Sermon Tone Analysis

“The Nature of True Faith”

John 5:24

24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

Introduction:

      Listen to today’s typical gospel presentation.

You will hear sinners entreated with such phrases as “accept Jesus Christ as personal Savior”; “ask Jesus into your heart”; “invite Christ into your life”; or “make a decision for Christ.”

You may be so accustomed to hearing those phrases that it will surprise you to learn that none of them is based on biblical terminology.

They are the products of a diluted gospel.

It is not the gospel according to Jesus.

The gospel Jesus proclaimed was a call to discipleship, a call to follow him in submissive obedience, not just a plea to make a decision or pray a prayer.

Jesus’ message liberated people from the bondage of their sin while it confronted and condemned hypocrisy.

It was an offer of eternal life and forgiveness for repentant sinners, but at the same time it was a rebuke to outwardly religious people whose lives were devoid of true righteousness.

It put sinners on notice that they must turn from sin and embrace God’s righteousness.

It was in every sense good news, yet it was anything but easy-believism.

Our Lord’s words about eternal life were invariably accompanied by warnings to those who might be tempted to take salvation lightly.

He taught that the cost of following him is high, that the way is narrow and few find it.

He said many who call him Lord will be forbidden from entering the kingdom of heaven (cf.

Matt.

7:13–23).

Present-day evangelicalism, by and large, ignores those warnings.

The prevailing view of what constitutes saving faith continues to grow broader and more shallow, while the portrayal of Christ in preaching and witnessing becomes fuzzy.

Anyone who claims to be a Christian can find evangelicals willing to accept a profession of faith, whether or not the person’s behavior shows any evidence of commitment to Christ.

A few years ago the national media reported on the spectacle of a notorious pornographer who claimed to be “born again” yet continued to publish the worst kinds of smut.

A well-known sports figure professed faith in Christ and was baptized in a highly publicized ceremony, then weeks later was accused and later convicted of rape.

Another celebrity who claims to be a Christian is renowned for the profligacy of his lifestyle.

What troubles me about all these is that many Christians insist such people really are born again and should be embraced by the rest of the church as true believers.[1]

One segment of evangelicalism even propounds the doctrine that conversion to Christ involves “no spiritual commitment whatsoever.”1

Those who hold this view of the gospel teach that Scripture promises salvation to anyone who simply believes the facts about Christ and claims eternal life.

There need be no turning from sin, no resulting change in lifestyle, no commitment—not even a /willingness /to yield to Christ’s lordship.2

Those things, they say, amount to human works, which corrupt grace and have nothing to do with faith.

The fallout of such thinking is a deficient doctrine of salvation.

It is justification without sanctification, and its impact on the church has been catastrophic.

The community of professing believers is populated with people who have bought into a system that encourages shallow and ineffectual faith.

Many sincerely believe they are saved, but their lives are utterly barren of any verifying fruit.

Jesus gave this sobering warning: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; /but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.

/Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’

And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, /you who practice lawlessness’ ” /(Matt.

7:21–22, emphasis added).

Clearly no past experience—not even prophesying, casting out demons, or doing signs and wonders—can be viewed as evidence of salvation apart from a life of obedience.

Our Lord was not speaking about an isolated group of fringe followers.

There will be /“many” /on that day who will stand before him, stunned to learn they are not included in the kingdom.

I fear that multitudes who now fill church pews in the mainstream of the evangelical movement will be among those turned away because they did not do the will of the Father.

Contemporary Christians have been conditioned to believe that because they recited a prayer, signed on a dotted line, walked an aisle, or had some other experience, they are saved and should never question their salvation.

I have attended evangelism training seminars where counselors were taught to tell “converts” that any doubt about their salvation is satanic and should be dismissed.

It is a widely held misconception that anyone who questions whether he or she is saved is challenging the integrity of God’s Word.

What misguided thinking that is! Scripture encourages us to examine ourselves to determine if we are in the faith (2 Cor.

13:5).

Peter wrote, “Be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you” (2 Peter 1:10).

It is right to examine our lives and evaluate the fruit we bear, for “each tree is known by its own fruit” (Luke 6:44).

The Bible teaches clearly that the evidence of God’s work in a life is the inevitable fruit of transformed behavior (1 John 3:10).

Faith that does not result in righteous living is dead and cannot save (James 2:14–17).3

Professing Christians utterly lacking the fruit of true righteousness will find no biblical basis for assurance of salvation (1 John 2:4).

Real salvation is not only justification.

It cannot be isolated from regeneration, sanctification, and ultimately glorification.

Salvation is the work of God through which we are “conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom.

8:29; cf.

13:11).

Genuine assurance comes from seeing the Holy Spirit’s transforming work in one’s life, not from clinging to the memory of some experience.[2]

I.

It is a Hearing Faith (vs.

24a)

Jesus is very plain with His words; He does not “beat around the bush”.

He is straightforward in the realities of the nature of true faith.

Jesus first of all says that the nature of true faith is resembled in the fact that someone hears His words.

Now, do not misunderstand; this is more than just plain listening only.

For the Greek is clear in this point.

We read the English word “hear” and then make the mistake of reading into the inspired word the meaning of our English word.

For in the inspired text, the treatment of this word is far more extensive.

It is the Greek word “ἀκούω” and carries a meaning that is far beyond just simply listening.

In the Greek mysteries and oriental Gnosticism2 great stress is laid on the fact that man apprehends God by seeing.

It is not as though there were no religious hearing;3 but the phenomena of sight are the more essential.

For Philo the interrelation of hearing and seeing is strikingly determined by the fact that the former can lead astray and deceive as distinct from the latter.[3]

In other words, the philosophy of the Greeks is the old slogan “seeing is believing” because to them, I could misunderstand what was heard, but I could not misunderstand what I saw.

For the Jesus Christ, that was the case.

For with Jesus neither seeing nor hearing means anything if it does not lead to obedience.

The Greek word hears carries with the idea of listening with the intent on obeying.

Listen to me carefully, if someone claims to be born again, but their claims are not coupled with a determinative obedience, there is no saving faith.

Your faith is a fraud, it is a sham.

Listen, to be true faith is always coupled by obedience.

Now, just so we are clear and you so not think that I am making salvation harder than it is or that I am reading into this something that is not there, I want us to follow this Greek word through some of its usages in the NT and in the OT.

But first let me say this; I saw a sign the other day that flashed up prices of different expensive items, then after that it flashed up “salvation FREE” let me say to you, listen to me please, that is the biggest lie of the Devil.

Salvation was not free for the Son of God and it is not free for us.

Have you ever thought about salvation costing you?

Christ did.

Luke 9:62

62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Luke 14:26

26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

Luke 9:23

23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

The important part about the passage in Luke where Christ speaks about the cross is that He was speaking to a group of people that would have know exactly what Christ was talking about.

Because they saw the cross as an instrument of death.

Jesus says that if you are going to come after me and become one of my disciples than you had better be ready to die.

Some say, “well that means death to self”, although that itself would be a price to pay, I don’t think so because death to self was covered in denying yourself.

This current trend of cheap grace is sending millions to Hell.

Let’s follow this idea of “ἀκούω” throughout the OT and the NT to get and understanding to its meaning.

Follow me:

Notice how the Scriptures are said to be a sufficient source for the way of Grace:

Luke 16:29

29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

Remember how the rich man wanted Abraham to send Lazurus back to warn his brothers and Abraham answers in the above way.

Why? Moses and the prophets were already dead, how would they have been able to hear the prophets.

Through the Scriptures.