The Object of Saving Faith

The Confusion Surrounding the Object of Faith

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, November 13, 2005, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Many years ago, more years than I'd like to count, I was seeking to witness to a total stranger. We came to a point in our conversation when I asked the man, Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? And he said, Yes, sir, I believe in Jesus.

0:35 I said, Well, sir, tell me, what do you believe about Jesus? And he answered without any blush.

0:45 And this is not a parody on folk from the South, but it was down in the South, and he had a Southern accent. He said, Sir, I believe he's for good. I believe he's for good. That was the content of his faith in Jesus.

1:05 And obviously, if that's true, then I believe he's for good. Obviously, if that's true, then I believe he's for good. If that was the full content of his faith in Jesus, that faith was something less than what he thought it was. He thought it put him in a safe position.

1:19 That believing that Jesus was somehow or other for good was all the Bible meant when it said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. And if the confusion were limited to that, one isolated man there in the South many years ago, one might not be too concerned. But as I said last Lord's Day, if you were the devil and wanted to damn the souls of men and women and boys and girls, and you knew, as the devil does know, that the only bond by which a sinner in the nakedness of his need can be joined to Christ in all the fullness of his saving power is the bond of faith, you would do yourself. You're best to confuse people, to distort their understanding of what it is the Bible means when it says, Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. And so for some weeks we have been studying together the teaching of the Word of God concerning these two things that Paul highlights from his ministry at Ephesus, repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ,

Recap: Necessity and Nature of Saving Faith

2:37 and I have identified them as the hinge on which the door of salvation turns. Last Lord's Day, having spent eight studies on the necessity, the nature and fruit of repentance unto life, we began to consider the necessity, the nature and the fruits of saving faith. And last Lord's Day, I sought to accomplish only two things. I sought to accomplish only two things.

3:07 I sought first of all to explain why we have to use the non-biblical term saving faith rather than just faith in the Lord Jesus. And basically it's because the same verb to believe and the same noun faith is used, both are used in such a way that they refer to actings of the mind and the soul that fall short of saving faith. That is the faith that unites us to Christ. James says the demons also believe, same verb, but certainly the demons are not saved.

3:46 So we have to use a term, non-biblical term, in order to be precise and to have a clear understanding of what the Bible means when it says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved or by grace have you been saved through faith and that not of yourself. What is that? Belief and faith. It is saving belief.

4:11 It is saving faith. And then secondly, I attempted to demonstrate the urgent necessity for you to exercise saving faith. And I gave you three reasons. Because you are presently and desperately in need of what can only, what you can only come to possess by faith in the Lord Jesus.

4:35 Secondly, because God graciously commands you. To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And thirdly, because without saving faith you are right now and will continue under a heightened measure of divine condemnation reserved for those who hear about Christ but will not believe upon Christ. Now in our study of the Word of God this morning, we shall begin to examine together the crucial matter of the nature of saving faith.

Identifying the Object of Saving Faith: Definitions

5:09 Having established the necessity for saving faith, we now move in the second place to begin to consider the nature of saving faith. And so this morning, God helping us, we are going to focus all of our attention upon this issue of the nature of saving faith and the first and most foundational aspect of its nature, namely, what is the object, or who is the object of saving faith. Now that's the one thing I want to accomplish in opening up the scriptures this morning, that if a stranger would meet you in the parking lot who doesn't know Adam from Eve, totally ignorant, should ask you, hey, what were you doing in that building? Oh, well, we sang hymns and psalms and praised God. We prayed. We gave something to the work of God.

6:09 And we listened. The preaching. Preaching? Yeah.

6:12 Well, what was the preaching about? I hope you'd be able to say, the preacher tried to teach us from the Bible who is the object of saving faith. I hope every one of you could go out in the parking lot and meet the pagan, and if I could, I'd be a quick change artist and put on a disguise and be that stranger and walk up randomly to some of you and say, hey, what happened in that building? And see if you really listened.

6:36 All right? That's the one thing I want to accomplish, that every one of you will go, out of here persuaded from the Bible that you know the answer to this question, who or what is the object of saving faith? And as I seek to instruct you and persuade you, I have two major headings. Number one, the object of saving faith identified in two helpful definitions of faith.

7:05 And then secondly, the object of saving faith identified in the witness, of some selective portions of the Word of God. So I'm going to set before you, very briefly, two helpful definitions of saving faith, and you're going to see that in those definitions, one of them hammered out by dozens of very astute, careful students of the Word of God over a period of many years, and the other hammered out by one man who himself was very much influenced by that great body of theologians and pastors who hammered out the first definition. In other words, these are things not just spun out of the stuff of Pastor Martin's head when he was preparing on Saturday.

7:57 So then, we're going to look at these two definitions and see as they describe the nature of saving faith, what is the emphasis with regard to the objects or object of saving faith? Question number 86 in the Shorter Catechism is, what is faith in Jesus Christ? And here's the answer. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby we receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered to us in the Gospel.

8:37 Now you see where the emphasis lies with regard to the object of saving faith. Now you see where the emphasis lies with regard to the object of saving faith. Now you see where the emphasis lies with regard to the object of saving faith. Faith in Jesus' faith terminates upon a person, not a proposition.

8:53 There are oodles of little manuals on personal work in Gospel tracts that say, if you will admit you are a sinner and believe that Jesus Christ died in your place upon the cross, you will be saved. And they make the object of saving faith a proposition about one aspect of the work of God. And they make the object of saving faith a proposition about one aspect of the work of God. You see the difference?

9:17 Faith in Jesus is a saving grace whereby we receive Him His finished work not His atonement but the One who accomplishes the finished work and the atonement. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby we receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered to us as He is offered to us in the Gospel. Not His salvation detached from His person but His person with His salvation enfolded in Him.

10:08 You see the emphasis? The object of saving faith is a person not a proposition not an aspect of His work it is the person Himself who is offered to us and faith engages receives and rests upon this person. The second definition is from Professor John Murray and he writes the essence of saving faith is nothing less than self-commitment to Jesus Christ in all the glory of His person and perfection of His work as He is freely and fully offered in the Gospel. Now you see the similar emphasis because Professor Murray was steeped in the theology of the old Scottish Presbyterians who had with their mother's milk the shorter catechism and he wrote after years of reflection and teaching on this subject the essence of saving faith is nothing less commitment to Jesus Christ commitment to Jesus Christ commitment to Jesus Christ commitment to Jesus Christ commitment to Jesus Christ the object is a person in all the glory of His person and the perfection of His work

11:36 as He is freely offered in the Gospel. In both of those definitions Christ Himself in His person is the object of saving faith in both definitions it is the sinner in all the nakedness of His need who goes out of Himself to embrace the Savior in all the fullness of His saving power and grace. Well, so much for those two man-made definitions. Now we come more importantly the object of saving faith identified in some selective witness from the Word of God.

Identifying the Object of Saving Faith: Scriptural Witness (Christ Himself)

12:23 And these are just specimen text and what I want you to see is two subheadings under this second major heading the object of saving faith identified in the witness of the Word of God here are the two heads. According to the Scriptures it is Christ Himself and Christ alone who is the object of saving faith and secondly it is Christ Himself as He is offered to us in the Gospel. And I just want to set forth text which prove those statements. Number one according to the Scriptures it is the person of Christ who is the object of saving faith.

13:02 Now listen carefully. Some of you know your Bibles well enough that you can already think of some texts which set forth God the Father as the primary object of saving faith. John 5, 24 Verily, verily, I say unto you He that hears my word Jesus is speaking and believes on Him that sent me is passed from death unto life and shall not come into condemnation shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life. Yes, there are some texts which set forth God the Father as the object of saving faith.

13:41 There are several texts which set forth some aspect of the work of Christ as the object of saving faith. For example in Romans 3 you have the phrase through faith in His blood. And I'm not ignorant of those texts but I'm prepared to affirm and to challenge you with a Berean spirit to go to your own Bible with your own concordance the preponderant emphasis of the New Testament is that the object of saving faith is the person of Jesus Christ Himself.

14:17 And I want us to look now at some texts. Two of them in the book of Acts. Acts chapter 16 we looked at this in conjunction with one aspect last Lord's day when that trembling jailer who had seen the moral power of God in the lives of two innocent men beaten unjustly thrown into prison and yet they're blessing God and have a glory fit at midnight and then they see the physical power of God who shakes that jail and then they see the moral power of God restraining prisoners whose shackles fell off but they didn't split and run off they remained in the prison this was too much for them and all this power and this God who could crush him and he's ready to kill himself because he knows that if the prisoners have split the Roman authorities will kill him and when he sees all of this and Paul and Silas say sir do yourself no harm he's brought to the end of himself and says I've got to know this God sirs what must I do to be saved and what is the answer of Paul and Silas Acts 16 and verse 31 and they said believe on Jesus Christ and you shall be saved they didn't say accept the fact of the atonement they didn't say accept the fact that Jesus rose from the dead they said the object of your faith is a person believe on the Lord

15:46 Jesus Christ now granted shortly after they take the man or the man takes Paul and Silas into his home and gathers his whole household together in the wee hours of the morning and they tell him who this Jesus is and they tell him about his birth and about his life and about his death and about his resurrection but they let him know at the outset Mr. Jailer Man if you're ever going to get saved you in your person are to engage the Son of God the only Savior of sinners in his person the person of the sinner engages the person of the Savior believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and in all of these texts you have three different Greek prepositions N which means in ice into a P upon and you have believe in believe into believe upon in all of them the sinner so engages the Savior that he can be said to be in the Savior by faith into the Savior by faith and upon the Savior by faith but the Savior and the sinner get together when there is real faith that's the bottom line they get together that's some prepositions yeah I can cross ten thousand years ago he died I believe that good good now I'm all fixed up for heaven where are you Jesus oh well I trusted him he's back there

17:16 I'm here no no my friend you come to real saving faith and you and Jesus are one and you're attached to him and you're attached to him in a faith that is no sooner born in your heart by the Holy Spirit than it has a baby called love and that love has many babies called obedience to his commands care for his honor love for his people person to person that's what they told the jailer man that's what Paul told the Ephesians the passage we read Acts 20 in verse 21 Paul said he solemnly testified two things repentance that had peculiar reference to God God the Father in his dignity as creator and as and lawgiver and ultimate judge of the world and faith that had at his peculiar object our Lord Jesus Christ his full names and titles which gather within their skirts all that he is and all that he has and faith is directed toward that person and then the familiar words of John John 3 16 to 18 all I'm trying to do is give you selective text that prove

18:43 without question that the preponderant emphasis of the New Testament with regard to the question what's the object of saving faith it is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ John chapter 3 and verses 16 to 18 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that his whoever believeth to him should not perish but have eternal life for God sent not the son into the world to judge the world but that the world should be saved through him he that believeth is not judged but he that believeth not hath been judged already because he has not believed on the name of the only begotten son of God three times in those verses believeth on him on him believing on the name that is that person as he is revealed in the scriptures John 6 and verse 40 the same emphasis for this is the will of my father that everyone that beholds the son and believes on him should have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day John 11

20:12 and verse 25 Jesus speaking to those ladies in that household that had just felt the sting of death and he says I am the resurrection and the life he that believes on me though he die yet shall he live and whosoever lives and believes on me shall never die and then the well-known words of John 14 6 I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the father but by me by me my person my person in all that I am in the glory of my person in the sufficiency of my work but it is by me and you find the same thing in the epistles a couple of specimen text Ephesians chapter 1 Ephesians chapter 1 as Paul is breaking out into this eulogy this this marvelous hymn of praise to the triune God for salvation and when he comes to the work of the spirit he says in verse 13 in whom you also having heard Ephesians 1 13 having heard the word of the truth the gospel of your salvation in whom that is in Christ having also believed having believed to Christ you were sealed with the holy spirit of promise verse 15 for this cause I also

21:42 having heard of the faith in Jesus which is among you didn't say the faith in the finished work of the cross but faith in the one who died upon the cross and finished the work and then that lovely text in 1 Peter 1 bringing a witness from the three major writers of the New Testament letters Paul, Peter and then John 1 Peter 1 in verse 8 1 Peter 1 in verse 8 whom Jesus Christ is the immediate antecedent notice the end of verse 7 at the revelation of Jesus Christ whom having not seen you love on whom though you see him not yet believing on whom do they believe on Jesus Christ his person is the object of their saving faith and then the text we looked at last week 1 John 3 and verse 23 God's command to faith what's the object of the faith 1 John 3 23 this is his commandment that we should believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ that is believe upon him who is revealed in his name his name is the revelation of his person and his person is the object of faith and then the capstone text Galatians chapter 2 and verse 16

23:11 and notice three times that emphasis comes through with unmistakable clarity Galatians chapter 2 and verse 16 yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ even we believed on Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law three times in one faith that is saving faith terminates upon a person and that person is the Lord Jesus I trust you're persuaded from your Bibles I hope you've had your Bibles open on your lap and seen the truth with your eyes as well as heard it with your ears however with equal clarity the scriptures teach us that the object of saving faith is not only Christ himself and Christ alone but secondly the object of saving faith is Christ as he is actually offered to us in the gospel not any Christ the Christ of your own stuff of your brain the Christ of current theological consensus in the liberal seminaries the Christ of popular opinion no no it is the Christ who is offered to us

Identifying the Object of Saving Faith: Scriptural Witness (Christ as Offered in the Gospel)

24:40 in the gospel that gospel that is defined for us in the holy scriptures and so much is this so that the apostle Paul I love this phrase we read it last Lord's day in 2nd Corinthians 4 he describes the gospel as being distinctively a gospel that unfolds before our eyes the outshining of the perfections of Christ look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 and he's saying that his gospel is not only not veiled the Jews yet have a veil upon their minds and the God of this world blinds the minds of both Jew and Gentile and it's in that context notice what he says in verse 3 of 2nd Corinthians 4 even if our gospel is veiled it's veiled in them that perish in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God should not dawn upon them he says this gospel I preach can be summarized in this way it's a gospel through glory the perfections of Jesus Christ it is a gospel of the glory of Christ

26:10 saving faith is faith in the person of Christ as he is offered to us in the gospel in all and what he's done because that glory has two major strands to it and that glory the glory of his unique person and the glory of his perfected work and I'm going to park on those two things with you for a few minutes the only Christ who is the object of saving faith is the Christ couched in the gospel and that gospel Paul calls the gospel of the glory of Christ and in what does that glory consist the glory of his unique person and the glory of his perfected work the glory of his unique person the glory of Christ is that in this person and in this perfect person alone is one perfectly suited to be the savior of hell deserving needy guilty sin bound devil enslaved sinners and that's what we all are by nature and that's and the glory of his person consists in the fact that he is so beautifully constituted that

27:39 he perfectly suits our need as sinners I remember an acrostic I'm not enamored with little acrostics but this one is stuck with my old brain Jesus J-E-S-U-S just exactly suits us sinners there's a lot of good theology in that little acrostic Jesus just exactly suits us sinners and how does he just exactly suit us sinners listen to the definition again of the old shorter catechism who is the redeemer of God's elect and the answer is this the only redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ who being the eternal son of God became man and so was and continues to be both and man in two distinct natures in one person forever that's the glory of his unique person by which he is exactly suited to us sinners for if he's to be suited to save us we who deserve the wrath of God for the wages of sin is death and God is of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity and he does not have the kind of character in which one of his attributes can swallow up another

29:09 his love cannot swallow up his justice any more than his justice can swallow up his love well how does a God who sets his heart upon saving sinners and yet who is so just and righteous that he must punish sin how in the world is he going to accomplish the impulses and the passion of his love when his justice stands as a barrier and says you can't just wrap your arms around them in love they've broken your law angels would have risen up and pointed to God upon the throne and said oh God what have you done with your justice you're wrapping your arm around guilty vile deserving sinners their sins have not been atoned for their sins have not been punished and if human sin demands death then there must be one who's truly human who can die who can shed his blood but untainted human blood he must be sinless he must be perfect so he has no sin of his own for which to atone and that's the glory of the person of Christ that in Christ there is real perfect sinless humanity when John wrote John 1 14 the word became flesh everything that it means for you and me to be flesh he was

30:37 and he is sin is not essential to our humanity Adam and Eve were created sinless everything it means to be flesh he was and is the angel said you will conceive in your womb and in a way that we cannot begin to fathom God implants by the Holy Spirit in Mary's womb that little microscopic that divides and divides and divides and he went through every single stage of prenatal development he was that little speck and then the little flippers began to appear and all that you see in those marvelous pictures that they're now able to take of interunarine development he went through every single stage of it the scripture says that when it was time for her to bring forth she brought forth her firstborn God didn't lift him out of the without Mary's groans and pains and birth blood and mucus the word became flesh and his umbilical cord was the word became flesh true humanity

32:07 and the scripture says the child grew Mary and Joseph rejoiced boy it looks like Jesus having a growth spurt can't keep the guy in food can't keep him in shoes can't keep him in trousers the word became flesh and the child grew oh isn't that wonderful Jesus can say his whole evil alphabet isn't that wonderful he can say whole sentences he can do something more than mumble mumble the word became flesh when he skinned his knee in the backyard he came in crying and asked for mama to kiss it and fix his boo boo the word became flesh did he have pimples when he came to puberty I don't know but the word became flesh became conscious of moving from boyhood to manhood and all that's involved in that there was a first time all the pictures show him bearded all the time how do you know he had a beard I don't know neither do you he may have gone through what most of you guys remember the first time you found something enough to shave oh man that was coming of age that was it that was the rite of passage that was the rite of passage and then the rest of you try to prove the rest of

33:36 you got there and when you can grow a little stubble you do it yeah I know been there done that the word became flesh folks word became flesh grew in wisdom stature favor with God and man he learned social graces they weren't dumped upon him from heaven the word became flesh real humanity the new disappointment and sorrow and all that is peculiar to human experience in this fallen world yet through all of it never sinned holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners but he was true flesh that in that humanity as we shall see he might not only live out a life of perfect obedience but that he might die a real death with real blood spilling out of the many wounds from the top of his head to his feet without such a one who was true man who could take our place in our humanity and yet sinless that he might not have to die for his own sin we could not have a savior the only redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ who became man became man ah but wait a minute laid upon him is the task of rescuing a multitude of sinners out of every kindred tribe and nation

35:05 who no man can number and how does one have enough worth so that his life and his death can count for all because he brings to it the worth of deity the worth of deity all the worth of his Godhead is poured into his work in conjunction with his manhood and so the scripture that teaches us he was as much man as though he were never God teaches us he was as much God as though he were never man for John begins his gospel in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God collosions 2 in verse 9 in him dwells of the Godhead I say it reverently there's not one ten thousandths of a drop of what constitutes God God that was not in Jesus you got it essential join sinless humanity why because only such a savior would suit and Jesus

36:32 is set before us in the gospel in that way not the Jesus of your notions that you can cuddle up to and occasionally look to him in some icon on the wall in your bedroom who before his incarnation knew what it was for cherubim and seraphim to veil face and feet in his presence and be intimidated by his holiness through whom God spoke worlds into being the next time you see a picture in some new galaxy they've discovered say Jesus made it all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that hath been made John 1 3 think of it that's the savior set before us in the gospel truly God bringing to his saving grace all the works of deity but all the has been given unto me in heaven and upon earth he can break the chains of demonic power he can open blind eyes and raise the spiritually dead why because he brings to his work as declared in the gospel the uniqueness of his person now that's the Christ offered in the gospel and my friend

38:01 listen to me that's why all this talk about can you accept Christ as savior not as Lord can you be a Christian it's a bunch of nonsense if faith in Jesus Christ is engagement of your person with that person you don't monkey with God while you're still strutting around doing your own thing it's absolutely ridiculous you get in the presence of God and you're on your face saying with soul of Tarsus Lord what would you have me to do end of discussion and if that's not where you're at you're not you don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as he's presented in the gospel you've got a little Jesus of your own making that you can dicker with and you can take a little bit of this and a little bit of that and a little bit of the other and go out and feel you're alright my friend you have dealings with the Jesus presented in the gospel and it's all over as far as who's going to run your life it's all over we read it this morning he died for all why all died to what end that they who live by his death should no longer live unto themselves but unto him who for their sake died and rose again that's why he died and that's what he gets every time he gets one of those for whom he died and if that's not you you've got no reason to believe he died for you and that you're under the canopy of his saving work you don't need to write books on it it's absolute stupidity moral insanity

39:29 that Christ presented in the gospel you meet him by faith and it's all over the question who's going to run your life it's all over it's done it's settled I'm off the throne he's on the throne if that hadn't been settled you don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ but it's not only the Christ presented in the gospel in the glory of his person but in the perfection of his work in the perfection of his work his work in three dimensions it was so hard to try to reduce it to three things and I know there are things I've left will have left unsaid but I hope this is helpful his work that validated his identity his work of representative obedience that secured the salvation of his people and his work of substitutionary atonement that turned away the wrath of God the glory and perfection when someone's preaching the biblical gospel what's he telling you about the work of Jesus well he's telling you that his work here on earth validated his identity you'll notice how the apostles emphasize this Acts 2 verse 22 let's look at it I think we've got time yes we do Acts 2 and verse 22 Peter stands in the Bay of Pentecost and he says hey you guys saying that we're drunk you missed it we don't get drunk around here at 9 o'clock in the morning we get drunk it'd be later on at night we don't bend our elbows over breakfast we do that over supper so no

The Perfection of Christ's Work in the Gospel

40:58 you missed it we're not drunk this is that spoken by the prophet Joel then he begins to preach Christ to them and notice what he says in Acts chapter 2 and verse 22 you men of Israel hear these words Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you even as you yourselves know when Peter began to preach the gospel he says salvation's in a person and this person has validated his identity by his works of mighty power and he does the same thing in the household of Cornelius in Acts 10 36 to 39 and when John comes to the end of his gospel what does he say in John chapter 20 he says look many things Jesus did look at the verse John chapter 20 skip over the Acts 10 passage verse 30 many other signs did Jesus in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing you may have a life in his name he said these signs validate who he is the Christ of the gospel is not some unhistorical religious notion or concoction of the ideas of musty theologians or overly enthusiastic religious followers

42:28 no there were hundreds who could come forward and say these eyes were blind and he opened them and I see these limbs were crooked and he straightened my body my body was dead and we were out playing football yesterday my mama couldn't have babies now she got six of them Jesus laid his hands upon her opened her wall approved of God by mighty signs and wonders that's the Christ of the gospel he is not a bunch of religious notions he's the Christ who validated his identity by his mighty works and secondly he's the Christ who validated his work his work is one of representative obedience that secured the salvation of his people that's the gospel look at Romans 5 19 Romans 5 in verse 19 Paul has demonstrated that through the one man Adam sin entered the human race and all men are condemned in Adam verse 19 for as through the one man's disobedience Adam the many were constituted sinners you and me all of us even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous listen carefully

43:56 it's hard to even say these words but I don't know how else to say them if the righteousness that God holds forth in the gospel was comprised only of what Jesus did in his death by his death turning away the wrath of God so that we would no longer be credited with sins that deserve wrath we'd just be put back to square one where Adam and Eve were before they sinned but we would have no positive righteousness to commend us to God but because Jesus lived in our condition Galatians 4 made of a woman made under the law and rendered absolute perfect obedience to every requirement of God in thought in word in motive in look in disposition in love in love in love in gesture think of it all the breadth of God's law that touches every atom of our humanity from the deepest springs of motive why we do what we do to all the outer expressions of those streams in every word and deed and look not once was there a hair's breadth deviation from perfect love to God and perfect love to man and he rendered that obedience as our representation

45:23 so that if somehow we can get into Christ and under Christ's skirt then all the obedience that he rendered and it to me just forgiveness I've cut a positive credit of perfect righteousness that demands the reward of heaven if you believe that there ought to be someone who at least peaked you see that by the obvious righteousness the righteousness of his life of perfect obedience and then in the third place his work of substitutionary atonement we read about it this morning in 2nd Corinthians 5 the sinless one became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him we heard about the other last Lord's day or two Lord's days ago Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law how having become a curse for us all of us all that cursedness meant to every lawbreaker he endured he became a curse for us John said behold the Lamb of God who carries away the sin of the world

46:53 what's the Christ of the biblical gospel he is not the muscular Christ of the half converted weight lifter he is not the athletic Christ of the half converted fullback and he is not the sentimental Christ of the half converted female poet he is this Christ God and man two distinct natures in one person bringing to his work the reality of true humanity sinless but true humanity bringing to it all the virtue and all the power of deity and in that person there was rendered by his mighty works every day every day every day every day every day every day every validation of his identity as God's Messiah in that person there was rendered an obedience to the law of God that was representative it was obedience rendered on behalf of all whom God chose in him before the foundation of the world and who were as it were hung upon his belt in every act of his obedience his work of going to the cursedness of the cross and bearing all that damnation would be mean for us he bore it in himself now that's the Christ offered in the gospel it's not the guitar twanging Jesus who's hip

48:21 and cool and he's with it you won't get with Jesus he's cool I get sick of these unprincipled unconverted people who appeal to the addiction that some of you young people have to contemporary music and just justify their rotten commercial self-serving interest by putting a smattering of Jesus in there it sickens me it's making merchandise of the word of God that's not the Christ of the Bible he's not hip and he's not cool he's the Christ whose glory is so ineffable and so grand that when a holy man like John the Apostle sees the risen exalted Christ he's not cool he falls on his face like a dead man and he only rises when Jesus comes and puts his hand upon him and says don't be afraid not to Jesus and gets a bunch of half-converted young people all swaying like they're in a rock concert whooping it up for Jesus I haven't spoken

Concluding Observations: Christ Alone and the Chariot of Propositions

49:51 on that for a long time dear people I can only take it so long when I see some of you being duped by that nonsense don't let them cheapen your Jesus don't let them you claim to embrace the Jesus of the gospel then you fall down and bid others to fall down and worship him fall down and say Lord I'm done it's all over I'm yours who's the object of saving faith it's the person of Christ it is the person of Christ as revealed in the gospel now in closing I want to make just a couple of simple observations first of all with respect to this matter who is the object of saving faith it's Christ alone it is Christ in the glory of his person and the perfection of his work it is the glory of the gospel and this is its glory to call sinners to engage the Savior directly no priest no minister no counselor no inquirer Jesus says you sinner come to me and I'll give you rest the sinner in all the nakedness and helplessness

51:20 of his need has warred with no battle in between no war and the Savior they come together in the embrace of faith that's glorious this man receives sinners yeah that's right that's the glory of who Jesus is and then secondly it's not the propositions about the person and his work that are the object of faith but Christ himself but now hear me carefully this Christ whom you and I are to receive he only rides forth in gospel grace and conquest in the chariot of the propositions about him you want Christ you'll find him in the chariot of the propositions about him he's God he's man he's God he lived a representative life of obedience he died a vicarious substitutionary death you want Christ he comes riding in the chariot of these propositions you can't have Christ without his chariot but you can point to the chariot wheel of his deity and describe it well and not have Christ you can say I believe the left chariot wheel about his person he's God and man and one person forever

52:49 you can believe the left chariot wheel that he died on the cross for sinners it's not pointing to some part of the chariot and say I believe it it's receiving the king who comes riding in regal grace in that chariot you can believe and point your finger to parts of the chariot and not have him but you can't have him anywhere but in his chariot I like that as I was praying Lord I try to get this across I haven't yet soaked it in yet so if I seem like I'm fishing with it we'll fish together does that register you see how the two are together now can't separate his person and his work as they are taught propositionally theologically intelligibly in our Bibles but it's not grabbing this proposition or that or any combination of them that is the object of saving faith it is embracing the Savior in the chariot of all that's true about him oh if you haven't embraced him embrace him today embrace him today come you sinners poor and wretched weak and wounded sick and sore Jesus ready stands to save you full of pity joined with power he is able he is able he is able he is able come come

Call to Embrace Christ and Prayer

54:17 bruised and broken by the fall if you tarry to your better you'll never come at all not the righteous not the righteous sinners Jesus came to call oh the incarnate goddess ascended pleads the merits of his blood venture on him venture holy let no other trust in truth none but Jesus none but Jesus can do helpless sinners good let's pray oh our father what can we say when we try with our own feeble minds to wrap them around such mind blowing realities and yet you've revealed them and yet you've and you've said that you even reveal them unto babes while you hide them from the wise and the prudent we pray that you'll shine upon the face of your beloved son in some heart this morning oh God that some heart that has been utterly dead to him would come alive today as you shine in that heart and reveal Jesus we pray for those of us who are your children Lord warm our hearts at the thought of all that our savior is and all that he has and continues to do for us seal to our hearts your word

55:46 and continue with us throughout this day we ask in his worthy name amen