Saving Faith and the Faith of Demons

Introduction: The Nature and Work of Faith

0:01 This sermon was preached at the 1987 Southeastern Reformed Baptist Family Conference held at Gardner-Webb College in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. For the benefit of those who are with us just for this evening session, and we have had such each evening, and we particularly do welcome those visiting from this very congregation that meets in this place of worship, perhaps it would be well just to explain that the conference is so structured by the organizers that those of us who are invited to preach agree before time on the subjects that we will handle in our respective ministries. And those who plan the conference attempt to have a balance in those various subjects, and so each morning we have been hearing, first of all, some very private, practical, biblical directives concerning marital unity, and that theme will be carried on and conclude with some biblical materials on adolescent rebellion. And then in the second hour in the mornings, we have been hearing about God's sovereignty,

1:24 his reign and rule over all men and all things, even in the matter of salvation. And yet the glorious truth, that the God who rules all men and all things, even in the matter of salvation, freely, with unfettered joy and fullness of grace in his heart, offers his Son and his salvation to all men. And then in the evening sessions, I have been asked to address you on the subject, the nature and work of faith in Christian experience. And each night as we have met to consider some aspect of faith in Christian experience, I have first of all asserted that what the Bible teaches concerning faith is taught to us on the presupposition of several very fundamental truths without which all of its teaching on the subject of faith really makes sense. Very little sense. And those three foundational truths are these. All men are by nature and practice sinners

2:47 and under the wrath and condemnation of God. Secondly, that God has graciously made but one way of deliverance for wrath-deserving sinners, that way being made, that way being made, that way being the person and work of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And then thirdly, the scripture everywhere teaches that this one divinely provided remedy for sinners is appropriated by sinners by faith alone. And therefore, if we have any serious concern for the state of our souls, in the light of the teaching of Holy Scripture, we will not be content with anything less than clear biblical views and felt religious experience of the reality of our lost condition as sinners, the glory of God's gracious provision for sinners in the Lord Jesus, and the nature of that faith which is unto life and salvation.

Elements of Saving Faith (Review)

4:16 And so, for the last two nights, we have spent our time considering three fundamental elements that are present in every true acting of saving faith. Whenever God, in his grace, brings a sinner in all the nakedness, of his need, into vital union with the Savior in all the plenitude of his saving grace by the bond of faith, that faith will be characterized by these three fundamental elements. Number one, in saving faith, the sinner brings nothing but his sin to Christ. He doesn't bring, his family tree and his good bloodlines. He does not bring his big long chain of perfect attendance in Sunday school for 27 years. He does not bring the fact that he tidies up the flowers every Sunday morning on the communion table.

5:28 He does not bring the fact that he's been kind and gentle and shown compassion to the needy in saving faith, the sinner brings nothing but his sin to Christ. Romans 4 verses 4 and 5. Secondly, we have seen that in saving faith, the sinner receives a whole Christ and all that is in him. We are told in John 1, 12 that as many as received him, not a third of him, not a half of him, not ninety-nine, ninety-nine one-hundredths percent of him, but as many as received him. To them gave he the right to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name. To believe on his name is to receive the whole Christ and all that God has treasured up in him of the blessings of salvation. And then we saw last evening, that in saving faith, the sinner withholds nothing of his heart from Christ.

6:46 The scriptures tell us in Romans 10, 10, for with the heart man believes unto righteousness. That faith that brings the sinner into the possession of the righteousness of Christ is a faith that is exercised from the heart. With the heart man believes. Or Romans 6, 17, thanks be to God that you have obeyed from the heart that form of teaching unto which you were delivered.

7:23 And so I have attempted to set forth in a positive way three of the fundamental elements that are always present in every exercise of salvation. One is saving faith. And saving faith grows in the manner in which it began. We do not move beyond those elements in saving faith.

The Reality of Non-Saving Faith

7:51 For the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. For therein is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith. And though there are additional dimensions to the faith by which we live the Christian life, and I hope to touch on some of those tomorrow night, these basic elements never leave the very heart, the very pulse beat of that faith by which we are bound to Christ. We must continually come to Him as those whose only claim that we are accepted with God, as those whose only claim is that God in Christ has wrought a perfect salvation for needy sinners. Now what I wish to do tonight is to set forth these positive descriptions of saving faith by considering with you the contrast which is set before us in the book of James chapter 2 of a faith that is not saving faith. For the Bible does tell us that there is a temporary faith that is not saving faith.

9:20 Luke 8 and verse 13. Our Lord in the parable of the sower interprets the parable and says that those who are like the seed that fell upon the ground and it sprang up quickly, but under the withering burning Palestinian sun having no root system withered, he said that's a picture of those who for a while believed. And because we know that saving faith once exercised never dies in the heart of the sinner in whom it is implanted by grace, that that faith was something short of saving faith. It had all the marks of saving faith, but it was temporary faith. We read of miraculous faith in 1 Corinthians 13. Paul speaks of the very possibility that someone may have faith so as to remove mountains and yet be devoid of that faith which brings one into union with Christ so that the fruit of the Spirit which is love is produced in that person's heart. In 1 Corinthians 15.2,

10:35 Paul speaks of a vain faith. And then in James 2.26, he speaks of a dead faith. So you see the very Bible which forces upon us the great truth that the one means of laying hold of God's provision for sinners in Christ is faith, teaches us that not all faith is saving faith.

The Shocking Comparison: Demonic Faith in James 2:19

11:03 And having looked at those three positive elements which constitute the very heart and soul of saving faith, we now tonight examine a text which I think perhaps more than any other text, any single text, sets before us by way of contrast a faith that is not unto salvation. And I refer, as I've already intimated, to verse 19 of James 2. You believe that God is one or that there is one God. There is a textual problem and the translations differ on this point, but no vital teaching of the text is affected. You believe that God is one. You do well. Now here's the shocking statement.

12:01 The demons also believe and shudder. Now why did James ever write such a strange statement? Well, as Pastor Fisher has intimated, he is seeking to underscore in this section of his epistle why it is that those who are justified by faith, who are saved on the basis not of their bloodlines, of their performance, of their own works, their own efforts, their own sighs, cries, tears, and anything else, why such people, saved by the doing and the dying of another, must be a people marked by carefulness to render to God meticulous and universal obedience to His holy law, though they know they are not so. They are not saved by the keeping of the law. They are under gracious and solemn obligations to render to God and to His law serious, meticulous, universal obedience. And James' line of argument is basically this.

13:22 If your so-called faith in Christ does not hammer out in you a lifestyle before Christ, that causes you to take seriously all of the words of Christ, then your faith is not the real thing. And to underscore that it is not the real thing, he uses what is nothing less than a shocking comparison between the faith of these so-called believers who are indifferent to the demands of a life of careful obedience. He makes a shocking comparison between those believers and the demons. And as I attempt to open up the text, I will trace out three lines of thought with you. First of all, consider with me the fact of demonic faith.

The Fact of Demonic Faith: Identity and Activity

14:26 And then as we've examined that, we'll look at the nature of demonic faith, and finally, the deficiency of demonic faith. First of all, then, the fact of demonic faith. Look at the text. You believe that God is one.

14:44 You do well. The demons also believe. Now, there is a simple, straightforward statement of fact. This is an indicative statement.

15:01 The demons also believe. Now, in establishing the fact of demonic faith, notice with me two things. First of all, their identity and their activity. When James wrote, the demons also believe, to whom was he referring?

15:27 Well, according to the scriptures, demons are spirit beings. They are intelligences which have no bodily form, as the angels are spirit beings with minds, and there are clear indications that they have affections and wills. And those faculties which we would say are the faculties of our souls, the non-material part of our being, demons are not. Demons are spirit beings without material existence.

16:06 They constitute, according to the scriptures, the organized hosts who are in league with the devil himself. They are described in Ephesians 6 as the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. They are the embodiment of all wickedness and uncleanness. And therefore, they are commonly called, particularly in the gospels, unclean spirits.

16:38 They may well be fallen angels, although Jude 6 places some question mark over that, for that text says that the angels that kept not their first habitation have been cast down and are kept in chains unto the judgment of the great day. But whatever their origin may be in God's universe, their existence and activity, their character and their nature emerges with a special clarity in the ministry of our Lord Jesus as recorded in the gospels and then with much less frequency in the book of the Acts under the ministry of the apostles. So that's the identity of the demons. And it is unhealthy to try to pry more deeply into the matter of demonology than the clear teaching of scripture allows us to go. But what we're concerned is not so much their identity but the fact of demonic faith brings us immediately to the activity of the demons.

17:58 Notice what James says about them. The demons also are believing. And he uses a present tense of the standard Greek word for believing. The word that is used to describe what we must do to be saved when Paul said to the Philippian jailer, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

18:25 He used an imperative of the same form of the verb. And all of the verbal usage translated in our New Testament believe, believing, believed it is exactly the same word in the original. And furthermore as we pointed out last night most of the usages in the New Testament are in the present tense. Believers are described as a believing people.

18:54 Not people who can think back nostalgically to some time thirty years ago when they made a decision called believing and since then they have had no dealings with Christ in the way of living faith. Believers are described as believing. And that's precisely the way the demons are described. The demons also are believing.

19:19 The same word used for saving faith. So we may say with safety on the basis of this text that not one demon is an unbeliever. Every foul, unclean spirit called in the Bible a demon is a believing demon. How do we know it?

19:47 Because by inspiration James says the demons also believe. Now why did he use such a shocking statement? Because as a wise surgeon of souls he was seeking to shake up people in the Bible Belt of the Middle East who thought all was well. Who were convinced that the kind of faith they had had brought them into a place of safety and security.

20:25 Though James was aware that there was something radically defective in their faith. And so what he does by way of a kind of compassionate pastoral spiritual shock effect he says, Wake up man! Wake up woman! You think all is well?

20:48 You're resting on the fact why sure all is well. I believe what every good believer is supposed to believe. Oh yes! I'm not as careful about the way I live as maybe I ought to be.

21:00 And I'm not as dedicated as I know some others are. But all is well. I'm a believer. James says you may be no better than the demons of hell.

21:13 For the demons and by saying into the close people had and the kind of faith the demons have. You see how the text begins? You the demons also. And he is saying your faith may be no different from the faith of the demons.

The Nature of Demonic Faith: Orthodox and Disturbing

21:49 You are believers of demonic faith. Now then secondly consider with me the nature of demonic faith. And our text sets before us two things about the nature of demonic faith. First of all it is an orthodox faith.

22:21 And I remember one time preaching on this text and a little boy came up to me afterward and he said Pastor Martin what's orthodox mean? And I said if I ever preach on it again I will not only say it is an orthodox faith but I'll put a parenthesis a faith which believes the right things. You see a man stand up at the plate and instead of placing if he's a right a left handed batter like I am his left hand above his right hand if he's this way he bats cross handed and if he has a strange crouch we say he has a very unorthodox batting stance and swing. It's unorthodox it's not in keeping with the ordinary accepted way of swinging a bat. Since swinging a bat seems to be the illustration that's taken the day I thought I would carry on with it. Now the nature of demonic faith is that it is an orthodox faith or a faith which believes the right things. In other words what Christians are supposed to believe the faith of the demons does believe.

23:39 Again look at the text. You believe that God is one. And what James does is to single out that which would have been the touchstone of the confession of faith of anyone with an orthodox faith or with an orthodox Jewish background one who had learned to say from his childhood those great words of Deuteronomy or hear them said in his ears by both the local rabbi and his father and he would have learned to say them Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord. In that great sea of pagan idolatry of many gods that which singled out Israel in her religious life was that she was a purely monotheistic nation who worshiped the one true and living God. And so in principle James is saying your faith is such that you accept and believe the fundamental tenet of orthodoxy which brings in its train all of the other tenets of orthodoxy.

25:04 For when he goes on to say the demons also believe it is clear from the scriptures that the faith of the demons goes beyond a mere acceptance of the fact that God is one. They believe every tenet of the revealed Christian religion Notice in Luke chapter 4 what they confess long before the disciples confess these great facts of the Christian faith in Luke chapter 4 in verse 41 And demons also came out from many crying out and saying You are the Son of God long before Peter and the other apostles said you are the Christ the Son of the living God the demons were confessing you are the Son of God and rebuking them he suffered them not to speak because they knew that he was the Christ they not only knew and confessed his proper identity as to his person the Son of God but his proper identity

26:30 in his office as the anointed Messiah furthermore it is evident that they believe in Christ as the appointed judge of the world they believe in future punishment and they believe in Christ's authority to send them to that place of punishment turn to Matthew chapter 8 long before Peter makes his great confession is recorded in Matthew chapter 16 he says listen to the confession of the demons they believe what do they believe not only that he is the Son of God not only that he is the Christ but in Matthew 8 28 and 29 we read and when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes there met him two possessed with demons coming forth out of the tombs exceeding fierce so that no man could enter into the country of the Gadarenes there met him two possessed with demons that no man could come by that way and behold they cried out saying what have we to do with you you Son of God are you come here to torment us before there is a coming time when he Jesus of Nazareth

27:59 the Son of God will sit as the judge of the world and will cast them and all who are not the people of Christ into the place of torment you see the faith of the demons is an orthodox faith and why is this so for the simple reason that the realities of the Christian faith are open to the inspection of all and even before some of those realities became established by the confession of those who knew Christ and were united to him and by the illumination of the spirit came to understand them and subsequently committed them to writing by the inspiration of the spirit these demons who inhabit the spiritual world that unseen but real world they were very much aware of Christ identity his person his office and the functions that were rightly his within that office they have a very orthodox faith or they have a faith which believes the right things but more than that it is not only an orthodox faith according to our

29:28 text it is a disturbing faith notice what James tells us you believe that God is one the demons also believe that God is not everything is he he is the truth you believe that in the world all things are not the truth but that we all are the truth all And with no warning, that cat shoots right out in front of you and gives one of those screeching meows. And what happens? You feel the hair crawl up on the back of your neck. You feel the fuzz on your arms stand up on end.

30:26 You feel like your heart's going to jump right out of your chest and up into your throat. That's the kind of emphasis of the word. They shudder. They have a kind of terror, the kind of terror that in human beings would make our hair stand on end.

30:45 In other words, James is emphasizing this very fact. The faith of the demons is a faith which brings spiritual realities near enough to cause tremendous emotional upheavals in the demons.

31:06 Their faith is not one in which they say, Oh, yeah. Yes, Jesus, Son of God, Messiah, future judge of the world, ho-hum. What they believe comes close enough to their consciousness as spirit beings that it produces in them a disturbance, a shuddering, a hair-raising of demonic faith, according to James. Now, let me ask a very simple question.

31:43 Is there anyone here sitting in this building? That is prepared to say these demons, on the basis of that kind of faith, are saved and are on their way to heaven?

31:59 Does anyone believe that there is one demon who is going to be found in the last day, there in the presence of the holy angels and all of God's redeemed, singing the praises of God and of the Lamb? You say, well, of course not. There's not a shred of evidence. There's no evidence in the Bible that demons were ever made the objects of redeeming love or of the redeeming activity of God the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit.

32:35 There is not one demon that will ever know the sweetness of forgiveness, that will ever know the motivation of love to God for redeeming mercy. Well, James says to his readers, You are within the pale of the Christian church. For the passage begins in verse 14, What doth it profit my brethren?

33:05 They are within the pale of the Christian church. And yet he says to them, You may have a very orthodox faith. You may believe everything that's right about God, about Christ, about heaven, about hell. And furthermore, You may be greatly moved.

33:24 By what you know and profess to believe. You may be moved to tears. You may be moved to fear. You may be moved to wonder and to awe, or even to a great sense of intellectual satisfaction.

33:38 You may be moved to a thousand different emotions. But James says, You may have nothing more than the faith. You believe all in good. Your faith may be no better than the faith of demons.

The Deficiency of Demonic Faith: No Beauty in Object

34:04 Now, having established from the beginning grace that you may have nothing more than the faith of God, you may have nothing more than good. And yet you must be good. from the text, the fact of demonic faith, the nature of demonic faith. Now consider with me thirdly and finally, the deficiency of demonic faith. The deficiency of demonic faith. What was wrong with the faith of these people who were in their smugness, content to say, sure we believe, sure we're secure, everything is all right with us. But James saw things that greatly disturbed him. And with great compassion and pastoral passion, he attacks their delusion. Focus our attention now upon the deficiency of demonic faith. And though there are many contrasts between

35:00 saving faith and the faith of the demons, let me highlight for you the difference between just three. First of all, demonic faith sees no beauty or loveliness in its objects. The faith of the demons sees no beauty or loveliness in its objects. The demons believe in the unity of God.

35:30 They believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. They believe that Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, is the Messiah. They believe as Messiah, he is the appointed judge of the world. They believe that human history is under his control, heading to a time when as the judge of the world, he will judge them and all their cohorts and will send them into torment. But you see the one thing lacking in the faith of the demons. Every single thing that is the object of their faith, they see no beauty or loveliness. They are those fallen spirits in league with the prince of darkness who oppose Christ and his kingdom and see no loveliness in God, in Christ, and in all of the things that they believe in in spite of themselves. However, that faith which is unto salvation, that faith which is wrought in the heart

36:44 of a sinner by the mighty regenerating work of God the Holy Spirit, is a faith in which the sinner is always given an inward, spiritual sight of the loveliness and the beauty of the objects of its faith. Always. I want to take just one passage that illustrates this with reference to my own life. It's not an reference to the Lord Jesus. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. And so we will simply focus on this aspect of the demon's faith with regard to Christ, his identity as to his person and mission. What they believe and even what they confess, they believe and confess while seeing no beauty or loveliness in the object of their faith. But it is not so in saving faith. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Paul begins in verse 1 by speaking of matters pertaining to the ministry he has received

38:03 from his Lord. A ministry in which he presents the gospel with a clear conscience before God and then commends his own life of integrity to the consciences of his hearers, and then he says in verse 3, and even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that perish, in whom the God of this world, that is the devil, has blinded the minds of the unbelieving. Now notice this connection. Blinded the minds of the unbelieving.

38:47 An unbelieving heart is joined to a blinded mind, a mind blinded by the devil. Now what in particular is an unbelieving mind blinded to? He goes on to tell us, 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 blinds them with particular reference to the light of the gospel, which has at its very heart the outshining light of the gospel. The glory of the sun is the outshining of the beams of the sun. The glory of Christ is the outshining of the inherent beauty and loveliness of Christ. And Paul says, in unbelievers, the devil sees to it that a veil is over their eyes and minds of impenetrable darkness.

40:08 Why? Lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ should dawn upon them. He knows if sinners could but see the beauty and the loveliness of Christ, their hearts would run out and trust. He knows if sinners can but see how beautifully suited Christ is to their need as sinners.

40:39 If they could but see the beauty and the loveliness of Christ, their hearts would run out and trust. And so the God of this world, even in the midst of an apostle preaching, not in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost, the devil is active. Blinding people's minds determine that they shall see nothing of the glory of Christ. Even in spite of that reality, what do we do?

41:11 we do, verse 5, we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves your bond slaves for Jesus' sake. And why do we do this? If the God of the world is so powerful as to blind people's minds so that they do not see the beauty and the loveliness of Christ, because they may, even like the demons, come to an intellectual acceptance of what the Bible says. Oh yes, Christ is Son of God, Christ is Messiah, Christ is Judge of the world, Christ is Savior. But he sees to it that they see no outshining of glory, no beauty to capture their hearts, no loveliness to cast its spell over them. But he says we go right on preaching. We go right on preaching Christ. We go right on taking the posture of the bond slaves of Jesus Christ. I'm sorry, we go on as the servants of Christ, preaching Christ, and servants

42:19 of men for the sake of Christ. We're willing, he says in 1 Corinthians 9, to accommodate ourselves to Jewish prejudice that we might gain Jews. We're prepared to conduct ourselves like Gentiles who have no Jewish tradition. We go right on denying ourselves, accommodating ourselves, preaching Christ. Why? Because he says all the while the devil is doing his horrible work of blinding men that they should not see the outshining of the loveliness and the beauty of Christ. God's doing a glorious thing. Verse 6, seeing it is God. That said, light shall shine out of darkness, a direct reference to the act of creation.

43:15 When into the Stygian darkness of the original creation, all God needed to do was speak, let there be light. And he didn't import light from someplace else, but out of the darkness, light sprang at the creative word of God. He says now, seeing it is this God that said, light shall shine out of darkness. Now notice, who shined where? In our hearts. By a gracious, sovereign, creative, saving word in the darkness behind the veil that the devil had put up over our eyes. He conquered the prince of darkness. He shined in our hearts. Now notice, the moment light went on, what was the first object on which that light shone? To give the

44:14 light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And he says when God, trough the Gospel, comes in omnipotence, saving mercy, and he speaks the word of light into a darkened heart, the moment the light switch goes on , the heart The first object it illuminates is Jesus Christ. And what the sinner sees in Jesus Christ is the very outshining of the perfections and beauty of God Himself. And when a sinner sees that the God who could crush him and damn him in righteousness and justice has extended his heart in favor and mercy through a Savior, and he sees in the Gospel which sets forth the facts about Christ and His death and His burial and resurrection on behalf of sinners and the sincere and earnest call to sinners to come, when God illuminates the sinner's mind, the first thing he beholds is beauty and loveliness in Christ and the faith by which he reposes upon Christ. The faith by which he reposes upon Christ.

45:38 The faith by which he reposes upon Christ. The faith by which he reposes upon Christ. The faith by which he casts the weight of his soul upon Christ. The faith by which he throws the anchor of his hope for life and salvation into Christ is always a faith exercised in the context of beholding the loveliness and the beauty of Christ.

46:03 Now you see, that's the first area in which the deficiency of demonic faith is seen. It sees no beauty. It sees no beauty or loveliness in its object. Oh yes, it believes that God is one.

46:18 Believes Christ is Son of God. Christ is the only Savior of sinners. Christ is Messiah and fulfills all His messianic functions now and in the future. But it sees no beauty in all of that.

46:34 I don't often use anecdotes in preaching simply because my call is to preach the Word, not tell stories. But I shall never forget when I spent some five years in an itinerant evangelistic and Bible-teaching ministry early in my ministry way back in the early fifties, mid-fifties. One of the things that used to distress me no end is to be put up in homes for a week or two as the guest preacher and to be in homes of people who were members in good standing of evangelical churches, often deacons' homes, sometimes pastors' homes, and to find when we came to the table, there was no spontaneous talk about Christ, His work, His goodness, His mercy. No spontaneous conversation about the work of Christ, the person of Christ, the glory of Christ. Oh yes, spontaneous talk about the weather, spontaneous talk about sports and politics and everything under the sun. Until I came home, I can remember as relatively young Christian, someone at that time in my mid-twenties, I used to go to my room and cry out and say, oh God, what's wrong?

47:59 All these people trusting in your son, but their hearts are obviously not enamored with your son. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, and hearts are full of the weather and full of sports and full of politics and full of grandchildren. But my Savior, savior has no place i said oh lord it's wrong either you don't save people like you did as described in second corinthians 4 6 anymore or there's an awful lot of people think they're saved that is lost is the devil my friend god never saves a sinner without overcoming the blinding power of the devil that's made clear in acts chapter 26 and verse 18 when paul was commissioned god says i send you forth to open their eyes to turn them from darkness to light from the power of satan unto god that they may receive forgiveness no sinner ever gets forgiveness until god opens his eyes turns him from darkness to light and accordingly

49:16 to this text, whenever he does it, he always shows forth the loveliness and the beauty of his own being in the face of Christ. And no one can inwardly, spiritually behold the loveliness and the beauty of Christ and not love him and want to serve him and count his smile as life's greatest privilege and benefit and his frown life's greatest dread. I ask you, friend, is your faith the faith of the demons? Oh, yes, it's orthodox. Once in a while it gets you happy, especially when you sing the good oldies. And it brings back wonderful memories of mama and grandmama and grandpa and everyone else. But I ask you, sitting here tonight, in your heart is Christ lovely? And is there a beauty in him that makes your heart desire him? But I must hasten and touch very quickly on the second aspect of the deficiency of

The Deficiency of Demonic Faith: No Moral Transformation

50:31 demonic faith. Not only does it see no beauty or loveliness in its object, it experiences no moral transformation into the likeness of its objects. It experiences no moral transformation into the likeness of its objects. You see, the demons believe, and they believe with an orthodox faith and one that even disturbs them. But they are demons still. They are still unclean spirits. They are spirits who are opposed to God and to Christ and to his people and to his kingdom. There is no moral transformation into the likeness of the objects. Now, sticking right here in 2 Corinthians, notice what Paul says happens to every true believer who believes with saving faith. Just move up into chapter 3. Having been speaking

51:36 of the contrast between the old covenant administration under Moses and the new covenant administration in Christ and the outpoured spirit, Paul is using imagery taken out of the old covenant and by way of contrast speaking of the superior privileges and worth and benefits of the new covenant and notice what he says of every believer who now believes in this present dispensation or economy of god's gracious dealings verse 18 but we all no exception but we all every one of us in whom god has taken away the veil of spiritual blindness and unbelief but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the lord are transformed into the same image from glory to glory even as from the lord we are

52:55 have beheld the glory and the priest we have initially beheld the glory of god in the face of christ we continue to behold his beauty and loveliness have captured our hearts and as we behold him something wonderful happens but we all least beholding is in a mirror the glory of the lord our formation going on this what the pattern is into the same image the very image and likeness of jesus christ from one stage of glory to another until according to the scriptures it will be consummated when we are like him seeing him as he is and why is this so for the simple

54:18 reason that it is for this you purpose that god put into motion the whole chapter 8 romans chapter 8 and verse 29 for whom he that is god foreknew loved beforehand with distinguishing love whom he foreknew he also foreordained now notice to be conformed to the image of his soul and to be conformed to the image of his soul and to be conformed to the image of his son all those upon god set his love in that distinguishing electing love he then predetermined that that love would find expression in the dynamics of grace and salvation in nothing less than transforming those ugly wretched deformed image bearers into the very moral likeness of his own glory and his own glory and his own glory and his own glory and his own glory and his own glory and his own glory and his own glory and his own glory and his own glory and his own Money whom he did foreknow he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his son that he christ might be the firstborn among many brethren

55:42 what a marvelous concept that god would have a family in heaven where christ would be the firstborn the rightful heir of all things but all of his brethren would bear the family light and all will bear his light and want to go he committed himself to that look at the next verse verse whom he foreordained them also called that is he not merely summoned them offered salvation to them but he effectually and powerfully applied salvation to them gave them a new heart and in the activity of that new heart they repented and believed and fled to christ that's all involved in being called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified it is as certain as though it were accomplished for all the redeemed them he also glorified in what is being glorified running around heaven with a pen knife cutting off chunks of gold to cash in it at the stock market is heaven just gone

57:00 and goodies without headaches and arthritis and gray hairs and no hairs and aching joints is that all heaven is no heaven according to the scriptures is the enjoyment of the immediate presence of god in a condition that will enable us to respond to his glorious being as we ought and as we've always wanted to since we were saved but could not accept and not proclaim his glory shining all over into everything but now we can reaffirm his glory face to face to who he is who he is those things we believe in come to let us carried off would love Christ with unbounded fervor will indeed love him with unbounded fervor. A glorified spirit in which every last trace of indisposition and dullness and distraction will be forever removed. But you see, that would be a terrible thing to have a glorified spirit

58:20 in this present body. It couldn't handle it. That spirit would serve him day and night before his throne and never sleep. This poor body's got to get its eight hours and sometimes a nap besides.

58:36 And the older we get, the more we understand Paul's words when he said the outward man decays. But to be glorified means I'll have a body like unto his own resurrected body that will be suffused with the strength and energy to house a glorified spirit so that a perfected spirit will have as its handmaid a glorified body to serve him day and night without weariness forever. Now that's what God has marked us out for. And in the process, he always, without exception, once he gives a saving sight of Christ on the threshold of faith, we then, by gazing upon Christ as revealed in the Word, we are transformed into that image by the grace of God. By the grace of God. By the grace of God. By the grace of God.

59:35 By the grace of God. By the grace of God. By the grace of God. One stage of glory to another and Paul says we are.

59:42 Now you see, there's where the defectiveness of demonic faith comes to the fore. People who have a faith like the demons, they don't become increasingly like Christ.

59:55 The ugly, mean, narrow-spirited attitude that marked them at age 20 simply grows with them into age 30 and 40 and they die with it. all the while saying they believe in Jesus. A facist, prejudiced, arrogant heart that looks down its nose at others because of their background, the color of their skin, their social standing. In demons' faith, people can, quote, believe on Jesus and let that spirit sow contrary to Jesus who received the Samaritans, who received the Gentile dogs, who received the outcasts. The spirit of Jesus is not being formed, perhaps even in some of you. You become more set in your cultural and religious and ethnic and racial prejudices with each passing year until you die with a spirit all knotted up in gnarled with horrible pride and prejudice. A lustful mind,

61:19 an envious heart, all of these sins described in the Bible. Believing on Christ for 10, 20, 30 years, no evidence that you are being progressively made like Christ in the moral fabric of your soul, reaching out into the specific acts and deeds of your life and the use of your tongue in particular as James focuses upon it so that he can say, but he gets bold and says, if the tongue is not being controlled, your religion is made.

The Deficiency of Demonic Faith: No Loving Obedience

61:57 That's the defect of demonic faith. Sees no beauty or loveliness in its object, experiences no moral transformation to its object, and I'll simply give you the third head as I close. It produces no works of loving obedience to its objects. It believes God is one, Christ is son of God, Christ is Messiah, but the only kind of obedience, the demons ever render to the objects of their faith is a constrained and a forced obedience.

62:27 When Jesus says to them, out and into the swine, they obey him, but it's only a forced and a constrained obedience. But the mark of everyone who has believed on the Lord Jesus Christ with the faith of God's elect is that from the fruit of their faith or as the fruit of their faith as we saw last night, it is a fruit, a faith that works through or by love. And they are therefore prepared to make open confession of Christ, not once for all in baptism, but as the pattern of their lives, Matthew 10, 32. And they render loving obedience to Christ, John 10, my sheep hear my voice.

63:12 Not they heard it 20 years ago and walked an aisle, made a decision, and now they run their lives by the voice of society, the voice of presence, standards in morality and dress and entertainment. No, my sheep hear my voice. The pattern of their lives. And I know them and they follow me and I give to them eternal life and they shall never perish.

63:39 If we say that we know him and keep not his commandments, we lie and we do not the truth. He became the author of eternal salvation unto all that obey him. Not everyone who says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he, that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. And in this very passage, you see he uses Rahab and Abraham as the examples of people whose faith was a living faith, rendering loving obedience to the object of their faith.

64:08 And he says to these deluded people, will you not know, O vain man, that your faith is vain? It's dead if it's devoid of a pattern of loving obedience to its object. That's James' statement about the faith, the faith of the demons. You see the contrast?

Conclusion: Self-Examination and Call to True Faith

64:28 For two nights we focused upon the characteristics of saving faith. Now we've looked at defective faith, the faith of the demons, the fact of it. We've looked at the nature of it. We've looked at its deficiencies.

64:47 And now I ask you with judgment day honesty,

64:52 what is the faith that you possess? Sitting here tonight, is it a faith that sees loveliness and beauty in Christ?

65:10 Is it a faith that is causing you by degrees to be conformed to the image of Christ? Is it a faith that impels you to render loving obedience to Christ? Not perfect obedience, but purposeful. Your concern is to render meticulous, meticulous, universal obedience, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded.

65:44 And though at the end of every day you must say, O Lord, in ways only you can count, I've not rendered the obedience I desired. And the obedience I ought to have rendered wash me afresh in your own precious blood. But the settled purpose of your heart is to do better tomorrow by his strength. Which is your faith?

66:11 Which is your faith? Which is clear? God help you to answer. Judgment day on this day.

66:21 If you sit there shuddering in your own heart saying, I don't know why God brought anyone else here tonight, but that word has found me where I am. That preacher has talked to me. Who told him about me? My friend, if you feel that way, don't be angry at the preacher.

66:39 Be thankful to God, who by his word and spirit has come in mercy. Be thankful to God, who by his word and spirit has come in mercy. Be thankful to God, who by his word and spirit has come in mercy. Be thankful to God, who by his word and spirit has come in mercy.

66:44 To get you to repent even of your demon's faith that will take you to a demon's hell and flee from it and flee to the Christ before you. Pray that God will give you eyes to behold his beauty and loveliness, his perfect suitableness to you and your need and go to him as you are assured that him that comes unto him he will in no wise let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for the blessed, complete revelation of your mind and will for us in this present age given to us in the Holy Scriptures. And we pray that this portion of your word which has been opened up and applied in your presence and in the hearing of this people will not return unto you void. We pray that your spirit will write it upon every heart that you, O Lord, will bring forth those fruits which you have purposed

68:10 and which will glorify you. We thank you that our Lord Jesus is indeed lovely in his grace. We thank you that there is a beauty that even now enthralls the glorified spirits before his throne. A beauty that rivets the eye of every angel upon him.

68:32 We thank you that we who are yours have beheld that beauty, albeit dimly, we thank you. We beheld it really and truly. And we cry out, Lord, show us more of your glory that we may love you more and serve you more fervently. And beholding you, may we become more like you and more diligent in our obedience to you.

69:01 Seal then your word to our hearts. For your praise and for our profit, amen.