Ep. 233 - True Saving Faith

And if it's yourself , well then it's done by the law . You have to achieve , you have to attain , you have to lay on beds of nails , you have to knock on doors , you have to memorize religious rites .

But when it's grace alone , through faith alone , by Christ alone , which is revealed in scripture , alone to the glory of God alone , we realize that no one can boast in the presence of God .

They really draw you in . Once you start listening , you can't stop . Great group of blessed men teaching us and helping us get closer to our Father in Heaven . Thank you guys so much . I truly appreciate it . This is great .

. I have nine questions laid out for us in regards to the series title or , I'm sorry , the title of today's discussion Faith Alone . Let's get right into it . Question number one since we just got off of Grace Alone , I thought it'd be important to explain the difference . What is the difference between grace and faith ?

And then we begin to dissect that , if you would like , ray's talking about solifidae , it is faith , faith alone . Now , faith , faith in whom ? Faith is a beautiful word because when we begin to dissect this word , it is the end of self .

The reason why this is going to become so important in our discussion here today is because it is going to strip away any and all false religions using this word alone , because all of man-made religion will try to add to that grace . I mean Mormon , as we talked about , that we are saved by grace plus all that you can do yes , after all that you can do .

Then we'll throw in a little mixture of grace , but with faith it's completely different . Faith is trusting in someone else entirely . So , though we receive grace as an unmerited , undeserved gift , faith , as Ray is talking here , is the vehicle by which God delivers that grace to us .

And if it's yourself , well then it's done by the law . You have to achieve , you have to attain , you have to lay on beds of nails , you have to knock on doors , you have to memorize religious rites .

But when it's grace alone , through faith alone , by Christ alone , which is revealed in Scripture , alone to the glory of God alone , we realize that no one can boast in the presence of God .

A young man came to see me once . He says , ray , you're a man of great faith in God . And it sounds like a compliment , but it wasn't a compliment . It's like someone coming to me and say , ray , you've got great faith in your wife . Who's the compliment , to me or my wife ? It's to my wife . If I've got great faith in her . I trust in her integrity .

She's honest , you can rely on her and when we have great faith in God , the glory is given to God . Abraham staggered not at the promise of God , strong in faith , giving glory to God through his faith in him . So I think there's a huge misunderstanding , especially among the unsaved , as to what faith is . Do you have faith in God ?

Yeah , I think I believe that he exists . No , we're talking about trusting his integrity .

You know all of these will begin to work when you begin to deal with , within the realm of soteriology , in the study of salvation , it's merely trusting God , taking Him at His word , that he initiated and he's going to complete , that everything belongs to Him . That it's not of work , so you can't boast .

It has to be completely upon the finished work of Christ on the cross . And it was received and it was accepted because we know that he rose from the dead .

But he's got His promises he's given to us and we exercise faith every day . When the doctor gives you a couple of pills , he says , take these every two hours . You don't say , well , I want them dissected and checked on our microscope so you're not trying to kill me . You have faith . You trust your life to a doctor . You trust your life to a pilot .

Every time you're getting a plane you trust your life to a taxi driver . You don't know that he's not going to go crazy . And so even in here we're sitting on stores , trusting ourselves to stores . So everything we do is inherently connected to faith . Even having breakfast , you put milk on your cornflakes . You're trusting there's no glass in the milk .

That's been stringently made , and same with the cornflakes and everything you've got . Everything you do is mingled with faith . And when we talk about faith in God , we're talking about trusting in His promises .

And this is important , I think , to point out as well , because there's so much debate and controversy , as Mark said , in the soteriological realm of how did God move , how does God save , and so on and so forth , and Christians debate vigorously over this .

But we can't forget what scripture says in regards to how even faith is a gift given to us by God and acts . It talks about how those who are appointed to eternal life believed .

And we can get into the minutiae of how God works specifically in his sovereign hand and will , and so forth , but the bottom line is we understand that salvation is a work of God and that even that faith is preconditioned upon God working in the lives of people and his appointing to salvation .

I wanted to point out that the discussion over what faith is , you know , you guys pointed out really well that there's confusion and there's different meanings going around our culture today and unfortunately nothing has changed .

This is a part of the huge argument during the Reformation against the Roman Catholic Church , and the reformers , looking through the scriptures , found three defining qualities about what specifically a saving faith requires , and you guys touched on , I think , two of them already . First is faith and knowledge .

Although faith is not identical to knowledge , it is not devoid of knowledge . Saving faith does not happen in an intellectual vacuum . So faith alone is not ignorance or superstition . That's masquerading as faith . Faith is rooted in knowledge and that's that . Knowledge is the content of our faith .

You'll hear people say today it doesn't matter what you believe , so long as you're sincere . That's ridiculous . That's not saving faith . That's not justification by faith alone . That's justification by sincerity and passion . That's not the faith that we're talking about here .

. The second thing is faith and ascent . The second essential element of saving faith is intellectual ascent . Ascent involves assurance or conviction that a certain proposition is true . It's not just putting your hope in something . It's like if easy were to say , I will destroy Oscar at basketball . That's a dead faith , obviously Right .

He has faith in himself and he has a hope that that is true . That's what we call a leap of faith . We cannot decide or be convicted simply by the gospel . We have to know that it is true . Or another way of saying it is saving faith is believing in what we know to be true . Having a living faith is believing in a living and risen Christ .

The last thing is faith plus , which refers to the root and the heart that faith takes on . Faith , the faith in scripture , changes a man from the inside out . It changes what he hopes in , what he believes in . Most importantly , it changes the desires of a man . This is a powerful living faith .

Again , the Reformers defined it through scripture as faith in knowledge , faith in ascent and faith plus or faith in a change of desires .

Who reaches out and touches the heater and the second his flesh burns , he stops believing the heater is hot . He now knows it's hot . He moved out of the realm of intellectual ascent to an experiential faith , knowing , and that's what you're talking about before . We have a faith that knows because we trust in God's promises .

But that aspect of believing that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him , that is so key for the Christian who's been saved by grace through faith , that element of understanding that there is indescribable reward and passionately seeking after the Lord .

And I think Oscar will touch on that a little later when you talk about faith and works and how that all comes together . But I've heard it said once you know that Christians make the mistake of thinking that God is as equally passionate about each one of his children , and that's just not the case .

God equally loves all this children and God equally desires to see the sanctification of all his children . But I believe God is drawn toward his children who diligently seek after him and he works on their behalf in distinct ways . I'm talking about Christians .

I'm not talking about , you know , unbeliever versus believer , but those who have been saved and walk in that faith that God diligently . God will reward those who diligently seek him and will pursue him passionately . They're going to see God move in wondrous ways and in through them .

And as I crawled under the car I saw a piece of string running from the ditch up into a two-story window and realized some kid was doing what I used to do to drivers You'd hide in the bushes with a piece of string around a package and when he stopped you'd pull it in and watch him making an idiot of himself .

But whenever you get , we used to call that car fishing , car fishing , car fishing oh , it's wonderful . Anyway , when you get something in your letterbox , a mailbox with a little tube of toothpaste or a little cookie , a little sample , it's got strings attached to it . There's always strings .

They want to attach strings to your wallet , but with the gift of God , no strings are attached . In fact , the Scriptures use superfluity or superfluous statement to make that point . In the book of Romans , I think , three times it says the free gift of God is eternal life . Free gift , that's superfluous . You don't need . If something's free , it's a gift .

If it's a gift , it's free , but it combines those two words to substantiate this is totally free , no strings attached . It's given by God , because of God's kindness .

But the root and foundation of it is the fact that it is given by God , and as it's given , we learn it . As it's given , we gain it . And yet again it traces its roots back to the root .

The foundation as to God giving it deals with the condition of man , because man , in his unrepentant self , he is dead in his sins and his trespasses , he's not seeking after God , he is darkness , he has no desire to seek after God , no desire for the word righteousness , and because he is in this state , this condition of hating God , has to start with God .

God has to initiate this relationship , because man will never initiate it , because he's dead , and a dead man cannot even cry out for help . So God initiates .

You know , this morning a brother and I were texting about the gospel and I said to him your text has greatly stirred my soul this morning . I praise God that you are experiencing the joy that has been bubbling in my own heart as you fix your gaze on the glorious gospel of light and life . What a grand , robust and divinely conceived gospel it is .

If 10 trillion men put their heads together for a hundred quadrillion years , they still couldn't even come close to conceiving and creating such a beautiful , chivalrous and love-soaked gospel . And that's the gospel that God quickens us to have faith in . I mean seriously .

Get all the men and all the history of the world together and give them an infinite amount of time . They couldn't even come close to conceiving anything as divine and beautiful as a gospel .

I mean seriously , like you just and I went on to tell my friend that you know , the spirit bears witness with his spirit that the gospel is divinely wrought and as scripture talks about . You know , we know his spirit bears witness with our own and so it's like , as Christians , we can . There's no way this could have been conceived by man .

It's so contrary to anything man would have ever conceived or , by his own self-interest , would even think of . You know so .

Or it just I pay attention when someone says I brought him to the Lord , or that guy brought him to the Lord , or I've brought in hundreds to the Lord by doing this . I know that they I hope they don't actually mean what they're saying , but it stands out to me because to God be all of the glory . You know it's like when we go out and evangelize .

It says if I'm a construction worker and I take my five year old son with me to work to build a high rise tower , in my son's mind he's doing a work , he's

building a tower , but the reality is I gave him a plastic hammer and he went out there and just kind of hung out while I did the work . Right , and to God be the glory man . We get to go to work with our Heavenly Father , but it's him who's doing the work . And so how many people have I brought to salvation ? Zero , not one , and not all of the time .

I've seen people come to the Lord , and I've seen God use me as an instrument , his redeeming hands , but I've never once brought anybody to a saving faith .

We trust you but we want to verify , and that's the ridiculous . If you trust someone , you don't want to verify . If you verify , it means you don't want to trust , and the trust that we have doesn't want to verify . We don't doubt God's integrity for a second . We wouldn't call Him a lie .

He that believes not has made Him a liar , and so , no , I don't think they can go together , doubt and faith , and you'll see Jesus rebuking his disciples again and again for their doubt . He says have faith in God .

But if the question arises , could a Christian who has come to saving faith in Christ ever battle with doubt or struggle with certain things ? Yeah , as Ray just echoed there , yeah , definitely , I think that's a possibility .

But as it relates to salvation , I think no , that that and James talks about as well the importance of faith being free from doubt , even when it comes to us trusting the Lord , when he says if you lack wisdom , ask of God , who gives Solomon generously , without reproach . But I'm asking faith without any doubting .

For you , Doubts is like the waves of the sea tossed to and fro , and so it is important that we seek to fully trust in a God who's fully trustworthy .

I can say to one of my sons I'll buy you a car for Christmas and I can . At that point in October I'm planning to , but suddenly terrible financial difficulties come my way and I can't fulfill my word . I just can't . I've got huge debts .

that if God said it , it will be . So . You know the . You think if you want to grow , if you want your muscles to grow , your muscles have to be ripped , they have to tear . If you want your faith to grow , your roots need to go down deep . You know , same thing with a tree A tree's roots need to go down deep looking for water .

And what kind of a Christian are you if you don't experience trials , if you don't experience tribulation and persecution ? But how about rejoicing in advance , knowing whom these trials come from , knowing that God will allow different things and circumstances to happen in your life so that you become pliable and usable in the master's hand ?

What was the person right who says God , I want the white picket fence , and the white picket fence only , and I don't want you to do certain things in my life to make me uncomfortable .

I learned early in my Christian walk to simply trust God and I , like Corey Ken Boom , she would underline the promises of God and then she would put a P next to that promise when she would see it fulfilled in her own life . And slowly , one after another , she was seeing God keeps his word and everything .

So you have person after person , believer after believer , who says all right , god , please provide for me , please provide for me . Yet in his promise he says I will supply all your needs according to my riches in Christ Jesus . And people begin to still want to go back to that really elementary verse . And we should , we should go to God's word .

I'm just saying how many times does God have to say it ? Which ways does he have to say it in order for us to believe it ? I personally have not doubted my salvation since the day I was born . I just God said it . I believe it , that settles it . That was it , and I thank God for that .

It was a faith given to me , and I know a lot of other people that don't waver as well at the promises of God . They just they believe it , they accept it . That's it . Let's move , let's go forward , let's march . This isn't a playground , it's a battleground . It's not a playing field . It's a battlefield .

Let's move forward , let's get over the elementary things and this really is . And Ray wanted to say something .

Jesus asks , tells , asks him if he believes , and the father's response is sincere and he says Lord , I believe , help with my unbelief . So there in that guy's life there's belief and there's an element , a type of unbelief , and yet God , jesus , granted it to him and his son was healed . Or another thing that I think of is faith the size of a mustard seed .

We'd be able to move mountains right . Raise your hand . If you've ever moved a mountain . Yeah , all of us in this room and anybody we've ever known has faith smaller than a mustard seed . So in there there's faith , but it's not the fullness of faith on the other side of eternity . It's a faith that's growing .

It's a faith that Romans one tells us that God gives it to us day by day , and we act out that faith and obedience . So I would just say to the believer who at times doubts or is uncertain about certain things , that's where that living faith in the promises

of God can still hold you up .

And I know that if someone says , ray , I've got faith in you , it just makes me feel good . It does , someone trusts me , makes me feel good . And so if we have no faith we cannot please God . But when we have faith we can please Him .

Now , he wasn't even a Jew , he wasn't even a Jew , marveled at his faith and then later on , when he came home to his hometown , it says that he marveled at their unbelief . Yes , so the two times where God marvels , right , it's either at your faith or at your unbelief , and I love the fact that God can marvel at one's faith . That is given by him .

And they start freaking out . And Jesus says hey , wait a minute . When I fed this multitude , how many baskets full of leftovers did you take up ? And they answered . And when I fed this multitude , how many baskets full of leftover did you take up ? And they left out . And he said having eyes do not see , having ears do not hear ? And do you not remember ?

And it says at one point in one of the gospels that their hearts had become hardened . And so God has given us a perfect track record of faithfulness . He's a God in whom we can have full faith , and we need to , because our problem is forgetfulness . When has God not met our needs ? When has God not brought us through every trial and tribulation ?

When has God not been fully present in his love and grace and mercy ? So , in terms of our faith , as it relates to daily trust in the Lord and our lives and so forth . We need to remember he is a faithful God . We can put our faith in him fully and trust him .

Yet I had a lot of questions that were unanswered and uncertainties , and anytime that I spent nights just wrestling with all of the junk that I spent the last seven years or so filling my mind with those nights I came down to just having obedience in the little amount of faith that I had , which was God .

I don't know the answers to these questions , but I know you do . I know you have an answer to them and in your time they'll be revealed to me .

I don't know if we wanna call that doubt or uncertainty , but the bottom line is , with that amount of faith is what kept me going and , by the grace of God , my mind was put at ease through meeting Godly men and through reading Godly books and et cetera , et cetera .

will have a whole slew of traditions . They will have sacraments , from the Eucharist to baptism , to their confession and everything else . And what happens is they begin to add to the finished work of Christ , even with the Eucharist . Even with that , they're crucifying Christ all over again .

And there's this anticipation , there's this hope that they're gaining and earning the merit of God through what they do . And that is the antithesis to what scripture has to say .

That is so far beyond anything that God ever intended for a man , you are dead , let me do the work , say by grace , through faith , not of yourself , there's nothing you can do to make me smile . We don't serve God to gain his acceptance . We are accepted . Therefore , we serve God .

So they believe that it's faith , baptism and penance penance , meaning an outward expression of repentance , is the thing that saves a man , and this is a quote from Roman Canon 24 . This is the response of the Roman Catholic Church writing to the Protestant reformers .

If anyone says that the justice received is not persevered and also increased before God through good works , but that those works are merely a fruit and sign of justification but not the cause , let him be an enathema .

And someone asked me the other day what would you say to the Pope if he came into your house and sat down with you and I said you know what ?

I would ask him to just read through the book of Romans with me and just explain to me these indisputable passages of scripture where it makes it clear Paul says look , if it's a faith that no longer works , otherwise faith is no longer faith . If it's forks , no longer faith . Otherwise , works is no longer works .

You know , to him who doesn't work but believes in him , who justifies , you know , I mean , it's like all throughout and it's such a terrifying place to be Within Catholicism . Oftentimes it's viewed as humility to say , well , I don't know if I'm saved , it's up to God , I'll find out on that day . But that's not really humility .

What's implicit in that is let me see if I can do enough good works for God to therefore grant me everlasting life . And that is completely in opposition to all that .

Scripture says that we are saved by grace , through faith , that not of yourselves , it's a gift of God , not of works , lest anyone should boast If I could speak to the Pope , I'll ask him if I could preach off his balcony .

It's a lack of knowledge of the law and that's what makes the difference when it comes to the self-righteousness that people have , and I've seen so many people's eyes light up when they say , well , I know I'm a sinner , but I'm trying to balance it out .

And then when you take it to civil court or criminal court and say , try that in a court of law , it makes sense to them . I mean , if they're guilty , what are they gonna offer the judge ? The only thing I can do is fling myself on his mercy .

So it's essential to give people knowledge from the law to show them that they're heinous criminals that have sinned against the judge of the universe , and anything we offer him is an attempt to bribe the judge of the universe and garb and not be bribed . The sacrifice of the wicked is the nomination to the law .

All we can do is call upon his mercy and grace , and that's what we're talking about .

So we hold that one as justified by faith , apart from the works of the law , and this flies in the face of Roman Catholic Church official teaching and in Galatians 2 , 16 , knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ .

Even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law , for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified In the whole of Romans , I mean the first eight chapters just keep saying that again and again it's not by the works of the law , it's through faith alone .

The prosperity gospel is works-based . Even though it's this high promise of a good life , it's works-based . They say do this and get that , stop sinning and you'll be forgiven , tithe and you'll get rich . In other words , you do this and here's the result . But , as we've been discussing , faith is merely a gift that's given by God and everything else follows .

You know the wages of sin is death and we leave it there and we forget that . But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus . So we have to kind of go against the American pop culture idea really , which is I work hard , I get this , unless you're in that Socialistic community where I want everything handed to me for free .

So when you're referring to what you're referring to , it is what religion has done right . Religion is really man's attempt to get to God and Christianity is the father's attempt to get to his creation .

He's commanding us to lay our lives down . There's a difference . So the transformation comes from within . It comes from within and not on the outside . God cleans up the out , but he starts off by doing that on the inside .

And it's so important to remember what scripture talks about . I think I may have cited it in one of the other sessions that we discussed , but you have to remember what it says Ephesians 2.8 and 9 . We've quoted that already . For by grace you've been saved , through faith and not of yourselves . It's a gift of God , not of works . Us anyone should boast .

And then verse 10 , for we are his workmanship , created in Christ Jesus for good works , which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them . And then , when you look at Titus 3 , for we ourselves were also once foolish , disobedient , deceived , serving various lessen pleasures , living in malice and end , behateful and hating one another .

But when the kindness and the love of God , our Savior , toward man appeared , not by works of righteousness , which we have done , but according to his mercy , he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit , whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ , our Savior .

Having been justified by his grace , we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life . And then he says this this is a faithful saying . In these things I want you to affirm constantly that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works . These things are good and profitable to men . And I love the balance of that .

I mean he emphasizes not of works of righteousness , which we have done , but remind those who have believed in God , those who have been justified , those who have been saved by his grace , to maintain good works . He says man , reiterate this constantly , tell them to maintain good works , why these things are good and profitable to men .

So a true saving faith that is wrought in God's grace is gonna produce good works . And it goes on , and Titus to say that he wants to sanctify for himself his own special people who are zealous for good works , those , if true saving faith exists , that'll be the barometer , that'll be the evidence that you have in your life because you're manifesting good works .

One thing I hate I just I hate it is when I help somebody and I can't give the glory to God . You know , you do good works but you can't sound . I'm doing it because I'm a Christian . I'm not trying to earn my way to heaven , you know , and so we want to give glory to God by good works .

You know , william Barkley said there are two great days in a person's life the day we are born and the day we discover why we were created in the image of God , to know the one who is willing to know all about us and forgive us and give us this relationship with him and the hope of heaven . Right , that's remarkable .

It's like someone saying I'm a good chef and James is going okay , let me taste your food , yeah .

him ? Right , and where he goes on to say it's not just by faith but by works . But he's clarifying there what he means , that it's a faith that is manifested in genuine works . And this is the one thing that I love about that passage in James Show me your faith without your works . I'll show you my faith by my works .

To me , it's such a confidence in that faith is not some ambiguous sort of amorphous and hard to grasp things Like do I have faith ? Am I ? He's saying , listen , show it by your works . Right , I mean , how do I prove I have faith ?

Well , I may feel like I don't believe God's word is important and that it's valuable , but , man , I'm in it every day , consistently and faithfully . I'm showing my faith by my works . Oh , prayer , does God even hear my prayers ? Is it really valuable ?

But I'm on my knees every day and I'm crying out to God and I'm praying , I'm showing my faith by my works , and that can bring rest to a Christian's heart . It's like am I demonstrating faith ? Well , no , or am I ? Yeah , I'm carrying it out by proving it and what I do .

A living faith produces good works . It's like what we said faith equals justification plus works . It's not faith equals justification period . It's faith equals justification and works .

I had scripture posters on the doorway and the barber next door told me when people came in for a haircut or a shave they'd say to him what a nut next door . And they wouldn't say any more . They were just disgusting .

But when I got into drug prevention work he told me , called me and he says it's amazing , people are sitting in the chair and say do you want to find a job ? That young guy next door Because they saw my works . And I remember years ago I suggested doing vegetable evangelism to our church .

We gave away bags of vegetables to 100 houses around our local church . We had a letter that didn't say God bless you . We just said we care about you and best wishes . And people called up and they were crying over the phone . One guy said I've been here 30 years . This is the first time the local church has ever done anything for me . This is amazing .

It was a $2 bag of vegetables long time ago . It was quite substantial . But scripture says by so is the will of God that by your well-doing you put to silence the ignorance of foolish men . So it's legitimate to be an evangelistic Christian and be rich in faith .

And second , timothy 2 talks about how , in a great house , there's vessels of honor , dishonor . If anyone cleanses himself from the ladder , he'll be a vessel of honor , useful for the mass , sanctified , useful for the master , prepared for every good work . I may have touched on this last time when we talked about grace , but if so , there's an update .

I love that whole concept . We're prepared for every good work and every good work is prepared for us . And as we walk along the path of life , there's these nicely , neatly prepackaged good works of evangelism and of faith and of love that we can enter into . And we're ready . Divine convergence , that's right . We're ready for them , they're ready for us .

And boom , divine convergence . But right , mark ? We experienced this when we went to the Philippines . We're sitting on the plane and everyone's boarding . We're in Manila , this guy's walking down and suddenly his eyes goes wide as saucers and he goes . I can't believe it . You guys are from Living Waters .

We're like , yeah , and he's like , oh , I love the ministry and it was just really , really cool . So anyway , he goes . Well , I better go back to my seat . So he goes back to his seat and then he comes back and he looks at his ticket and he goes .

I'm sitting right between you guys , so he sits down and the whole way to the US not the whole way , but for a good portion of the flight . We were able to counsel him because he had this very , very tough situation where he went to the Philippines to see his fiance who had cheated on him . She got pregnant and he's like , what do I do ?

And I don't know . So we were able to counsel him and the other day I was with a brother out to breakfast and we were reading a book together and it talked about divine encounters and got orchestrating things and I said , man , there's this amazing story with me and Mark in the Philippines and that and so anyway , that evening I go on my email .

The same day he sent me an email . He goes . I know it's been eight months , never heard from him until that day . He goes . I know it's been eight months . I was rummaging through a drawer for some keys and I found your card and I just want to thank you so much for that .

Counsel gave me and he sent a picture of him and his new wife that he married a woman who loves the Lord . So he was engaged , had to break it off with that lady , and then the Lord and it was just like wow , divine convergence , god preparing our works beforehand . It's a wonderful thing .

Everything we do is made possible through our partners and their gifts , so thank you for supporting us , both financially and through your prayers . God bless you .

have no idea what we're doing . Why are you laughing , right ?