we used to be, that takes responsibility for what we now are, and that results in faithfulness to God.
And, by the way, two chapters later Israel by and large switches their loyalty, they fail to drive the pagans out of the land along with their gods, and God tells them it will be their undoing, which happens hundreds of years later.
But God makes another covenant. One that we always say is a gracious covenant full of unconditional promises.
God makes a covenant with David - yes - but a covenant that is conditional upon perfect obedience. It is conditional on the obedience of David’s son, Who is Christ.
As you’ve heard me say, our salvation is not by our works, but it is by works. Christ’s.
And after God makes the covenant with him, David prays to God an epic prayer of thanks and submission ending with this:
And now, O Lord God, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. Now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord God, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever.”
David believes God’s promise. He has the faith that is the assurance of things hoped for.
Then David obeys. He has the faith that is itself the evidence of God’s sure promise. And we read in the next three chapters all about David doing what Saul - and Israel back in the book of Judges - didn’t do.
He defeats the inhabitants of the land. Including all of the Amalekites - who the first faithless generation of Israel feared enough to be disloyal to God, and who king Saul did not wipe out but was disloyal to God - under David they are completely destroyed off the land.
David believed God enough to be loyal to him.
I could offer more examples, but I won’t. I only wanted to touch on the highlights here. Because I just want us to see the pattern. I want us to see that God deals with His people the same way from Genesis through Malachi.
1. No one is saved by works. God does the saving Himself.
2. God always expects His people to work because He saved them.
They are saved by grace alone through faith - through believing God enough to be loyal to Him and do the works that salvation requires they do, though they are not saved by those works.
But we do see one more part of the pattern.
3. Those that do not do the work are those who were not truly saved.
In other words, God does the saving apart from our works - they are not required for our salvation.
God does the saving for us to work - they are the result of our salvation. And our works are the evidence of our faith - of our believing God enough to be loyal to Him and do the works he saved us to do.
And this is exactly what we find in the New Testament. And not just in Hebrews.
We see all about the saving faith that is believing God enough to live loyally to Him.
And we see that it is always God’s work first.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
In the Old Testament salvation is only ever ascribed to YHWH. It is never once said to be the result of the sacrifices or following the Law. Those things were not about “getting saved.” They were about loyalty to God.
Because it is God alone Who saves in the Old Testament, and it is God alone Who saves in the New Testament. We can do nothing to save ourselves from the just wrath of God for our sin.
From the opening chapter of the New Testament, we are told about God’s salvation. An angel appears to Joseph to tell him about God’s saving plan:
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
The Gospel*
And as the church, it is the truth of Christ’s salvation - the Gospel - that God uses to save today:
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
And who are those who believe? Who is saved by their belief?
This is why James asks:
James 2:14 (ESV)
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith [if someone says they have that belief] but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
And the answer is no. That is not saving faith.
Because faith is the conviction - the evidence - the proof of those things we believe.
We believe that God alone saves - apart from our works - but our works are the evidence that God saves apart from works.
As Paul says in Romans 8:
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
We love to lift this one out of context too, don’t we. But look who God graciously works good for. Those who are called by Him - it’s His work. Those whom He predestined - it’s His work. Those whom He justified - it’s His work!
But this work is for those who love God. It’s for those who conform to the image of Christ.
And that is where our loyalty comes in. Where we believe God enough to be loyal to Him like Abraham was and like David was.
When we believe God enough to forsake all we ever were for Him. To make a change - and a big one.
When we believe God enough to accept responsibility for our commitment to Him.
When we believe God enough that it results in the works He has prepared for us before He saved us.
If we believe - if we have “saving faith” - we will make that change. It’s what the Bible calls repentance.
Repentance isn’t simply believing your a sinner. Repentance is a commitment to do something about it. And it is part of that saving belief.
What did Jesus preach from the very beginning?
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Repent and believe go together. That’s the Gospel.
What did Jesus tell His church to do before He ascended?
and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
The good news of the forgiveness of sins - the “saved from” part of the Gospel - it cannot be separated from the “saved unto” of the Gospel. We need to make that change - we need to repent.
But repentance isn’t the end. It’s only the beginning. Because when we believe - we need to believe God enough to live loyal to Him.
We need to commit to take responsibility.
Let’s talk about the greatest sermon ever preached - the Sermon on the Mount. Did you ever notice how much of it is about what Christ’s people do?
Be salt. Be light.
Don’t be angry and if you are, leave your gift at the altar and go seek reconciliation.
Don’t lust. Don’t retaliate. Love your enemies.
And that’s just the opening of the sermon. And Jesus ends that portion by saying:
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
You can translate this as perfect. You can translate this as complete. You can translate this as fulfilling your purpose.
But either way, Jesus compares what we do to what God does. Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Be complete as your heavenly Father is complete. Fulfill your purpose as your heavenly Father fulfills His purpose.
Choose your word, but you can’t soften this.
You can’t remove the awesome responsibility we have as believers.
This goes with that change of life - the repentance. Saving faith comes with responsibility. Jesus made this very clear. Not just in the Sermon on the Mount.
Here’s some other highlights:
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
Matthew 7:21 (ESV)
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
This isn’t about salvation by works. It is about responsibility.
Not about salvation as a result of works - that’s not a thing - but about works as a result of true salvation.
It is about a lifelong commitment. It is about living loyal to the God that saved us.
Faith that is the assurance of things hoped for is a faith that is the evidence of the things not seen.
To put it simply: faith will result in works, or it is not faith.
I beg all of you to think differently than so many American Christians. Don’t buy into easy believism. Don’t by into the momentary commitment.
If you lead someone to Christ and they pray for salvation, don’t tell them they have done something great. They haven’t done anything yet. Tell them what a great responsibility they now have. Tell them that if their faith is genuine, they will see proof of it.
Don’t think of faith in momentary terms - “she placed her faith in Christ” - “he committed his life to Christ.” They may have said to Christ “Lord, Lord” - but that doesn’t mean they’re part of the kingdom!
Don’t think of faith as some abstract feeling or spiritual quality that can’t be objectively and concretely demonstrated. If that were the case, it would be impossible to ever say faith is assurance of anything or evidence of anything.
Don’t think of faith as simple trust. Don’t think of it is acceptance of certain facts about Jesus.
True faith moves far beyond that. True faith shows itself.
Don’t think of faith as a get out of hell free card - sure, I sin all the time, but I placed my faith in Jesus, so I’m okay. If that’s you - you’re not okay.
Don’t even think of faith in trite terms of moving the mountains that stand in your way.
Think of faith as raising the knife over your only son because you believe God that much.
That’s what Abraham did. That was his faith that was the assurance of things hoped for. Hebrews 11 tells us this:
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
Abraham believed God when He made His promise to him. He believed God when He said that through Isaac He would carry out His promised salvation. He believed it so much that even when God said to sacrifice his son, Abraham knew that would not void the promise.
Abraham’s faith was also the evidence - the proof - that God keeps His promises.
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
Abraham believed God enough to be loyal to Him even when he had no idea where it would lead him.
Where are we going? Do we know what God has in store for this church? Do we know what God has planned for each of us over the next year or ten years?
No.
But faith will believe God enough to live loyal to Him no matter what. Faith will go where God says to go, and faith will do what God says to do.
Faith - saving faith - will run into places we wouldn’t otherwise want to go. It will take a stand when it leads us into danger and results in derision by the world.
Faith will speak up when something needs to be said - it will speak the truth when the truth has been obscured.
Faith will lead us to sacrifice our lives and carry our cross.
Faith - saving faith - will pick up the knife and know that no matter what God tells you to do with it - He will keep His promise to you.
Because God kept His promise. He didn’t make Abraham sacrifice his son. God sacrificed His own.
He didn’t tell you to carry your own cross to be saved. He carried it for you.
God did it. It is His work.
So how can we now, having committed ourselves to Him - how can we not take up our cross? How can we not sacrifice anything and everything He asks us to?
How can we not turn from our old ways and repent? How can we not make that change?
How can we not take our responsibility seriously - more seriously than we take so many things that will burn to ashes in the end?
How can we not strive in faith to do the works God called us to as a result of our salvation?
We will if we have saving faith.
That is what it means to believe.
So how do we know if that is the kind of faith we had?
We talked about comparisons last week. Pastor Eric explained how our purpose in God is the antidote to comparisons. If we are focused on our purpose - our common purpose as believers and our unique purpose as this particular believer - we will not worry about comparisons.
As Eric said - we will look to Christ and compare ourselves to Him.
The One Who said “be perfect as God is perfect.”
The One Who said it would take leaving the old us behind to follow Him.
The One Who carried His cross and loved us more than He loves His own life.
Are we being conformed to that image?
Well, there’s only one way to know. We have to make a different comparison. And not comparing ourselves to others.
Comparing what we are to what we were.
Ask yourself - since I “committed my life to Christ” - have I changed? Am I still what I was? In words. In deeds. In thought. In desire.
Have I made the change required of me? Have I truly repented?
Have I taken my responsibility as one committed to Christ more seriously - or even as seriously - as all the others I have?
What is the result of my faith?
Because that will prove what kind of faith you have.
In the words of James:
James 2:14–24 (ESV)
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed [was made perfect - fulfilled its purpose] by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
Do you see. We are told that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Justification by faith. Salvation by grace alone through faith alone. Faith as assurance of things hoped for.
But that was not it. Nothing was complete - that saving faith did not fulfill its purpose - until Abraham’s faith was active along with his works.
His faith was the conviction - the proof - that God’s promises are irrevocable. That He will save to the uttermost those who truly believe.
Again:
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
First, I want to offer you assurance of the things hoped for.
Believe in Jesus Christ. I am not asking you to pray a certain prayer or raise your hand. I am telling you what the Bible says about belief. Belief is obedience to God, plain and simple. Because He commands you - and everyone - to believe the Gospel.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God remains on Him.
Here is what we need to realize about the Gospel and the truth of Who Christ is. It’s true whether we believe it or not.
Men’s group acts 5 - Peter gives a great Gospel presentation to the Jewish Council - it’s a great model for evangelizing the lost - but though we implore them to believe, it isn’t as if their simple belief changes anything. Jesus is God, He is Savior, He is Lord, and believing His life, death, and resurrection is the only salvation there is
The New City Catechism opens with this question and answer:
What Is Our Only Hope in Life and Death?
That we are not our own but belong, body and soul, both in life and death, to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ.
- New City Catechism Q1
This is our only hope. Because this is the truth. We belong body and soul, in life and death, to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ. This is eternally and forever and unchangeably true, whether we believe or not.
Place your faith in the truth. Not popular opinion. Not common knowledge.
Place your faith in Jesus Christ and be assured of your greatest hope.
Second, for those who believe in Christ, I want you to commit.
You believe in Christ, now believe Him. Believe Him enough to live loyal to Him.
Commit your life to Christ!
Repentance and Responsibility - you will see results
God is not done with you. He’s only getting started.
Because if you believe Him enough to be loyal to Him, then you are the evidence of the truth.
MCC, let’s be the proof of Who Christ is and what He’s done.
Let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.