Sunday School - True Conversion
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True Faith and False Faith
True Faith and False Faith
In the New Testament, the writers are continually laboring to show the nature of true faith and also the nature of false faith.
The believer is called to self examination again and again to test the reality of their faith.
This was a theme in the teaching of Jesus when He would present His parables to teach about the nature of the Kingdom and of saving faith.
The Teaching of Christ
The Teaching of Christ
Parable of the Soils
14 “The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity. 15 “But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.
Seen to be immediately true with Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler
22 When Jesus heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 23 But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. 24 And Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! 25 “For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 They who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?”
True faith choked out by the riches and pleasures of life
16 And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive. 17 “And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ 18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 ‘And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.” ’ 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ 21 “So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
Faith in riches and faith and health
47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind; 48 and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away. 49 “So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, 50 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
This theme in the teaching of Jesus, shows that true faith produces good works consistent with that faith.
In fact, those who do not submit to Christ as Lord, or reject Him by disobedience, are condemned as not possessing salvation.
A man’s good deeds are proof of his true repentance and a man’s evil deeds prove him to be a child of the devil - Not the source of salvation but the sign
21 “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 will enter.
He who does the will of My Father
24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 “Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ 26 “Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’; 27 and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you evildoers.’
Follower asked: will just a few be saved - saddened that not all Israel turned to follow Christ
Jesus invites the remnant to strive
Compared to the rampant easy believism that underlies much of modern evangelism Jesus’ invitation, which calls for strenuous exertion from the penitent sinner, seems almost heretical.
It is true that salvation is solely by God’s sovereign grace.
No one can come to Christ unless the Father draws him (John 6:44, 65),
nor can anyone know the Father except those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him (Matt. 11:27).
Those who are dead in their sins can be saved only by God’s grace, not their own efforts (Eph. 2:1–10; Titus 3:3–5).
Our salvation is sealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit, and just as we have been Justified we will be glorified
Yet salvation is not apart from the will of the sinner who must continually turn from sin and follow after Christ
The Christian life is not one of self-fulfillment but self-denial
However, in denying the desires of the flesh to follow Christ, you will taste more and more the sweet joys and pleasures that are in the right hand of our Lord
Apostolic Teaching
Apostolic Teaching
This very truth was also carried on by the Apostles as they explained the Gospel and the kingdom of God.
16 They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.
Head knowledge doesn’t mean heart knowledge
1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
Form of godliness is an empty fascade
22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
Prove yourselves
In the mind of the OT authors, heeding implied doing - to be a mere hearer is to be a deaf hearer
5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?
Test yourselves
We are commanded again and again to repent and stop sinning. This is a fundamental part of Christian life, that is, that we submit to the Lordship of Christ and obey His commandments.
It is clear from Scripture that those who go on in unrepentant sin will not inherit the kingdom of God.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Don’t let sin reign - who is on the throne?
Bodies of death or life? Bodies as instruments of sin or righteousness
Did Christ save you, are you born again, will Christ raise you - live like it!
1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Under obligation to live by the Spirit
Put to death deeds of the body how? By the Spirit!
3 But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; 4 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Immorality - pornea - all sexual sin
impurity - akatharsia - used by Jesus to describe rotten decaying flesh of a dead body
Filthiness - obscenity and disgrace
Silly Talk - moros - moron - dull, stupid, mindless talk
Coarse jesting - pointed, bitting, determined jokes to make something innocent into something obscene or sinfully suggestive
Focus on the body and the tongue
vs 5 - who is an idolater - ultimately these are the actions of one who does not worship the One true God - no entrance into His Kingdom
Not even be named among you - body of purity and chastity
give thanks - heart and mouth of worship
The Teaching of 1 John
The Teaching of 1 John
A proper understanding of salvation issues from the book of first John alone, and shines light as clear as a sunbeam on these issues.
A true Christian has been “born of God”, because God has decided to give Him life, and that life is eternal by nature. When we have been “born again”, we have become new creations with an eternal destiny.
You cannot turn from genuine faith, because you are kept by Christ through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Bible never teaches that someone who is genuinely saved, can reject or disengage themselves from Christ.
Someone who apostatizes must have had at one time an orthodox and essential profession, but not a genuine new birth. But as John explains of the apostates or antichrists;
18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.
Not really of us - did not remain
Deconstruction temptation
If one were “born of God” he could not continue to sin. The idea here is that true converts do not live in continual patterns of sin (the word for “sins” here means “ongoing continual practice of sin”), and that further if one is living in an ongoing continual pattern of sin he/she is only a mere professor and not a true believer.
6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. 7 Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; 8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.
These contrasts are meant to speak to the true believer of how to discern false teaching from true teaching about the faith. When an apostate continues in his sin, he shows the reality of his eternal state and divine calling. When one continues in righteousness and truth, their works are the proof positive of saving faith.
29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.
Born of the Righteous One - practice righteousness
Listen again as I read from 1 John 3
9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.
John makes it crystal clear that the distinguishing mark of true faith is the fruit or product that comes from it.
When the product of one’s life is a continual pattern of sin, they manifest that the true nature of their faith is only mere profession and not the fruit of being “born of God.”
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
Love one another - fruit of knowing God
Those who have been born of the divine will, (John 1:13), persevere. Not because they persist in their own spiritual fervor, but because Christ the good Shepherd knows His sheep, and He will lose none that the Father has given Him, but will raise them up at the last day (John 6:39).
18 We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
Kept from the Evil One’s touch
Conclusion
Conclusion
It is obvious then that there is a so called faith, a mere profession, which is really no faith at all. If someone claims to have faith, but does not live a life consistent with the teaching of Christ, his/her faith is useless.
True saving faith is that which produces the fruit of God’s Spirit in the life of a Christian.
Faith in Christ is not just mental agreement with the gospel message, but it is a life response to the gospel, which produces actions consistent with the children of God.
The demons believe the Gospel message and know that it is true, but they have not conformed their lives to it. Many people are just like them, they have believed that the message is true, but that have not submitted their life to Christ to obey Him.
14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. 18 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” 19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
Faith is the reality and proof that our hearts have been cleansed and we have been reconciled to God. Faith has substance, and that substance is a transformed life of godly works. Remember how Jesus defined of faith
23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
You see He is calling for the transformation of one’s life. It is a willingness to deny oneself and go where He goes and do what He does.
It is not our good behavior that earns favor with God, but our good behavior is the product of the kind of faith that saves. If we realize that Christ had to die for our sins, how can we walk in them any longer!
Eternal life is the free gift of God given to those who repent and have faith in Christ. It is by grace through faith in Christ alone that we are saved, not by our works.
But this faith produces a life surrendered to the Lordship of Christ and is a testimony of Christ’s power over sin. This is why we are exhorted toward good works.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Workmanship - New Creation
Created in Christ Jesus
Created for good works -
Good works prepared beforehand for us to walk in
Therefore true saving faith is seen in contrast to mere profession by a submission to the Lordship of Christ which produces a life of good works and obedience to God’s commandments.
Next week - look further into James 2:14-26 and what it means when he says that faith without works is dead.