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"FAITH IN CHRIST"
Philippians 3.8-9
INTRODUCTION:
1. "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."
2. Through this week I have noticed that a number of you are hanging up on this thing called faith in Christ. So I want to address this subject called faith in Christ, so that you will better know what it isn’t and so that you will better know what it is. And my goal, this evening, is not so you will know any more, but so you will simply come to Jesus by faith.
3. In Luke 13.24 the Lord Jesus Christ declared, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." So, many seek to get through heaven’s gate, and shall not be able to. In another passage Jesus said, "Many are called but few are chosen."
4. Despite the way most so-called Christians behave these days, and despite the shallow facade of optimism that most people display about their own eternal destiny, you know that most people are yet lost in their sins and will go straight to Hell when they die. That’s the way it is, and that’s the way it’s always been.
5. Remember, when God brought judgment on the entire human race during Noah’s day, though men had been calling on the name of the Lord for centuries according to Genesis 4.26, when the end came only eight souls were saved from God’s wrath. Eight. Out of an entire race of human beings only eight people saved.
6. My friends, it has always been the way it is today. The incomprehensibly vast majority of souls are lost and shall ever remain. The great majority of your extended family members are lost and shall remain so. The great majority of those who through the years have passed through your Church doors are lost and shall remain so.
7. Down through the centuries, however, I think the reasons why the lost remain lost have changed somewhat. For most of human history lost men have remained lost because they never once, in their entire lifetimes, ever heard the Gospel. Not one time have most who have ever lived heard declared unto them the unsearchable riches of Christ.
8. But you wonder if that is true today. With radio and television and the print media, a huge proportion of the human race has had some contact with the truth that Jesus saves. How much of what people have heard is true and not a perversion is debatable. Exactly how much of the truth was presented in a way pleasing to God, which is to say by the foolishness of preaching is debatable. I think it’s pretty bad, don’t you?
9. But let me be so bold as to give an opinion of why so many who are lost today are lost. It’s not because they have never been exposed to the truth or some variation of the truth. The reason why so many, even the overwhelming majority of so-called Christians, are lost and will remain lost is because they do not comprehend that saving faith must have a saving Object. And from what I’ve heard in the inquiry room this week I’d say that’s a problem a number of you here tonight also have.
10. Listen to me now and see if this doesn’t speak to the situation you find yourself in tonight. A very simple message tonight. Only two points to my sermon.
1A. LET US LOOK, FIRST, AT SAVING FAITH
1B. What Is Saving Faith?
1C. Saving faith is faith which results in the person with faith actually getting saved. That may overly simple to you, but there are a great many people in this country who presume to be people of faith, and they may be people of faith, but they do not have saving faith because they are not, according to the Bible criteria of salvation, saved. Let me tell you some things about saving faith to help you identify it as the real McCoy.
2C. From Ephesians 2.8, rightly understood, we see that faith, saving faith, is something God gives
to sinners like you: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." And God does not give faith to sinners for you to just hang onto for the longest time. Paul elsewhere tells us that "all men have not faith." So, generally speaking, lost people do not have saving faith and could not get saved if they wanted to, because salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus, and there is no other way to be saved.
3C. I say lost people do not generally have saving faith because God only gives faith to sinners by means of Gospel preaching, Romans 10.17: "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Read this entire chapter of Romans and you will see how indispensable preaching is to a sinner getting faith. So, saving faith is a gift that God gives to sinners, one, and He chooses to give this gift of faith to sinners by means of Gospel preaching, two. But aren’t you listening to Gospel preaching? God may give you saving faith as I speak, or in the inquiry room after I finish preaching.
4C. Third, saving faith is a faith that is alone and independent of works of righteousness. Romans 4.5 shows this very clearly: "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." So, what faith is is a gift that God gives to sinners, by means of Gospel preaching. And it functions independently of man’s efforts to save himself. It doesn’t need any help at all. Faith can get you to Jesus all by itself. That’s what faith, saving faith, is.
2B. But What Is Saving Faith Not?
Sometimes you can more clearly understand what something is by seeing clearly what it is not. Let me illustrate for you what saving faith is not by providing for you two examples:
1C. Saving faith is not something you conjure up yourself in the absence of God’s Word and Gospel preaching. Three years ago some gamblers riding a bus to Reno wrecked in the mountains. One lady said, "I knew we would be okay if we could just get everyone to believe." But believe in what? My friends, in the absence of both the Word of God and preaching, the faith that lady described was not saving faith. It was just some conjured up notion that concentrating real hard would somehow alter reality.
2C. Neither is saving faith a conclusion drawn by someone who thinks about spiritual things and then reaches a decision. So many in religion today exercise a faith that is nothing more than a logical conclusion. But saving faith, which is given by God under the preaching of the Gospel, is not like this. Saving faith is something God gives to people under Gospel preaching, just like you sitting here tonight.
3C. And this faith, being as it is something from God, is spiritual and not physical. That means it’s not something you can see, or hear, or taste or touch or feel. And if you insist on seeing it, or feeling it, or tasting or smelling or hearing it, then it’s not faith at all.
2A. NOW WE LOOK AT THE SAVING OBJECT
1B. First, We Look At Who It Is
1C. As we learn in the Old Testament, salvation comes by faith. The examples of both Abraham and David show this. But it’s in the New Testament that God sharpens our focus so that we might see what the proper Object of saving faith is. The only proper Object of saving faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 4.12: "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."
2C. This is what Paul means when he uses the phrase in Romans, Galatians and Philippians, "the faith of Christ." This is what he and Silas meant when they responded to the Philippian jailor’s question of "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" by telling him to "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ."
3C. This, too, is what Jesus meant when He declared Himself to be the resurrection and the life,
when He declared Himself to be the bread of life, when He declared Himself to be the water of life, when He declared Himself to be the door, when He declared Himself to be the way, the truth, and the life.
4C. This is Jesus, the second Person of the triune Godhead, the eternal, coequal, uncreated, Son of the living God. This is Jesus, Who came from heaven’s glory to be born of a virgin named Mary, Who suffered and bled and died for your sins, Who rose the third day victorious over sin, death, Hell and the grave, and Who even now lives to make intercession for me at the right hand of the Father. This One Who is the author and finisher of the Christian faith is the only proper Object of saving faith.
5C. And what I mean by that statement is, When you believe you must believe in Jesus, you must believe on Jesus. When you believe in Him and when you believe on Him, without necessarily feeling anything, then He is the grand Object of your faith, and then your faith is saving faith.
2B. That Said, It Is Important To Show What Is Not The Proper Object Of Saving Faith
1C. First, let me say, reverently, that the Father, God, is not the proper object of saving faith. Believing in God is a wonderful thing, but no sinner will be saved by believing in God. It is God’s Son, Jesus, Who is the Savior of sinful men, for He it is Whose blood was shed to cleanse you from your sins. To try to come to God is to insult the sacrifice of His Son and is a sign that your faith is not saving faith.
2C. Second, saving faith will not have for its object the Mary of Roman Catholicism. The Mary of Romanism is not, in my opinion, the real Mary of the Bible, the mother of Jesus. The real Mary admitted her own sinfulness and need of a Savior. The real Mary offered up sacrifices for her own sins. You know that saving faith will never look to Mary for forgiveness of sins and salvation, since the real Mary pointed sinners to Jesus.
3C. Third, saving faith will not have for its object the Bible. The Word of God, you see, was given
by God to point men to Jesus as the Savior, not to point men to the pages of the blessed Book.
4C. Fourth, saving faith will not have for its object a deed that you have done, or a historical fact. Titus 3.5 begins, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done." So, can a prayer save you? No. One man person last night said he tried to reach Jesus. Can anyone reach Jesus and be saved? No.
5C. Neither can reliance on a historical event save you. Jesus did die on the cross. But believing that saves no one. He did rise from the dead and ascend to God’s right hand. Realizing this to be true, as well, saves no one. Many people believe all these things and it doesn’t save any of them.
CONCLUSION:
1. Sad to say, most people will live out their lives and die and go to Hell. Most people, the vast majority, will never be saved. Now, it’s true that each and every sinner who goes to Hell very much deserves to suffer the wrath of God, but it’s a great tragedy nevertheless that every sinner has not heard the Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes.
2. It’s a great tragedy that so many sinners will never hear of a kind and compassionate Savior Who is ready to receive sinful men and to save anyone who comes to Him.
3. But an even greater tragedy, in my mind, is to ruin a perfectly good opportunity to get saved by being confused with unscriptural notions about faith, and Who to put your faith in for the forgiveness of your sins.
4. My friends, it is highly likely that I have attended a great many more Church services in a great many more different kinds of Churches than anyone here except for Dr. Hymers. I’ve been to Catholic services, Mormon services, Episcopalian services, Lutheran services, Brethren services, Pentecostal services, Charismatic services, Southern Baptist services, Independent Baptist services, military ecumenical services, American Indian religious services called long house ceremonies, rescue mission services, convalescent hospital services, jail house services, Chinese language services, Thai language services, Spanish language services, Seminole language services, Korean language services, and Arabic language services. I have a bit of experience in this.
5. Additionally, those who know me know that I strive to be a human vacuum cleaner when it comes to gathering facts and information about various things. I’m not bragging about being infallible, since you who know me know that I would never pretend to be infallible. My ability to forget and misstate and get confused about dates and times are well known to all.
6. But I am familiar with some things. And I think I am right when it comes to your spiritual condition and why you are probably not saved. The underlying reason, of course, is that you are a sinner and your depraved heart has demonstrated its capacity to deceive and delude you. That’s common to all sinners throughout human history.
7. But what distinguishes you from many others in times past and those in many other countries is your exposure to God’s Word. You’ve heard good Gospel preaching around here your whole life, and you think you know how to get saved. But the fact that you’re still lost shows that you don’t know how to get saved. And if trends and tendencies are any indication, you may not get saved.
8. Let me tell you why: First, you do not have saving faith. Second, you do not have the Biblical Object of faith. I’m not striving to convince you of this. I only declare to you the truth. You do not have saving faith. You do not have saving Object. That is, you are not actually looking to Jesus to save you, but someplace else.
9. But if ever there was place that met the conditions for a sinner getting saving faith it’s this Church at this time. Think of it. You’ve just had explained to you what faith is and what faith isn’t. You can cast that nonsense about faith being associated with a feeling or with faith having anything to do with somehow reaching Jesus. And you know what Jesus did for you, how He died on the cross and suffered the penalty for your sins on your behalf. If you will come to Jesus tonight then we’ll all know who God has given faith to.