Definition and Object

Introduction: The Crucial Issue of Saving Faith

0:02 As I mentioned last week, these few Sundays prior to entering the more regular fall program, rather than carrying through a specific series of messages, I'm bringing individual messages that are units in themselves. Our regular practice here Sunday mornings is to settle on a given section of the word and just go through phrase by phrase and verse by verse until we're done. We were thus almost three years in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. And the Lord willing, September 18th, when all vacationitis is cleared up and we are back in the normal schedule of things, we will begin again another specific section of the word of God.

0:46 And I would ask your prayers for clear direction, as I'm not exactly settled what the Lord would have me to do in this area. But during this summer, as I've been privileged to be out in Bible conferences and Christian camps and in the tent meetings at which it was my privilege to speak over here in Morris County, there are certain great issues of the truth of God that have come into focus again and again. Issues that are matters of life and death in the soul's relationship to God. Issues that are not peripheral.

1:19 I've ministered in Presbyterian circles and I've never once had an argument on baptism, though I have my own views on baptism. It's not this issue. It's not this issue. It's not this issue.

1:27 It's not this issue. It's not this issue. It's not this issue. It's not this issue.

1:28 It's not this issue. It's not this issue. I've ministered in circles where there are strong views on certain views of eschatology, the doctrine of last things, when Christ will come, before, at the middle, or after the tribulation, etc. And I've never spent three minutes discussing these things.

1:42 But there are issues, not peripheral issues, but heart issues, about which I am more than ever convinced the great majority of professing Christians are woefully, woefully ignorant of the Bible teaching on these matters. For this summer, as I've been out in these conferences, they have not been conferences sponsored by liberal churches, liberal camp groups, but all of them evangelicals. And yet when I have zeroed in upon the Bible teaching on such basic issues as the nature of true repentance, the evidences that we are truly born of God, what does it mean to

2:21 truly believe, people have been shocked as though this were some new kind of gospel being preached. And so, as I have come back from the conferences, I'm in the middle of one now, I have to drive back to finish the ministry there down in Pennsylvania this evening and tomorrow morning,

2:42 these ministries have sharpened my own desires for you as a pastor, that in these areas that are the crucial issues in our own generation, we may not have any misunderstanding as to what the scripture teaches. Now, I want to take one of those issues this morning. Number one, the matter of the nature of saving faith. Now most of us are clear on, first of all, what we would call the necessity of faith.

3:09 Faith is not our Savior, the Lord Jesus is the Savior. Repentance is not our Savior, Christ is the Savior, but Christ the Savior, in the purpose and outworking of God's scheme of salvation, is received by faith. Faith is the organ of reception of Jesus Christ. And most of us are clear as to the necessity of faith if we are to be saved.

3:34 The scripture says in Mark chapter 16, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. We're clear in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace, that's the source of God's salvation, by grace we are saved, through the instrumentality of faith. By grace you are saved, through faith in that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. All of us know John 3, 16, God so loved that he gave that whoso believeth.

4:04 So we're clear on the necessity of faith. First John 3, 22 says this is his commandment that we believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. We're also clear that unbelief is a damning sin. He that believeth not shall be damned, we read in that same passage in Mark 16.

4:23 We read in John 3, the latter part of the chapter, the last verse, he that believeth not shall be damned. He that believeth not shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. So we're settled on the necessity of faith, and I'll not labor that point this morning. But now this is the thing that I want to labor.

4:40 What is the nature of that faith which is unto salvation? We're clear on the necessity of faith, but what is the nature of that faith? When God says by grace you're saved through faith, he means something by the word faith. My responsibility.

4:58 If I take seriously my soul's eternal destiny is to come to the Bible with this question, O God, what do you mean when you say by grace you're saved through faith? I have no right to impose my own notions upon the word faith any more than I have a right to impose my own notions on the word repentance or Christ or heaven or hell or anything else. And I'm convinced that one of the great problems in our day. Is that we have assumed that the natural man understands the nature of saving faith.

5:35 So when we tell him believe, he automatically knows what that belief is. And I believe this is an unwarranted assumption. And so we want to look this morning not at the necessity of faith. We're convinced of that.

Defining the Nature of Saving Faith

5:48 But secondly, at the nature of saving faith. And then in the third place, we're going to consider the implications of saving faith. Now. The nature of saving faith is called by a number of things in the New Testament.

6:04 Our Lord sometimes calls faith a coming to him. He says him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. Faith is called a drinking of Christ in John seven. He that any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink.

6:19 He that believeth drinking is believing in John three. Faith is called looking. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. And the people looked and lived.

6:31 So our Lord says, who so looketh, who so believeth shall be saved. So faith is called by all of these different terms. A looking to Christ, a coming to Christ, a drinking of Christ. But when we get all the Bible descriptions of faith and boil them down and try to come up with some kind of a succinct, concise definition, what will we have?

6:55 Well the best that I have ever come across. Are. These. Two.

7:00 And I'm going to amplify the second one. But the first one is so good I've got to share it. Faith is this. An unreserved commitment of ourselves to Christ for salvation from sin and its consequences.

7:19 Now don't just treat that as part of a sermon. That definition is loaded with biblical truth. What is faith? Saving faith.

7:28 Coming to Christ. Drinking of Christ. Looking to Christ. It is an unreserved commitment of ourselves to Christ for salvation from sin and its consequences.

7:42 And don't get it the other way around. Well the Bible says in Matthew 1.21, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from hell. No.

7:54 That's the consequences of sin. He shall save them from their psychological problems. No. Those are some of the consequences of sin.

8:00 He shall save them from unrest. No. Those are some of the consequences of sin. But the Scripture says, Matthew 1.21, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save

8:10 his people from their what? Sins. That's what he's come to do. He's come to save a people from their sins and all of the consequences of their sins.

8:26 And so this is a very good definition of faith, but the one that I want to use with more frequency this morning is this. Faith is an act of self-commitment to Christ in all the glory of his person and the perfection of his work as he is offered to us in the Gospel. Let me give it again. What is faith?

8:52 He that believeth on the Son hath life. What is that believe there? What is it? Here it is.

9:01 It is an act of commitment to Jesus Christ. Faith is an act of self-commitment to Christ. Faith is an act of self-commitment to Christ. Faith is an act of self-commitment to Christ.

9:06 Faith is an act of faith. Faith is an act of self-commitment to Christ. Faith is an act of self-commitment to Christ. Faith is an act ofierra.

9:10 Death isamon? Right. Death, with its strife. Death, wanting death.

9:14 Q him is that life? Yes, that is life. That is all that is there is where we have written up faith. Faith.

9:21 That is where creative HDR is. Right. That is where creativeálleri is which gives meaning. Yes.

The Object of Saving Faith: A Person, Not a Doctrine

9:25 But there is more than just truth. That is, in the course of our personal life, that which can please those who wonder about because this is the shoddy thinking that is rife in our generation. The object of saving faith is not the atonement of Christ.

9:49 I've read literally hundreds of gospel tracts, and the great majority of them say this. If you will admit you're a sinner and believe that Christ died on the cross for you or for sinners, you will be saved. I submit this morning, dear ones, that is not the truth of the Bible. The object of saving faith is not the doctrine of the atonement.

10:16 All the gospel tracts notwithstanding. Now, don't leave me. I'm not saying we're saved apart from the atonement or that we can be saved if we don't believe in the atonement, but what I am saying is that the object of saving faith is not the doctrine of the atonement. Now, listen, here's what we've done.

10:34 Liberalism, which denies that men, are innately sinful, and that God is so holy that He will judge sin, even if it means sending a great multitude into the lake of fire, into eternal conscious torment, and in denying the holiness and justice of God and the sinfulness of man, liberalism says to people, you're your own savior. Oh, you may be a little bit maladjusted, and you may be a little bit out of whack with your environment, but basically you've got that spark of divinity and culture and education and the rest will fan it, and you're your own savior. And we look at the house of liberalism and say, a plague on your house. Rightly so.

11:14 For liberalism has made man his own savior. And then Romanism comes along and says, no, God is holy, man is sinful, he needs salvation, and he has instituted a church. And within the confines of that church, salvation's to be found. And outside that church, no salvation.

11:34 All the sweet talk, notwithstanding that's still the basic teaching of the church. And we say, a plague on your house. Salvation is not in yourself, and so we say a plague on the house of liberalism. Salvation's not in the church, we say a plague on the house of Romanism.

11:49 But now what have we done? Listen. You know what we have done in evangelical circles? We have placed salvation in a doctrine.

11:57 The doctrine of the atonement.

12:02 But I submit the Bible doesn't teach that. Salvation is not in a doctrine. You know where salvation is? It's in a person.

12:13 It's in a person.

12:15 It's in a person. And nowhere in the Scriptures are we exhorted to think and to conceive of faith as assenting to the fact that at time, in time and space, a man who was God, the God-man, died on the cross. Nowhere does the Scripture lead us to believe that accepting that fact and the fact that what he did is sufficient for me or intended for me is sufficient for me. It's in a person.

12:42 It's in a person. It's in a person. It's in a person. It's in the nature of saving faith.

12:44 For what does that do? That makes saving faith a gaze into the past and a nod to a fact of something that happened. But the whole thrust of the New Testament is this and the Old Testament as well. Let me quote a number of verses quickly.

13:00 Jesus said in that well-known verse, John chapter 6, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. What is faith? It's a coming to Christ, not a nodding to the atonement.

13:18 John 1, 12, But as many as receive the doctrine of the atonement, No, as many as receive what? Him. To them gave he power to become the sons of God. Even to them that believe in the atonement?

13:29 No, that believe on his name. John 14, 6, Jesus said, I am the way, not the atonement. I am the way. I who perfected the atonement.

13:40 We're going to come to the place of the atonement. For the sake of the visitors who might be disturbed, I'm not minimizing the atonement. The folk who come here all the time know that I believe in the strict historical view of that atonement. That Jesus Christ died in the place of sinners and specific sinners to accomplish something specific.

14:00 But Jesus didn't say, My atonement is the way. He said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life.

14:07 No man comes to the Father but by my atonement. No, but by what? But by me. Come unto me.

14:12 Come unto me. No man comes to the Father but by me. Hebrews 7, 25, Wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him. Not by his atonement, merely nodding to the fact that he died, but who come unto God by him.

14:29 Why, the most familiar of all texts teaches this. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in the atonement. No. That's the way we read it, but that isn't what it says.

14:40 Whosoever believeth, into him. That would be a correct rendering of the Greek. Whosoever believeth into his person. Faith is in a person, not in a doctrine.

14:52 Shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Acts 4, 12. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name, not no other work. There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

15:07 Matthew 11, Come unto me, not my atonement. Come unto me. Oh, ye that labor, nor heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Need I multiply more texts?

15:17 You take your New Testament. Don't you go out today and simply reject this or accept it because of the 45 minutes we've spent with it. You get your Bible and you start circling every reference to belief. And I only know of one or two in the New Testament that even speak of faith in his blood.

15:33 And when it does, it's in such a context that the inference is clear. But again and again, the nature of saving faith is this. It has as its object the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ah, but you say, isn't that quibbling over terms?

Who is the Object of Faith? The Lord Jesus Christ

15:51 Not in the least. It's the difference between life and death. Saving faith has as its object a person. Now, if that's true, the second question we want to ask ourselves as we think through the nature of saving faith is this.

16:04 Who is that person? Who is he? Well, his official title, since his resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father, is given to us, in that well-known gospel text. And I'm doing this purposely this morning.

16:17 I'm not taking obtuse text from some little murky corner of the scriptures, but familiar text. That familiar gospel text in Acts 16. When the Philippian jailer said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? How did Paul answer?

16:35 How did Paul and Silas answer him? Did they say, believe Christ died on the cross for your sins? No, they didn't say that. They didn't say, did they say, accept Jesus as your personal Savior?

16:47 No, they didn't say that. Did they say, give your heart to Him? No, they didn't say that. What did they say?

16:53 Well, look at verse 31. Very familiar ground. Acts 16, 31. And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

17:07 They said, jailer, if you're ever going to get saved, you must believe. And the object of your faith is not a historical fact that Christ died. It's not one of the aspects of His person, His Saviorhood or His Lordship, but you're to believe on this person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what do those words mean?

17:34 For in those three official words which comprise the title of dignity which our Lord now has, we have the most beautiful summary of the glory, the glory of His person and the perfection of His work. What does the word Jesus mean? Well, we dealt with this earlier. It basically means Savior or Deliverer.

17:55 And it was the name given to Him at His birth. So Jesus speaks of His humanity. He is a true man all the way through the Gospels. How is He referred to?

18:06 Jesus went here. Jesus did this. Jesus did that. But after His death and resurrection, rarely is He ever referred to as simply Jesus.

18:15 But He's referred to predominantly as our Lord Jesus Christ. So the word Jesus speaks of Him who is the Deliverer from sin, who was the man who actually walked and kicked up dirt on the streets and playgrounds of Palestine. He's a true man. He's Emmanuel, God with us.

18:37 What does Christ mean? It comes from the Greek word Christos, to anoint, the Anointed One, the Messiah, would be the Hebrew word for it. He is that Anointed One, the One who was long promised, who would be God's Anointed King, God's Anointed Priest, God's Anointed Prophet. The One who was promised.

19:01 God said, I will raise up a prophet like unto Moses. And you read about it in Acts 3 that Jesus Christ is that final prophet of God. Hebrews 1. God who spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us how?

19:17 In His Son. And so He's the Anointed Prophet of God. He's the Anointed Priest. The book of Hebrews.

19:24 Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek who came not only to teach His people but to die for them upon the cross and go back into the glory and there to intercede that He might apply with power all that He purchased with His blood. And He is God's appointed and anointed King who was ordained, the Lord of God to sit upon the throne of David in a spiritual reign now and one day in a universal reign. And so we have in Jesus and Christ His position as true man, the God-man, as the deliverer from sin. Christ, the Anointed One.

20:04 And what does the word Lord mean? That's the official title given to Him as the reward of His willingness to become Emmanuel. Because of His willingness, to become a man and as a man to humble Himself and in that humiliation to go down to death even to the terrible death of the cross. What do we read in Philippians 2?

20:28 You're familiar with that, are you not? Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus who although existing in the form of God thought not the remaining on an equality with God a thing to be selfishly retained but He emptied Himself taking upon Him the form of a servant. I'm quoting from Philippians 2. And being made and being found in fashion as a man He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross.

20:54 Wherefore? Wherefore? As a result of all of this. Wherefore?

20:59 God hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus it's not the name Jesus to which they'll bow but at the name of this Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is what? Is Lord. Is Lord. Do you see as a reward of His willingness to suffer and come down and join Himself to a true humanity and in that humanity to live, to die and now to be raised again as the God-man no longer as the second person of the Trinity without human form the eternal Word was ever there as Lord of creation.

21:43 All things were made by Him but now... Now as the God-man He's been exalted to a place of Lordship over the whole universe and over His church.

21:53 And we read in Ephesians 1 that the Father has raised Him up and put all things under His feet all dominion, all power, all authority every name that is named not only in this world but in the world to come. Our Lord said in Matthew 28 all authority in heaven and in earth has been delivered unto Me. We read this morning that He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. And the word Lord means in its strictest sense everything that can be attributed to God.

22:27 When the Old Testament scholars or when scholars were attempting to translate the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek 200 years before Christ came every time they came to that sacred word Jehovah they used the Greek word for Lord. And so by...

22:46 And bound up in that word Lord the object of our faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. It speaks of His Godhood but in a more distinct way it speaks of His place as ruler as sovereign as despot of the world. For we read both in Revelation 17 and Revelation 19 that His name is King of kings and Lord of lords.

The Focus of Faith: Upward to the Throne, Not Backward to the Cross

23:11 You say, haven't you moved away from your message? No, I haven't, dear ones because if you're ever going to get saved and if you profess to be saved the only one who saves is the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not saved by a poor, defeated, weak man crucified in his weakness. You're saved by a mighty sovereign who sits upon a throne who came to that throne by way of a manger of a cross of a tomb and now is seated in majesty and in power and from that position He confers salvation upon men.

23:53 What was the first sermon on the day of Pentecost? Will you turn to Acts 2 for a moment that we might see that this note was sounded at the very inception of the New Testament form of the Church. Acts chapter 2 Peter has been proclaiming the death of Christ the resurrection of Christ and now notice as he comes to his climax in verses 34 to 36 for David is not ascended into the heaven but he said himself the Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool therefore let all the house of Israel

24:38 know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ.

24:51 You see what Peter did? He said the Jesus with whom you have to do is not one on a cross. And you'll not be saved by simply acknowledging He died on the cross for my sins. He said the Christ with whom you must deal is the one whom the Father has made Lord and His anointed one.

25:11 You must deal with a Christ upon a throne. A Christ who sits in sovereign majesty and in power.

25:23 So if the object of saving faith is the Lord Jesus Christ then the focus of faith will not be looking back to the cross but looking up to the throne.

25:38 Paul said in Acts 20.21 he testified repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Well if I'm going to believe in Him my faith's got to be directed to Him as He is and where He is. Well who is He?

25:52 He's the Lord upon a throne. Where is He? He's on a throne. There in the glory everlasting.

Inseparability of Christ's Person and Work

25:58 So that no man will be saved apart from a hearty submission to Jesus Christ in all the glory of His person and the perfection of His work as He's offered in the Gospel. You see we cannot separate the person of Christ from the work of Christ. This is the error in our day. We are offering to men the benefits of the work of Christ.

26:21 He died on the cross for sinners and that's blessedly and wonderfully true. God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us. And men are told now if you want to be forgiven and you don't want to go to hell when you die believe. Believe He died on the cross for you or for the likes of you.

26:38 That's not the message of the Gospel. The message of the Gospel is this. There is one who by His work has put away sin for all who come unto God by Him. He has triumphed over the grave and death and now He sits upon a throne of glory and majesty bearing in that glorified body the marks received when He died for us men in our salvation.

27:02 If you want salvation it can only come through the One who died who rose is now ascended. You cannot separate His work from His person and so I come to Him and say, O Lord, I want the benefits of those wounds. I want to know the forgiveness purchased in Your blood. I want to know that as You rose triumphant over death one day the grave will have to give me up.

27:30 Lord, how can I have the benefits of Your work? The answer is you must believe on His person and how in God's name this morning can I believe on a person who's a Lord unless I'm willing to bow before Him and accept the sovereignty of Jesus Christ over my life. It's absolutely impossible.

27:52 And yet a failure to recognize this has spawned upon the church great multitudes and I'm not talking off the top of my head this morning, beloved. I talk with a broken heart. Multitudes. I ministered to dozens of teenagers.

28:06 Just last week in that terrible state who claim to be saved by the cross of Christ who give no indication of submission to the crown of Christ. Why? Because the gospel has been preached to them in such a way that they thought they could have His work without His person. You can't have His work without His person and the reverse is true.

28:30 But that's not our practical problem. There's some who preach His person. They say forget about the atonement. Forget about the resurrection.

28:36 That's not important. Just give yourself to Jesus. Oh no. You can't be saved by His person apart from seeing Him in relationship to His work.

28:46 And so by recognizing the focus of the Bible faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ we are kept on the one hand by salvation through resolution I'll follow Christ and on the other hand we're kept from that terrible delusion of salvation by simply accepting the facts of His work upon the cross and we see that saving faith is what I defined it earlier. It is an act of self-commitment to Jesus Christ in all the glory of His person and the perfection of His work as He has offered to us in the gospel. That's saving faith beloved. And if you're ever to be saved then you must be brought

29:30 by the Holy Spirit to the place where you see in this Lord upon the throne your only hope of mercy where you see in His wounds your only hope of forgiveness and pardon and where you see in Him one worthy to be obeyed and you're willing to bow before His throne in terms of Psalm 2 kiss the Son the kiss of submission the kiss of affection the kiss of surrender the kiss of faith the kiss of abandonment.

Implication 1: Benefits of the Cross and Demands of the Crown are Inseparable

30:05 And so this is the nature of saving faith. It has as its object a person. We've seen who that person is therefore the focus of that faith is not backward to a fact but upward to a person on a throne. And now in closing what are the implications then of saving faith?

30:23 Well I think the implications are clear are they not? That the benefits of His cross and the demands of His crown are inseparably joined in His salvation. Let me repeat that. The benefits of His cross and oh blessed be God for those benefits because there is in the death of Jesus Christ an infinite merit to forgive the vilest of sinners there is in the cross of Christ power to reconcile the most depraved of human individuals He is able the scripture says to save all who come unto God by Him

31:07 the benefits of His cross in all their richness and in all their and the demands of His crown absolute unreserved submission to Himself.

31:22 If He is Lord then I cannot receive Him as anything less than Lord despot master ruler sovereign I die and I commit myself to Him not subsequent to salvation not as some kind of a super duper experience that follows the deep and true work of grace dear ones that's the very essence of saving faith and all the different theories we have on the deeper life many of them are built on this defective concept that you're saved by nodding to the cross but now you're living for yourself and living for the world and you ought to get fixed up so now look up to Christ on a throne and yield yourself to Him this is not taught in the Bible

32:05 it's a production of human ingenuity to somehow patch up the terrible terrible effects of the defective concepts of saving faith the implications of saving faith then are these if you would know the benefits of His cross you must be willing to bow to the demands of His crown faith is receiving Him who is He? He's the Lord Jesus Christ well I can't receive half of Him if I come to your home and knock on the door and you say who is it? and I say it's Al Martin and you say well Al you come in but Martin you stay out I'm in a convent I don't know what to do so I'm not going so I knock again and you say who is it? and I say well it's Al Martin

32:50 you say but Martin you come in but Al you stay out and I don't know what to do because you see those two words stand for one total personality and either I come in or I stay out do you see this in Revelation 3.20 behold I stand at the door and knock who stands? he doesn't say my opponent stands at the door and if you accept my opponent you'll be saved he said I stand at the door who is he? you read Revelation 1 he's the glorified Christ that John saw head and hairs white like wool eyes as a flame of fire feet like undefined brass John sees him in all the glory of his enthronement as prophet priest and king of his people and he says

33:35 behold I stand and I say who is it? and he says it is the Lord Jesus Christ and I say what will it mean if you come into my life? he holds out his hands and says do you see the marks here? the scars?

33:49 and I say yes he said if I come into your life I'll come in as the pierced one and as I come I'll bring all the benefits of my work upon the cross I'll bring forgiveness access to my father pardon eternal life peace justification all of these blessings and I say to myself well it's only right to admit that I've done some bad things and only a fool would deny he's going to die so if I'm going to die and I've done some bad things and God's the God the Bible says he is then he ought to send me to hell and I certainly don't want to go to hell so I'm about ready to say Lord come on in bring all the benefits of your wounds and I look up from his hands and I see upon his head

34:34 a crown and I say to him what's that mean? and he turns and says this crown is the reward of my sufferings my father as reward for my willingness to empty myself and become obedient to death has given me a name above every name he's highly exalted me he's put all things under my feet he's made me lord of lords and king of kings and I say well what would it mean if you come in as the crowned one he says it'll mean that I come in to rule you to take your life your entire being and make it mine my yoke is easy my burden's light my commands are not grievous

35:18 but I'll come in to take hold of you as my purchased possession and the man turns and says ah but wait a minute I've got some plans of my own I've got some ideas of my own I've got some sins that I know if you come in as the crowned one I'll have to go I don't want to go to hell when I die I sure would love the benefits of your wounds but I don't like the implications of your crown you say that I must put you in a place above father and mother and my own life also as we read in Luke 14 you say that I must be willing to give up myself to you if I would save my own life I'll lose it but if I lose my life in you that I'll find it

36:03 I'm not ready for that and yet I don't want to die and go to hell I want the benefits of your cross but I don't like the implications of your crown ah Lord could we possibly do this take the crown off your head lay it down outside the door of my heart you come in as only the pierced one bring all the benefits of your wounds so that my sins will be forgiven I'll be ready to go to heaven and then Lord when I get good and ready maybe at a missionary meeting or maybe at a Bible conference I'll surrender my life to you and I'll let you be my Lord how will the Son of God respond to that proposition

36:46 you answer not out loud but in your own mind do you think he's going to lay aside the crown he purchased at such a terrible price just so a guilty rebel sinner who wants to go on in his sin can now sin without any fear of hell the most uninstructed man or woman fellow or girl in this place is shocked at the very thought aren't you the Son of God will never lay aside that crown and listen to me every person who says he's saved by Christ but who is not basically submitted to the crown of Christ is saying in essence that they coerced Jesus to lay his crown aside

37:29 but he's never done it yet for salvation is the whole soul opening up of the life to him and embracing him as the pierced one and the crowned one that's the first thing the first great implication of the nature of saving faith that you can't have the benefits of his cross without bowing to the implications of his crown the second great implication of saving faith is found in the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 3 where he says no man can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost you see the Bible

Implication 2: Saving Faith is a Supernatural Work of the Holy Spirit

38:14 not only teaches we're saved by faith but it teaches that the faith which saves not faith is not the same Christ is the Savior now Christ is the Savior but when I say the faith that saves the faith that joins us to Christ is not a natural faith it's called in the Bible the faith of God's elect we believe through grace we read in the book of Acts Ephesians 2 says by grace you're saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God now tie that in with 1 Corinthians 12 3 no man can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Spirit follow me closely if faith is simply nodding to the fact that Jesus took the wrap on the cross and if I nod to that I'm all fixed up pray tell

38:58 where do we need the operation of the Holy Spirit that's just good business sense isn't it not is it not if I've done some bad things and I'll burn if I don't get forgiven and Jesus died and if I believe he died I won't burn why that's just good plain horse sense the most tight fucking kind of business man will see a lot of good sense in that that's not saving faith we have perverted the concept of saving faith so that men unplowed and unbroken by the Holy Ghost can exercise it whereas my Bible says that true faith is the gift of God no man can call him Lord but by the Holy Spirit and it's not until

39:43 the Holy Spirit is so operated upon that heart of mine which is basically in rebellion against God the carnal mind enmity against God it is not subject to his law neither indeed can it be so only is the Holy Spirit does his mysterious deep work in the heart of a man or woman fellow or girl opens his eyes to see the glory of Christ subdues his will to be willing to embrace the Lord Jesus that there will be any saving embrace of the Son of God and the greatest proof that this other concept of faith cannot be of God is just to look at the majority of those who profess to have it my Bible says if any man be in Christ

40:27 he's a new creature and if any man and if all these who say they're in him who give no evidence of being new creatures one thing is one of the others true either God no longer makes new creatures or they're not in Christ but when it says in the New Testament that people believed the term is used many different ways but where it's obvious that it's speaking of saving faith the fruit of that was a transformed life and a basic submission to Christ as Lord so that whenever the New Testament writers refer to Christians they always assume that they are basically not perfect but they are but basically surrendered to Christ that's why Paul could write to the Christians in Rome

41:12 and say you were the servants of sin but you have become the servants of God that's why the children of God are referred to in the book of the Revelation his servants shall serve him and shall see his face that's why we read in the book of Ephesians as the church is subject to Christ so let the wives be to their husbands he doesn't say as the church ought to be or as the church or may eventually become he said anyone who's part of the true church is subject to Christ as the church is subject and if you're not subject to Christ you're not part of the church that's all you've never bowed you've never been broken at the footstool

41:56 of a sovereign Savior and so as we see the implications of saving faith we are shut up to that place where we realize that we must look to God alone that he by his spirit would work him in us and give us such a view of ourselves as to make us hate not just hell all men by nature hate hell because that's a place of suffering no man by nature hates sin and Jesus came to save us from sin and its consequences and until a man hates sin and wants to turn from sin he'll never be delivered from its consequences and so there needs to be that work of the spirit and conviction showing us the nature of sin working in us a hatred for sin then we're willing to embrace

Call to Self-Examination and Gospel Communication

42:40 a Savior from sin in all the glory of his person in all the perfection of his work as he has offered to us in the gospel as we close this morning I ask you to apply this truth that you've heard to your own life you're clear on the necessity of faith unless you believe you'll be damned but are you clear on the nature of faith can you say as you sit there this morning that you are believing presently and tense for the act of faith always becomes the disposition of faith that you are believing upon a Lord on a throne

43:25 who came to that throne by way of a cross and you continually apply yourself to him and him alone for mercy you continually remind yourself that you're not your own you're bought with a price that you seek you haven't attained you haven't arrived but you seek that increasingly his scepter shall touch every department of your life that you might live to his will and to his praise if that isn't true of you my friend you have no grounds in the light of the scripture to claim you believe on Christ simply because you nodded your head to some facts about a man on a cross and I plead with you who by the grace of God can say yes the Holy Spirit has enabled me to embrace the Lord Jesus

44:09 not only to take the benefits of his wounds but to bow to the implications of his crown I plead with you as you communicate the gospel to others don't assume that they know the nature of faith spell it out to them and don't tell them they can be saved if they'll accept the fact that Christ died they must be willing to bow before the Lord who died and that's all the difference in the world as I have said perhaps on one or two other occasions I never doubted he died for sinners like me and for a period of probably ten years I tried desperately to snatch at the benefits of his cross so that I wouldn't have that

44:54 nagging conscience that condemned me and made me fearful of hell beloved the issue was this I didn't want to bow to the implications of his crown I wanted to run my own life and try as I would to have comfort from the benefits of his cross there was no peace of God I pronounced myself saved many a time but the pronouncement had a hollow ring when by the Holy Spirit I was brought to bow to him I was brought and his crown then his spirit spoke peace to my troubled soul and I could say I know

45:38 whom I have believed the Holy Ghost never speaks peace to a rebel heart he speaks peace to the rebel heart subdued by King Jesus let us pray