What is Biblical Faith (2)

Introduction:

Introduce Myself: Well what’s everyone, as you already heard my name is Caleb. I am a youth pastor, I lead a middle school group and a high school group, and I am so excited to teach the Bible to specifically your youth group today. I’m not sure if you understand how jr. high groups normally run, but generally speaking, the culture of a groups is often set by the type of leaders you have. I have gotten to be friends with Spencer in preaching class, and Bo as well, let me tell you guys, this type of dedication is not normal. I’ll be in preaching class, and generally speaking in preaching class sermons are not as natural because it is an audience of 5. I’ll be sitting, relaxing, its not my turn, and these guys will preach into my soul, stare me down and say things like: “God is a Holy God.” The impression I get is that your leaders deeply care that you all would understand the bible, that your lives would be changed by the Gospel, and that you would grow to be more and more like Christ. That is why I am incredibly hyped to preach to you all about faith today.

I currently am a youth pastor in Tehachapi, CA. How many of you have been there? If you did not know it is the hometown of the legendary Blake Boys. Pretty cool right. It is a place that I have grown up for a fair amount of my life. I grew up as a well churched child, and in the bible, I remember learning about the suffering that the disciples were going to face, and I almost prepared to face this myself. I almost expected to be punched in the face for being a believer, and made fun of constantly, that sort of thing. And to my surprise, I began to realize that I was growing up in a place, where it was actually cool to be a Christian. Maybe Kingsburg is somewhat similar. I noticed as I grew up in Tehachapi that most people felt that church was important, most people had conservative values, and many people who were clearly living for the world would call themselves Christians. No one had a problem with prayer, no one was embarrassed to talk about God, and most people seemed to agree with my beliefs. I began to see that a lot of my friends believed in God, but I was not sure that it was the same thing. And this is the same culture than I preach to today. Because of the friendliness of the culture in some areas toward Christians, I am deeply worried that so many are convinced that they are Christian because they have ignored what it truly means to put their faith in Jesus. And because of this, I think that this question in a culture like ours is more important than ever. What is biblical faith? Bow your heads with me, let’s pray.

Main Point: Today, we will be studying 3 characteristics of biblical faith so that you might believe in the Gospel as meant in the Bible.

Would you all turn your bibles with me to Romans 4?

Bible Study Reminder: Today we are going to be in several passages that explain what biblical faith is. Before we begin, we must remember this crucial bible study detail. It is that we see the word belief or faith, same word in the Greek, we need to realize that we are 2000 years removed from this writing with an entirely different culture and language. You cannot just simply assume that your English idea of belief perfectly matches what the bible is saying. Have any of you every had a conversation with your grandparent where you thought to yourself, what is they saying? Why is this? Because language changes. It is so important that we clarify this, and study scripture to see what faith actually looks like. Today, we are looking at passages that use the greek word, either the verb or the noun “pistis” which in your bibles will generally be translated faith or belief. They are the same word in Greek.

We are saved through faith alone and not by works.

This is a topic that I am sure if you have been to this group before you have heard. And when you read the bible you see that there is so much evidence that we are saved by faith alone. But it is always a problem that needs to be explained and explained because we as humans are so drawn to the idea that you can be a good person. We overestimate ourselves so much.

Bug’s Life illustration: “NO, Harry, NO! Don’t look at the light!” “Its so beautiful.”

That’s similar to how humans always cannot resist thinking that they can earn their righteousness before God. You will hear over and over throughout your life people say that they are confident God will let them into heaven because of the good life that they have lived.

This is why in Romans 4, Paul goes over the top in explanation about why we are saved by faith alone. Without this explanation in Romans 4, there is still so much clarity on this issue. Yet Paul through the Spirit chose to explain, illustrate, and reexplain this seemingly simple concept.

Let’s Read Romans 4:3-5

Romans 4:1–5 LSB

What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God! For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wage is not counted according to grace, but according to what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes upon Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,

In this passage we see three reasons that you are saved by faith or belief alone

God gets the glory (vs. 2)

Romans 4:2 LSB

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about—but not before God!

Have you heard of the hymn: “Great is my faithfulness.” Exactly. That is a heretical statement, you have no faithfulness and so you deserve no praise, rather God deserves all the praise.

If you saved by works, then “Great is my faithfulness” would be an appropriate hymn to sing to yourself.

If salvation was not through faith, God would not deserve all the glory.

God does not owe salvation, but God gives salvation (v.4)

Romans 4:4 LSB

Now to the one who works, his wage is not counted according to grace, but according to what is due.

McDonald’s Worker: If you work 8 hours at McDonald’s, and you get paid, you don’t say thank you for this free gift. You say: “If you don’t pay me I’ll sue you.”

Yet what does the Bible call being saved: GRACE

Grace is a free gift, something that is not earned or deserved.

If we are saved by our works, that it is not by grace but by us deserving to go to heaven.

Saying that someone has earned grace is an oxymoron. It is like saying pretty ugly, or giant ant, or hearing the silence. Grace and work are opposites of each other.

God counts us righteous, we are not righteous (vs. 3,5)

Romans 4:3 LSB

For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

The verse does not say that Abraham was righteous, it says that it was counted to him as righteousness

Romans 4:5 LSB

But to the one who does not work, but believes upon Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,

It says here that God justifies “the godly” or the “ungodly”.

Does faith make someone righteous, or is faith counted as righteousness?

At the moment that you are saved, you are counted as righteous by god, even though you still have an enormous amount of sin in your life. And because of this God gets all the praise.

the is a different level of thankfulness from someone who understands that Jesus has paid it all. There is a very different level of reliance of god when you understand that you are saved by faith alone. You can not do anything to even begin to pay for the sin of your life. Salvation must be through faith alone.

How would you explain faith to a person who believes that they must live a good life to earn eternal life?

Why do you think that wanting to earn God’s grace is such a problem for humans?

What clues do Romans 4:1-5 give us to show that we are justified through faith alone?

How does a life saved through faith look different than a life of trying to earn salvation?

We are saved by faith not just belief in facts

Now this is an important question to ask: Since we are saved by belief, which type belief is it. There is in English a range of what it means to believe. Does this mean you are convinced of a fact, or is it more of a trust kind of belief. Let me explain.

Sometimes, I like to think I could be a world traveler, and I explore places that would be fun to visit. A particularly interesting place I found out about is Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, Africa. Can I sell you on how cool this place is? This place is essentially the closest thing to a zoo in terms of wildlife, but it is out in nature. People come from around the world to specifically see the large groups of Elephants, you can go on jeep tours and see all types of sahara wildlife. The interesting thing to me is that there are a large population of lions in this park, and you can pay for guided hikes through this park. These guides are experienced and reliable, but still, your life is somewhat in their hands. A bit scary right? Now I looked up the stats, and did you know that in the last 10 years with so many guided hikes, there has only been one person eaten by a lion? In 2017, a group of hikers got ambushed by a lion, and the lion ate the guide in front of the group. So question: “Do you believe that it is safe to go on the lion hike?” From a facts perspective, by the numbers, the answer is yes! “What type of belief do you have?” Is it intellectual belief that it is probably safe, or is it trust in the guide and willingness to go on the hike.

Some churches teach that to be saved you have to believe the facts of the Gospel alone. Some churches teach that you must alway trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior

For example, do you believe that George Washington was the first President of the United States? If you do, then you know what faith is from a biblical perspective. There is no commitment, no decision of the will, no turning from sins, and no works that are part of faith in Christ. If you are convinced or persuaded that what He promised is true, then you believe in Him. - Bob Wilkin

Do you just have to believe the facts of the Gospel? Could I have this half of the room turn to James 2:19, and this half of the room turn to John 3:16 in your version.

James 2:19 LSB

You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.

Does the James 2:19 type of belief lead to eternal life?

We see that there is a type of belief that is simply in the facts of who God is.

John 3:16 LSB

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Does the John 3:16 type of belief lead to eternal life?

Yes, absolutely

Do you see how there is a type of belief that saves and a type that does not.

Additionally, when the greek word in studied, it shows also an idea of reliance and trust. These is why maybe helpful bible teachers have explained it this way, and is completely backed by the original language.

Faith includes

Knowledge

Approval

Trust

Knowledge

You must belief in the facts of the Gospel. You cannot be a Christian if you do not believe that it is true that Jesus was and is God, died for sin, and rose again on the third day.

Approval

You approve of Jesus. You believe that these Jesus’ death and resurrection and true and good. You find it good to be identified with Christ.

Trust

Trust is committing your life to Christ, and relying on Him only for forgiveness of sin and eternal life. This is a radical turn from sin and reliance on the work of Christ. This is not a momentary commitment but one lasts forever. This is not just recognition of the truth, but it is allegiance to the truth.

If you have ever read the parable of the sower that Jesus gave? This is in Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8. This is an illustration of how people receive the Gospel message. There is the seed that fell upon the path which are those who reject the Gospel immediately. There is the seed that feel on good soil, and are true believers. But there are two types of people described as the rocky soil and the thorny soil who have temporary acceptance of the Gospel. They initially seem to be saved. And both of these seeds have knowledge and approval of the Gospel.

This truly is my greatest worry for my own students, the culture of people I interact with, and you today. So many students mighty stand up at a camp when the preachers makes a call to believe but that is where it stops. There are so many superficial Christians in America today, who approve of Jesus and do not trust in Him. They agree with much of the bible, and they approve of Jesus, but they have no desire to commit their life to him. If this is you today, I pray that God would soften your heart beyond recognizing the truth of Jesus, but that you would also turn away from your old life of sin and turn in trust towards Jesus Christ, the only one who can save you from the punishment of your sin. Understand that true faith is not some shallow I support Jesus type of thing. This is a radical decision to entrust you life your hopes and you eternal future to god.

How would you explain faith that saves as opposed to faith that does not save in the bible? What is the difference between John 3 faith and James 2 faith?

What are the three marks of biblical faith?

Knowledge

Approval

Trust

Why is it so important that all three marks of faith are understood? What happens when trust is left out?

Do you feel that you today have saving faith in Jesus Christ?

We are saved by faith in the Truth

It is too common today to believe it what is called subjective truth. We feel that Jesus is true so he is true type of faith. Similar to a belief in unicorns, we feel that if we believe enough something will happen. It is more of a feeling.

In fact, I have also spent a lot of time in areas with very few believers as well. Even in the least Christian areas of California, it is not offense to say that Jesus is my truth. It is offensive to say that Jesus is the truth.

Did you know that one of the distinguishing marks of biblical faith is that it is tied to objective truth. Meaning that faith completely does not rest on how you feel, but on if Jesus is actually the truth. Let me prove this to you. Please turn to 1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15:17–19 LSB

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

This passage hinges our faith completely upon a historical fact, meaning if this fact is not actually true that quite literally, our faith is worthless.

The passage states, if Christ has not been raised then

Our Faith is worthless (17)

You are still in your sins (17)

The dead will perish (18)

We are to be pitied (19)

Reasons We Believe: 50 Lines of Evidence that Confirm the Christian Faith Is Christianity Based on Good Information?

“only Christianity stakes its claim to truthfulness on historical events open to critical investigation.”

The Christian faith depends entirely on if Jesus told the truth!

This is not true of other religions.

Over the last 15 years, I have had an interest and a heart to learn about Mormonism, the religion that goes by the latter day saints of Jesus Christ or the LDS church. I have had a lot of mormon friends from the time I was in elementary school, and they have been incredibly kind people to me. A lot of people simply make fun of them for their bikes, and their white shirts, and their name tags, but these people have genuine faith that God revealed himself to a true prophet Joseph Smith around 200 years ago, clarifying and adding to the Old and the New Testament. They believe that there are many gods and that similar to how God the Father worked his way from a human to a God, you too through faith, baptism, and service to the LDS church, can someday become a god. A couples weeks ago my wife Cassie, invited some LDS missionaries over for lunch at our house, and we talked over the faith with these girls for a couple hours. I asked a fair amount of questions I had about the Mormon scriptures. If you all have never read or looked into the book of Mormon, the Doctrines and the Covenants, or the pearl of great price, I am not exaggerating when I tell you that there are quite literally hundreds of historical mistakes in these books. I am not sure that there is a holy book more obviously a fraud. To name a couple examples, there are massive wars involving swords, chariots, and armor in North America around 2000 years ago, are yet we have found zero evidence of any of these things being in America before the Europeans got here. There is an example of someone saying using the french goodbye “adieu” around 1000 years before the french language came into existence. There mention of a “synogue” before synagogues came into practice. When I asked about some of these things to the sisters, sister Savannah explained to me that when she questions what Joseph Smith has said, she feels darkness rather than light. Listen to this verse from the book of Mormon: “Doubt not, but be believing” - Mormon 9:27. In essence, Doubt is evil, just believe more.

Do you see how different the Christian faith is? In Mormonism, if Joseph Smith is shown to be false, you simply trust the feelings in your heart that he is a true prophet.

We do not just have feelings about Jesus, we have the facts of Jesus. That is why Paul goes so far as to say, if Christ did not rise, then our faith is not real.

I don’t know that anything that makes me feel more sad, than watching people so confident, so excited, so fired up to spread the “gospel” of Jesus revealed in the book of mormon, thinking that it will benefit them in the next life. Do you see how sad it is to have faith in something that is false? But, if Jesus lied to us about dying for sin, then we would be in the exact same situation. Thinking we have eternal life, but lying to ourselves.

It is not often that I get fired up reading a greek dictionary. But read this with me. This is speaking of the definition of faith

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. πίστις

state of believing on the basis of the reliability of the one trusted, trust, confidence, faith

Ya thats right. We worship a God and we believe a Gospel that is different because it is absolutely tied to the believability of it. Unlike other religions that have to shut there eyes to the facts, or atheism which has to pretend that there are no signs of a creator, we open our eyes to the actual truth that Christ being God lived, was crucified for sin, and rose again on the third day. We have a bible that scholars at the top schools in the world devote their lives to attacking and still fail. We have a resurrection story that can and is historically verifiable. That is the difference. This is why we as believers should take absolutely no offense to those who attack the Bible or the truthfulness of Jesus.

We trust in Jesus Christ because he is trustworthy

We rely on Jesus Christ because he is reliable

We put our faith in Jesus Christ because he is faithful

What does 1 Corinthians 15:17-19 say about our faith if Jesus did not actually rise from the dead?

How would you explain faith in Christ to someone who feels in their heart that another religion is true?

How should we as Christians respond to criticism of the Bible or Jesus? Should we run from it, or should we welcome it?

Why is it important that our faith is based on something actually true?

Conclusion:

I hope today you understand that I talk about faith in large part because I think so many students misunderstand. I hope I spoke in a way that was clear and helpful. But I do also want you to see that this word faith when properly understood, shouts the goodness of God. We we study biblical faith, we see that the only part you play as a Christian saved by grace is sinning and making yourself need a Savior. That is why we are saved by faith alone, and to God be the glory. This type of faith is not just believing the facts of the Gospel, it is trust in Jesus Christ as a person. True salvation affects the person. The bible describes believers as partakers of the Gospel. Because true believers trust in Christ to be saved, we have relationship with the God of the universe that is completely different from anything the world can offer. Lastly, we have a faith that is not blind faith but faith in the Truth. We do not believe in a God who lies or does not keep His promised. We put all our faith in a God who is faithful. Let’s pray.