Essential Elements

Introduction and Review of Saving Faith's Necessity and Object

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, December 11, 2005, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. I want you to listen carefully as I read some select portions of the Word of God, not telling you where they are so you won't be flipping around, but that you'll listen to the peculiar verbal emphasis that I give as I read several of these portions of the Word of God. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes into Him might not perish but have eternal life. He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believes not is condemned already. He that believes on the Son has everlasting life. He that believes not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

1:15 Truly, truly, I say unto you, he that believes on me has everlasting life. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall. God is just and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus.

1:45 The Gentiles have attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith. But Israel has not attained it because they sought it not by faith. Knowing that a man is justified by works, is not justified by works of the law, but by the faith. Knowing that a man is justified by works, is not justified by works of the law, but by the faith.

2:07 Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. This is His commandment that we should believe on His Son, Jesus Christ, He that believes on the Son has the witness in Himself. Let us pray.

2:52 Holy Father, we have several times addressed You in this marvelous privilege of prayer. But we come again because our Lord Jesus has told us, Without me you can do nothing. We confess we are so slow. We are so slow to really believe that and think and act as though we did believe it.

3:19 But we would in one corporate act of confession of our utter spiritual impotence pray that You would help preacher and listener alike that the Holy Spirit would take of the things of Christ and make them plain to us, bring them home with power to us. O Lord, have dealings with us in the...

3:43 opening up of the Scriptures today, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Now the verses just read in your hearing must lead any careful listener to the conclusion that according to the Word of God, the Bible, one must come to personally believe in the Lord Jesus Christ if he is to have any hope of being right, with God. And we come this morning to the eleventh message in a series of messages which I have entitled Repentance and Faith, the Hinge on the Door of Salvation. Following eight sermons on the necessity, the nature, and the fruits of repentance unto life, we come this morning to our third study on the necessity, the nature, and the fruit of saving faith. Now three Lord's Days have come and gone since our last message on this theme, and so I'm going to take a few minutes to highlight the central biblical truths that we have already established since this series of messages is like fabric

5:09 and we just can't plunge right in to the things I trust to open up this morning without at least having some fundamental reference point in what has preceded. First of all, I began by explaining why I had to use the term saving faith. You will nowhere find that little phrase in the Bible. And I demonstrated that we need to do this because there are some times when to accurately teach the Bible we've got to use terminology that is not in the Bible.

5:46 For example, if I am to teach what God is like, that He is one, and yet within His oneness there are three personalities, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, it is helpful to describe that reality by the term the Trinity, though the term the Trinity is not found in the Scriptures. And since the Bible speaks of faith and belief, believe and believing, in various ways which fall short of bringing the one who believes into the possession of salvation, we must speak of that faith which is saving faith. In other words, that faith which always issues in the one who exercises that faith being saved. And so it is necessary to use the term saving faith to distinguish it from other kinds of faith. And then I went on, secondly, to demonstrate the urgent necessity for saving faith. And I sought to demonstrate out of the Scriptures that it is an urgent necessity for you to exercise saving faith because you presently and desperately need what you can only come to possess by faith in Jesus Christ.

7:14 Secondly, because God graciously commands you to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And thirdly, without saving faith you are now and will remain under peculiar aggravated judgment from God, having heard the truth about Christ, but refusing to believe upon Christ. I then proceeded to begin to explain the nature of saving faith, having considered its necessity, then its nature. And nothing, nothing is more important than this question, who or what is the object of saving faith?

7:58 And I sought to demonstrate the object of saving faith as identified in two helpful definitions of saving faith. The shorter catechism, which very clearly says that faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon Him alone as He is offered to us in the Gospel. And then a second helpful definition from Professor Murray, the essence of saving faith is nothing less than self-commitment to Christ in the glory of His person and the perfection of His work as He is so freely and fully offered to us in the Gospel. But then secondly, I went on to demonstrate the object of saving faith as identified in the witness of the Word of God. And that witness is beautifully summarized, epitomized in such texts as Acts 16.31, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Or Acts 20.21,

9:08 where Paul says he preached both to Jew and to Gentile, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. It is Christ Himself who is offered to us in the Gospel. It is Christ Himself who is the object of saving faith. Christ in the glory of His unique person.

9:32 Christ in the perfection of His saving work. And I concluded by using the analogy that Christ in the Gospel comes in the chariot of the truths about Him. There is no Christ who saves but the Christ who comes riding in Gospel grace into our lives in terms of the truths about who He is and what He has done. And we cannot be saved if we disbelieve who He is and disbelieve what He has done.

10:04 But we can ascend to the chariot wheel and to the walls of the chariot and to the axle of the chariot, and say, yes, I believe Christ is the Son of God. Christ is truly God, truly man. I believe He died on the cross for sinners. We can believe in the components of the chariot and never embrace the Savior.

10:24 But you can't embrace any Savior unto salvation but the One who comes in that chariot. And so the Apostle can clearly state in 1 Corinthians 15.1 and following, we are saved if we hold fast those truths about the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Well, that's a brief review.

Traditional Reformational Formulation of Saving Faith

10:45 Now this morning, I want us to consider together the essential elements of saving faith. We've considered the necessity of saving faith. And as we began to open up the nature of saving faith, we looked at its object. It is Christ Himself, Christ in the uniqueness of His person, Christ in the sufficiency of His life.

11:08 The sufficiency of His work. Now as we further seek to understand the nature of saving faith, we come this morning to what I'm calling the essential elements of saving faith. And I have two headings by which to set forth the concerns of this message. The first is to consider very briefly the essential elements of saving faith according to a traditional reformational formulation.

11:36 You say, oh boy, Pastor Mark, we get a mouthful. Yes, you get a mouthful. But you don't get a mouthful undefined and undescribed. What are the essential elements of saving faith according to a traditional reformational formulation?

11:54 That is, during the Protestant Reformation, when the Gospel had lain buried for the most part for centuries in the rubble of Romish tradition, the Reformers hammered out from their Bibles an answer to the question, what are the essential elements of the faith that unites us to Christ and brings us into the possession of His salvation? Rome for centuries had taught that fundamentally faith was nothing more than a blind trust in Mother Church. Whatever Mother Church said, you ascend to it, and then the priests and the sacraments and all the other things will make up whatever may be lacking and you will be at least fit for purgatory, but certainly not heaven itself. Well, the Reformers wrestled with this issue. What is the essence? What are the elements that are present in saving faith?

12:52 And because many of them were fluent in Latin and wrote in Latin and debated in Latin, they said that saving faith consisted of notitia, ascensus, and fiducia. That is, saving faith consisted in an element of knowledge, an element of conviction or persuasion, and then an element of trust. They taught, and rightly so, there can be no saving faith in a vacuum of ignorance. The Word of God says, faith comes of hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

13:29 The Apostle goes on in Romans 10 and says, How shall they call upon Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? There can be no saving faith unless there is a knowledge of the object of that faith. There must be at least a minimal measure of knowledge about who Christ is and what Christ has done in order to save sinners.

13:54 So there must be knowledge. But knowledge alone does not save. The knowledge must move into persuasion or conviction of the truth of those propositions. It is one thing to hear and to receive the knowledge that Christ is both God and man, that He died upon a cross in the room instead of sinners, but there is no saving faith unless the persuasion comes.

14:20 Those things are true. It is God who has revealed them. The Holy Spirit has confirmed them in my own heart, and I not only know them with the matter of blank, bare knowledge, but there is conviction that they are true. However, there is no saving faith unless that knowledge and that conviction leads to trust.

14:44 I must now entrust myself to the Savior. I must commit myself into the hands of the Savior to save me. And so that formulation has been carried on in many of the systematic theologies. When you come to the section on the application of redemption as the subject of saving faith, you will find that it is set forth in its essential elements as notitia, knowledge, essensus, conviction, and then fiducia, trust.

15:16 So much, then, for that reformational formulation, which is helpful. However, I did not want to weary you with poorly pronounced Latin words and give the appearance as though I know something that I don't. Furthermore, the Bible was not given to people who can think primarily in great abstractions and in philosophical and philological distinctions. It is given to you and to me in all of our simplicity.

Biblical Description 1: Saving Faith as Receiving Christ

15:46 And so, my second heading is this. The essential elements of saving faith in the various biblical descriptions of its actings. You see, God nowhere gives us a formal definition of saving faith. Now, I know immediately some of you think, oh, but Pastor, Hebrews 11 says hope for the substance of things, hope for the evidence of things not seen.

16:09 Yes, I know Hebrews 11.1, I think, as well as you do. But that is not a description of saving faith in particular. It is a description of faith generically.

16:19 The Bible nowhere gives us a formal definition of saving faith. In place of any formal definition, it does give us various descriptions of faith acting and descriptions that touch us where we live. So that the average man, woman, boy or girl can at least understand cognitively, understand conceptually what are the elements of saving faith. And so, as time permits, I want us to look together at three of the dominant pictures of saving faith in its actings.

17:01 And we know what it is in its essence as we see it in its actings. As it acts this way, it is saving faith acting. And therefore, if this can be helpful to us as we seek to understand for our own experience and in seeking to bear witness to others, to instruct our children, to instruct those who have some measure of leaning upon us for light and biblical understanding. So I want us then to take up three biblical descriptions of the actings of saving faith and the first is this.

17:39 Saving faith is described as a receiving of Christ himself. Saving faith is described in its actings as a receiving of Christ. And here I ask you to turn with me to John chapter 1. The Gospel of John and chapter 1.

18:04 John having begun with the declaration of the Godhood of the Word who is none other than our Lord Jesus, tells us in verse 10 of John 1 He, that is the Word, was in the world and according to verse 14 he came into the world by taking true humanity unlike an angel who visits this world he did not simply visit it he took to himself real human nature. In the world the world was made through him and the world knew him not. One of the saddest verses in all of the Bible. The world's creator comes into that which he created in all of its sin and misery and messed up condition and it doesn't recognize who he is, knows him not. Does not recognize him. Verse 11 He came unto his own even more sad most likely a reference to the Jewish nation he came unto his own unto his own things literally in the Greek but there's good reason to believe that it's speaking of the Jewish people collectively he came unto his own and they that were his own received him not.

19:32 They did not receive him. Now what does it mean not to receive him? They did not acknowledge his claims about his person. He told them again and again who he was one with the father and they understood they took up stones to kill him because they regarded him as a blasphemer and in the famous seven I am's I am the bread of life I am the door I am the truth and the life I am the good shepherd the Lord Jesus is taking to himself that sacred name of Yahweh the great eternal changeless I am and he identifies himself as the enfleshed Jehovah they received him not they did not acknowledge the validity of his claims about his person furthermore he constantly was declaring what he would do he spoke in John chapter 3 about the son of man being lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent into the wilderness and according to John 12 they understood that that was an allusion to his cross because when he speaks in that setting they say wait a minute what is this son of man who is going to be lifted up this does not fit our conception

21:01 they would not embrace him not only in the revelation of his person but in the revelation of his work the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep no man takes my life from me I lay it down of myself they received him not they would not acknowledge the validity of his claims about his person they would not embrace the declaration of his mission which was to save by his vicarious death they received him not that is what it meant to receive him not but now look at verse 12 but as many as received him to them gave he the right from children of God even to them that believe on his name now do you see the parallel to receive him is to believe on his name to believe on his name his name is the revelation of his person the revelation of his work the revelation of all that he is and came to do to believe on his name is to receive him to receive him is to believe on him what was it to receive him not it was to reject his claims about his person it was to refuse to embrace the statements about his mission and to entrust oneself to him

22:29 to accomplish that mission in one's own person but as many as did receive him thou art the Christ the son of the living God will you also go away to whom else shall we go thou hast the words those that received him are those that embraced his claims about himself those that entrusted themselves to him to be their prophet to teach them their priest to forgive and intercede for them their king to rule over them what is it to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ unto salvation according to verse 12 it is to receive him but as many as received him what does it mean to receive him what is it of what they did when they received him not God's coming down and talking to us in very plain very simple very clear language now granted none will receive him according to verse 13 who were not born of God who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God it is the new birth that so changes the disposition of the soul that from those who receive him not do receive him but it is we who receive him God doesn't receive him for us we do not sit back passively and say well I'm waiting for God to receive Jesus

Illustration: Receiving Gifts with the Giver

23:57 no no I must receive him I must embrace his claims about himself claims validated by the record of his works claims validated by his mighty resurrection I must embrace him receive him in terms of his mission he came to seek and to save that which is lost thou shalt call his name Jesus he shall save his people from their sins what is it to believe upon Christ it is to receive him what is it to receive him it is to embrace him as is revealed in the gospel in the glory of his person and in the perfection of his work that's what it means to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ it is to receive him let me try to illustrate it suppose I hear of a family that's had great personal tragedy somewhere in Cedar Grove and I read in the little freebie that at this time of the year they've been left utterly destitute maybe their house has been burned and they're living with relatives think of someone in a real state of destitution and I'm not moved with compassion

25:26 and I go out and I in there they talk about how many children they have and what their ages are and I try to get gifts appropriate to the various ages and then put together a cash gift and rest and have it all together in various packages and I go with a big plastic bag and I show up at the door and they say who are you I say my name is Al Martin well that's fine I know your name but who are you what are you here for well I am here because I read about a situation in the local Cedar Grove Observer the little freebie did you know I didn't know yes it was in there and I read about it and out of concern and compassion I've put together a number of gifts no strings attached and I would like you if you will admit me into your home with my gifts to be able to sit down and open them one by one present them to you and to your children they look at me and say you kidding I say no I'm not kidding I'm telling you the truth how do I know you're not a terrorist and in that plastic bag there's a bunch of bombs you gotta trust me I'm here on a mission of goodwill well just dump your things on the doorstep let us poke around a bit and you go no no you can't have my gifts without me either I come in to present the gifts personally or there's no gifts so finally they're persuaded they come to a certain knowledge that I am who I say I am

26:53 and that I'm there for the purpose that I say I'm there and they let me in I open up my gifts and at the end of this of course they feel a great sense of indebtedness and gratitude to me well what's the simple illustration it's this that the Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel comes to us laid in with the gifts of forgiveness of sin peace with God acceptance before God in the court of heaven the gift of the Holy Spirit the pledge of eternal life and when he comes to us knocking as it were upon the door of our hearts in the gospel he says receive me with my gifts and all of my gifts shall be yours in receiving me now if you don't believe he is who he says he is you're not going to embrace him or if you smart aleck him and say hey I don't know I like this idea of God man coming in my life that means somebody's going to be in charge here that's never been in charge before so Lord dump your gifts on the Lord said no no either I come with my gifts or my gifts and I depart one or the other receive me with my gifts or refuse me and my gifts as many as received him to them gave he the right to become the children of God even to them

28:21 that believe on his Donald Carson in his helpful commentary in John says receiving Christ is yielding allegiance to Jesus trusting completely in Jesus acknowledging the claims of Jesus and confessing one's attachment to Jesus as many as received him that's why Paul could describe the conversion of the Colossians in that very terminology in Colossians 2 and verse 6 as you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him rooted and built up in him as you have received so walk he says your Christian life began with a reception of Christ Jesus the Lord Messiah Jesus of Nazareth who is the Lord Messiah God's anointed prophet priest and King you embraced him as prophet to teach you you went out of the God business as to what is reality you were prepared to embrace the Lord Jesus as the embodiment of truth you embraced him as your priest Messiah priest God's anointed

29:50 priest you look nowhere else for the forgiveness and the pardon of your sins and you embraced him as your King as you received Christ Messiah Jesus of Nazareth not some Jesus of philosophical speculation not some Jesus of half pagan Gnostic construction that was floating around as you received the real Jesus of the gospel records as you received Messiah Jesus the Lord the sovereign that one so walk in him but their Christian life began with the reception of Christ Jesus the Lord so the question is this have you received him have you received him can you say that by the grace of God having heard of him in the gospel in the uniqueness of who he is and in the perfection of what he's done to make me right with God for time and eternity have I yielded allegiance to him trusted completely in him acknowledged his claims and confessed my attachment to him have I received him now that shouldn't be so difficult to answer should it God

Biblical Description 2: Saving Faith as Coming to Christ

31:17 says that's what it is to believe on his name is to receive him so the first biblical description of saving faith is that of receiving Christ himself a hearty reception of him in the glory of his person and the uniqueness of his work as he comes to us in the gospel but then secondly another picture of saving faith in its actings is this saving faith is a coming to Christ it is not only receiving of Christ but it is a coming to Christ and here I ask you to turn to John chapter 6 John chapter 6 many of you are familiar with the context Jesus is fed the five thousand he's crossed over the lake met the disciples there the next day a bunch of these people whose bellies were filled they seek out Jesus and they come to him and the Lord tells them why they came to him not because they understood the miracle and were ready to embrace him for who he was their bellies were filled yesterday and they said well maybe we'll get a free belly full today and it's in that setting that Jesus proclaims himself as the bread of life as the bread to be desired as the bread to be assimilated

32:44 and I'm going to pick up the reading at verse 35 John 35 Jesus said unto them these people who sought him out the day before it had their bellies filled I am the bread of life now look at the language he that comes to me shall not hunger and he that believes on me shall never thirst coming is believing you see the parallel he that comes to me shall not hunger he that believes on me shall never thirst but I say unto you you have seen me and yet believe not all that the Father gives me shall come unto me that is they shall believe upon me and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out for I am come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me and this is the will of him that sent me that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day 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 here in this passage Jesus says whoever comes to him he'll never cast out he will keep them he will preserve them he will guard them to the full possession

34:13 of eternal life in the age to come here he says it's the one who believes upon him who has eternal life well is it coming or is it believing it is a believing that is a coming and that it is a coming that is a believing our Lord is giving us a vivid simple picture of the actings of saving faith and he is telling us in verse 35 37 and 40 that saving faith is a coming to Jesus not a physical coming since many had done that they had crossed over to find him where he was from the day before and of that group we read in verse 66 upon this many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him they came but they went so this coming is not a physical coming that may be a temporal coming it is a movement of the soul away from all trust in oneself in all religious privileges in all religious rituals and it is an attachment to Christ in his person and work as offered to us in the gospel in this context as the bread of life if we would have true life life that is sustained for

35:41 eternity we need something more than physical bread and these people were concerned about the physical bread to fill their belly and as we shall see under another heading Jesus said don't labor for the bread that perishes set yourself to pursue the bread which lasts to eternal life I am the bread of life but initially he doesn't talk about eating him he talks about coming to him that's what I want you to see in this paragraph he says I am bread of life you must come to me he says not a word about eating him yet that comes in the next paragraph you want to know what believing upon me is he says it's a coming to me it is a movement of the soul away from all trust in yourself in all of your religious rituals and privileges all that you have had as part of this Jewish nation it's an attachment to me in my person and work now granted Jesus says in verse 44 no one can come to me except the father which has sent me draw him yes there must be a divine activity just as John 1 13 says the only ones who receive him are those who are born of God but the coming is your coming and may I say it bluntly don't you for Jesus

37:09 says in John 5 40 as a word of condemnation you will not come to me that you may have life he speaks these words that he says that you may be saved but you will not come to me that you might be saved saving faith is a coming to Christ a movement of the soul in the direction of Christ to receive from Christ all that Christ offers to needy sinners that's why the invitation of Jesus that we sang about in our hymn before the sermon is so beautiful Matthew 11 28 come in an imperative come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest some of us can't quote those words without hearing that beautiful air from that solo from the Messiah come unto me come unto me and I will give you rest come to me now the Lord didn't stop and say now would you like me to explain philosophically what coming means no he just said come I'm here in the plenitude of my grace in all the power of a unique person in all that I am is one with the father for he went on to say no one knows the son save the father no one knows the father save the son fully conscious of the uniqueness of this person he says come come to me all that labor

38:37 and are heavy laden and I will give you rest experience in the motion of your soul what moving toward an individual is in the realm of the physical that's why Peter can describe the conversion of those people in Asia Minor in exactly the same language in first Peter 2 4 he says to whom speaking of Jesus to whom coming to whom coming you came and you continue to come the motion of your soul is towards Christ as revealed in the gospel this description of saving faith has a different nuance from receiving Christ and it puts the emphasis upon our actively going out of ourselves and away from ourselves and away from every other object of trust and moving toward Christ himself and Christ alone for salvation but then thirdly saving faith is not only described in its actings as a receiving of Christ a coming to Christ but a third and striking analogy saving faith is set forth as an eating and a drinking of Christ we go back to John 6 notice what our Lord said in verse 27

Biblical Description 3: Saving Faith as Eating and Drinking Christ

40:05 do not work for the food that perishes but for the food which abides unto eternal life which the son of man shall give to you for him the father even God hath sealed they said to him what must we do that we may work the works of God and Jesus answered and said unto them this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he hath sent here our Lord says labor for food which issues in eternal life and he said this food is given by the son of man and this son of man is the well attested provider of such food the father has set his seal upon him by the voice from heaven by the mighty signs and wonders that I've done when I say that I the son of man am the one who can give you this food that lasts to eternal life I'm not making bogus claim my identity to do this and to offer this is well attested by the father and then in verse 47 he changes from what he said in that earlier paragraph that we must come to him who alone can give us life and he begins to speak of

41:32 eating of him verse 47 verily verily I say unto you he that believes has eternal life I am the bread of life your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and they died this is the bread which comes down out of heaven that a man may eat and not die I thought if we believe we live forever now he says we've got to eat something to live forever do we believe or do we eat the answer is eating in this context is believing believing is eating I am the living bread which came down out of heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever yes and the bread which I will give is my flesh for the life of the world see what the Lord is doing now he's saying I am the bread in my person my person attested by the father sealed by the father by his voice from heaven by my mighty works and by my miracles and now your fathers who ate breads sent down from heaven in the wilderness they died but I am bread come down from heaven by way of Mary's womb if you eat of me you'll live forever what is eating he says he that believes he that believes couldn't be plainer verse 51 this is a bread I'm sorry that verse 49 verse 47 he that believes has eternal life and now he moves from believing

43:01 to eating and then he goes on they're offended by this and he says that eating has a peculiar reference to my flesh which I will give for the life of the world verse 52 the Jews therefore strove with one another saying how can this man give us his flesh to eat Jesus said unto them truly truly I say to you except you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life in yourself he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life I will raise him up at the last day I thought the one who believes has eternal life now he's talking we've got to eat flesh and drink blood eating is believing and believing is eating for my flesh my sacrificial death is meat indeed and my blood poured out is drink indeed the only thing that can satisfy and nourish the soul of sinners is the virtue flowing from my death and my poured out blood and you must so lay hold of it as to assimilate it in a way that is akin to what happens when you eat he that eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him as the living father sent me

Illustration: Eating Bread for Nourishment

44:23 and I live because of the father so he that eats of me he shall live of me this is the bread which came down out of heaven not as your fathers ate and died he that eats this bread shall live forever eating and drinking of Christ is a beautiful crass earthy description of the actings of saving faith I'm going to do something I've never done in 44 years in this book I'm going to eat I got a piece of bread seven grain whole wheat good stuff that's bread my mind tells me that's bread I looked at the label the ingredients I have knowledge that's bread I'm persuaded that that's good bread and that can nourish me not like that white gooey stuff that you can squeeze into a ball even the rats won't eat that alright this is real bread I'm persuaded in my mind I'm convinced it is now but wait a minute I'm going to write a poem about the bread and so I write a little ditty like I write love ditties to my Dorothy and then I'm going to rhapsodize about the

45:52 bread and all the virtues of bread I haven't eaten it I may have knowledge it's bread I may be persuaded that it's nourishing bread but writing poems about it and writing songs about it and dancing a jig around it doesn't nourish me it's when I take it and I eat it and what am I doing I'm masticating I'm chewing it I haven't eaten it yet I don't want to be gross I could spit it out I haven't eaten it until the mastication moves to swallowing I need a little water to help me is there and now a process of dieting digestion will go on until the bread becomes a part of me then I've eaten it now Jesus said whoever eats my flesh drinks my blood has eternal life what's he mean when a crucified Christ becomes more than that to which I point and say oh yes I believe what the Bible says the incarnate deity was whipped and scourged and taken out and hung up on a tree I believe that I believe his lifeless body was placed in the tomb

47:20 the third day I believe that's the only hope of sinners but my friend as long as it's an objective Christ out here to which you point in your knowledge and in your conviction it's all true until you eat until into yourself and say oh Lord Jesus I take you in all the scandal of the cross I take you in your death outside the city wall of Jerusalem in all the gore in the shame and the horror of crucifixion in the shrouded heavens and the cry of reliction I take you Lord Jesus to be my savior and my only hope of salvation my only trust that my sins can be pardoned is in the bloodletting that occurred at Golgotha Lord Jesus I take you to be mine I eat your flesh I drink your blood he that believeth on me and I drink another I take you to him me that believeth on him you shall not be frozen in the Scripture I am youram I take you to be I take you to be I am youram it is a taking to oneself by that assimilated process of the soul and sacrifice crucified

48:49 as my only hope and my only basis of life and salvation but the Lord Jesus likened saving faith is dominant it's the feast of tabernacles the Jews are celebrating God's faithfulness in the wilderness wandering during which you remember he provided water out of a rock the rock followed him and that rock was Christ Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10 and there was a ritual in the feast of tabernacles a watery ritual and right at the time when that ritual was about to be undertaken verse 37 of John 7 on the last day the great day of the feast Jesus stood probably took a prominent place in the temple verse 14 of this chapter tells us he is there in the temple he stood and he cried Kradzo come unto me and drink he that believes on me as the scripture has said from within him shall flow rivers of living water but this he spoke of the spirit that they that believed on him were to receive here the Lord makes it plain that believing is not only eating

50:17 the eating with primary reference to his immolation upon the cross but he says believing is drinking drinking of him in such a way that by the power and ministry of the spirit we will then know this refreshing divine life in the very depths of our being a divine life that even flows through us and touches the lives of others if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink he that believes what is it to believe it's to drink of Christ and say oh Lord Jesus you are not only living bread you are living water and I would drink of you I would do with the soul and I would drink of you there's the water in the glass I have knowledge that that's water that's H2O through the pipes of the Montville water system I may have a conviction that it will help my dry mouth and it will assuage my thirst but knowledge and conviction not enough until I take it to my lips and swallow I can't say that I drank the water let him come unto me and drink drink of Christ with a drink of water in the mouth of the soul to assimilate him to us

Common Denominators of Saving Faith's Actings

51:44 and to know that by the enabling grace and power of the Holy Spirit all of that divine life that is promised to us great prophecies in the Old Testament of how when Messiah comes he would usher in the age of the Spirit for all men and all women it shall come to pass in the latter days I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh your sons your daughters your sons your sleep and your years and your years before God and the Lord Jesus stands and says it is in coming to me and assimilating me in the virtue of who I am and what I have done that you enter in to the life of the Holy Spirit drinking is believing believing is drinking well these are three of the dominant clear pictures of the nature and actings of saving faith it is a receiving of Christ and a drinking of Christ. Now, let's think for just a few moments on this question. What are the common denominators in all of these pictures, in all of these analogies of the actings of saving faith? What are the common denominators?

52:57 Well, let me suggest, number one, the object is always Christ himself. Always Christ himself. It is receiving of him as many as receive him. Not his church, not his people, not his sacraments, not his ministers, not his ordinance.

53:15 It's receiving him. In saving faith, the sinner in all destitution and need engages the Savior directly. No water, no wafer, no minister, no priest, no nothing, no nutty in between. As many as received him, as many as received him.

53:37 The analogy? The analogy of coming to Christ. He that comes to me, not my church, not my ministers, not my sacraments, not my standards of life. You come to me, common denominator.

53:53 Christ is the object. Eating and drinking, I am the bread of life. If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. God doesn't make it any more plain, dear people.

54:04 It is with Christ himself that we have dealings in saving faith. Not abstract truth about him. And you can't avoid it in this place. You can't avoid it in your Christian home.

54:19 You can't avoid it in your schooling. You're getting the objective truth and you need that. For Christ only comes riding into human life in the chariot of the truth about him. But I fear many of you can describe the chariot down to every nut and bone.

54:38 But you've had no dealings with Jesus.

54:44 That's why they're soliciting. That's why they're soliciting. That's why they're soliciting. That's why they're soliciting.

54:45 That's the little evidence of love for Jesus. The world is so attractive. And why you've got to be enslaved to the world's definition of what's important and what's good and the world's fashions and the world's means of entertainment and pastimes. All of us have never become enamored with Jesus.

55:09 Never known what one of the old preachers called the expulsive power of a new affection.

55:16 That affection for this one to whom we come. That drives out a thousand lesser affections.

The Glory of Christ and Its Expulsive Power

55:24 Common denominator number one, Christ himself. Secondly, it is always an objective Christ. As many as received him. Who's the him?

55:33 Read before and after. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God.

55:39 The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him. Without him was not anything made that was made. The word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

55:48 We beheld his glory. Glory. Glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. In other words, the Christ whom we receive in John 1.12 is that Christ of objective biblical revelation in all the uniqueness of his person. And as you read on through the Gospel of John, in all the sufficiency of his work. It's not a Christ within us. It's not a Christ concocted by us.

56:15 It is the Christ of objective biblical revelation. It is Christ himself. Second common denominator. It's Christ in the objectivity of who he is.

56:27 It's always Christ in the sinner. In direct engagement. That's the glory of the Gospel. You shall call his name Jesus.

56:36 For he, personally, powerfully, engaging the sinner. He shall save his people from their sins. No wonder the Gospel is called. In 2 Corinthians 4.4.

56:52 The Gospel of the glory of Christ. Paul has been talking about his Gospel being plainly preached. But people don't see it because the God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not. And why does the devil blind?

57:07 And to what in particular does he blind? The text says this. Lest the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ should dawn upon them. The Gospel.

57:19 The Gospel is described as a Gospel of the glory of Christ. What is glory? It's the outshining of divine perfections. So the Gospel is a Gospel of the glory of Christ.

57:33 It is a Gospel in which and through which all the perfections of Jesus burst forth in the greatness of who he is. Speak of the nature and sufficiency of what he did in his death, in resurrection and ascension and the pouring of the Spirit. It seems of glory. The glory out of Jesus.

57:57 The devil comes along and says, I don't want you to see the glory. I don't want you to see the glory. I'll let you hear the propositions. I'll let you subscribe to the propositions.

58:07 Jesus lived. Jesus died. Jesus rose. Jesus went to heaven.

58:11 Jesus is the only Savior. I'll let you listen to all that. Subscribe to all that. I don't want you to see any of the glory.

58:19 Because he knows once you see any glory emanating from Jesus, he's lost you. He's lost you. The glory. And the world that is now your harlot will be shed.

58:38 And the flesh that is now your master will be repudiated. And all the tinsel and trinkets to which you sell your energies and your mind and your interest on sight of Christ is all over. It's all over.

59:00 That's why the devil blinds people, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of God should dawn upon them. If they see the glory that emanates from Jesus.

59:17 But bless God, verse 6 of that chapter says, But God who commanded the light to shine not into but out of the darkness. I love that. But God who commanded light to shine out of the darkness. He didn't take darkness, light and invade the darkness.

59:38 He spoke and out of the darkness light broke forth. He says, He says, And what did we see the moment God spoke light in the darkness of our hearts? He has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's what happened to Paul.

60:08 And take away the unusual circumstances. That's what happens in every conversion. He said he has shined in our hearts. If he said he had shined in my heart, we'd say, oh, wait a minute, that's unique to Paul.

60:20 He had a blazing light from heaven that struck him down and he was blind. Paul says those were all incidental circumstances. The real thing that happened, happened to all of you Corinthians as well as to me. He has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the very glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

60:40 And when that happens, then you're going to do what Paul did. Lord, who are you? I am Jesus. What will you have me to do?

60:49 The glory of God shining in the face of Christ. Unmitted. Transformed. And he'll do the same for you.

60:57 Do the same for you. Do the same for you.

Conclusion and Call to Experience Saving Faith

61:04 What is saving faith? I haven't bothered you with a lot of philosophical, psychological descriptions. I've tried to set before you what the Bible does. These simple pictures of the actings of saving faith.

61:18 A coming to Christ. A receiving of Christ. An eating and a drinking of Christ. And you who are mature Christians know where it begins, it continues, and it will end when faith turns to sight.

61:39 And we continue to receive Him. We continue to come to Him. We continue to eat and drink of Him. He uses present tense verbs in John 6.

61:51 He who eats. Present tense. And drinks. Present tense.

61:55 My flesh has eternal life. May God grant that some of you sitting here today, my prayer has been, oh God, turn the lights out. Show something of the glory of Jesus.

62:10 That what has been just a list of chariot parts will suddenly become the vehicle in which Christ Himself becomes precious to you. And you'll receive Him. You'll come to Him. You'll eat of Him.

62:25 You'll drink of Him. And find the promises to such who come, who receive, who eat and drink, to be true in your life. Let's pray.

62:43 Our Father, we're so thankful that You accommodate Yourself to us in our earthiness and in our weakness. Yet each of us knows what it is to receive someone, to come to someone, to eat and to drink something. And we pray that You would take these images and analogies that set before us the actings and the nature of that faith that is unto salvation and make it a saving word to many. Make it a strengthening word, a confirming word, a word that will help Your people to continue to come, to continue to receive, to continue to eat and to drink, to continue to look, to continue to live. To continue to flee, for refuge, all of the images You've given us, our Father, to help us. May we, by Your grace, not only understand them, but experience them. So we plead that You take Your word and seal it to every heart.

63:46 To Your praise and to our profit we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.