This sermon was preached on Sunday
evening, June 21st, 1981, at the Trinity Baptist Church in
Montville, New Jersey. Meditation in the Word of God,
to the fifth in a series of studies which I have entitled, Some Missing
Notes in Contemporary Gospel Preaching. Since the Gospel of
Christ contains God's only answer to the dilemma of human sin,
And since the gospel alone is the power of God unto salvation,
any distortions of, additions to, or subtractions from the
biblical gospel are ruinous to the souls of men. In our previous
studies in this series, we've contemplated two of these missing
notes in contemporary gospel preaching, the first being the
note of the wrath of God, and the second being the note of
true biblical repentance. For any who are not present for
those expositions, they are available from the Trinity pulpit. Now
tonight, we address ourselves to the third missing note in
contemporary gospel preaching, And I'm entitling our study,
The Missing Note of the Nature of Saving Faith. The Missing
Note of the Nature of Saving Faith. As we take up this crucial
subject, let me set forth several basic biblical perspectives by
way of introduction. And these perspectives, no doubt,
will be common ground for almost all of us, if not all of us. The first one is this. The Bible
is clear in its statements that Jesus Christ alone is the divinely
appointed Savior of sinners. Christ alone is the divinely
appointed Savior of sinners. Whether we turn to his words
in John 14 6, I am the way, the truth, and the light, no man
comes to the Father but by me, or if we turn to the testimony
of apostles, such as is found in Acts 4.12, the same truth
is set forth. And there is salvation in none
other, for there is no other name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved." So in introducing this subject
tonight, we must start on that common ground of the Bible's
clear testimony to the fact that Jesus Christ alone is the divinely
appointed Savior of sinners. Then we add to that a second
basic truth of Scripture, namely, that the salvation of Christ
is dependent upon the unique work which Christ accomplished
on behalf of sinners. That salvation which is found
only in Christ is a salvation found in Christ because of the
unique work of Christ. And again, whether we turn to
the words of Christ, who said, I did not come to be ministered
unto, but to minister and to give my life a ransom for many,
or we turn to the words of apostles, we find statement after statement,
the one who knew no sin, God made to be sin for us, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. So we have those
two fundamental building blocks. Christ alone is the Savior of
sinners. Christ is Savior only in the
virtue of His unique work of His perfect life, His substitutionary
death, and His glorious resurrection. But then there is a third crucial
and fundamental truth taught in Scripture, and it is this,
that faith has a unique function in the reception of the Savior
and His saving work. And as surely as the Bible teaches
that Christ alone is the appointed Savior, that the unique work
of Christ is the only foundation of salvation, it teaches also
that faith has a unique function in receiving the Savior and his
salvation. We can take the most familiar
gospel text known by almost anyone who has had any acquaintance
with the Bible. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life. or the well-known Texan
act, when the Philippian jailer cries out, Sirs, what must I
do to be saved? The answer of the apostle and
his companion is, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
shalt be saved. Likewise, when we turn to the
testimony of the epistles, we have this similar emphasis, By
grace have you been saved through faith. Now, can you put those
three fundamental building blocks together in your mind? Christ
alone is the divinely appointed Savior of sinners. Christ saves
only on the basis of his unique saving work, summarized in the
words, crucifixion, resurrection, And thirdly, Christ, in the virtue
of his saving work, is received by faith and faith alone. Now, these things being true,
this sets before us a very vital issue which brings us directly
to the subject in hand tonight. If faith has been assigned a
unique place in the sinner's reception of Christ and his exclusive
salvation, what is the nature of that faith unto which the
promises of salvation are made? For the same Bible that teaches
us that Christ alone that Christ saves in the virtue of his unique
work, and Christ saves every sinner who believes upon him,
this same Bible tells us that there is a faith which is not
unto salvation. For instance, we read in James
2.19 that there is a faith that is no different from the faith
of demons. Thou believest God is one that
demons also believe and tremble, so there is a demon's faith,
a far cry from saving faith. Furthermore, in James 2.26, James
speaks of a dead faith. And then in Luke eight thirteen
our Lord speaks of a temporary faith, who for a while believed,
and in time of temptation fall away. And then in Acts eight
and John two, the scripture speaks of a deceptive faith. It says
many Jews believed on him when they saw the miracles which he
did, but Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew
what was in them. They went through the motions
of some kind of faith response, but Jesus saw that it was deceptive. Likewise, in Acts 8, it speaks
of Simon Magus, who believed and was baptized and followed
with Philip. And yet a few verses later, Peter
had to say to him, Thou hast neither part nor lot in this
matter. Thy heart is not right with God. And furthermore, in
1 Corinthians 15, Paul speaks of a vain faith. So we have from
the Scriptures a demon's faith, a dead faith, a temporary faith,
a deceptive faith, and a vain faith. Well, what is the difference
then between true and saving faith and all of these other
kinds of faith which are not unto salvation? Well, if you
see nothing else, I hope you see the tremendous importance
of spelling out clearly the nature of that faith which is unto salvation,
of not assuming that everything that passes in the notions of
man as faith is indeed true and saving faith, that which the
Word of God calls the faith of God's elect. Now, in attempting
to set out the nature of saving faith tonight, this missing note
in contemporary gospel preaching, I have but two basic concepts
from the Word of God to lay before you, and then in the light of
them, three inescapable conclusions. The first is this. The Lord Jesus
Christ Himself is the object of saving faith. The Lord Jesus
Christ himself is the object of saving faith. Most often when
the gospel is presented in our day, it's presented in language
such as this. When Christ has been set before
people in his death and resurrection as the only hope of sinners,
the evangelist, either in print or in person, will say something
like this. Now, if you will admit you are a sinner and believe
that Christ died for you or that Christ died for sinners, you
will be saved. You ever heard that before? You
say, sure, many times. What's wrong with that? That's
good, pure gospel. Is it? Is it? If you will admit
you are a sinner and believe that Christ died for sinners
you will be saved in that language what is made the object of saving
faith. Not the person of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ the object of saving faith is made one of
the facts pertaining to the work of Christ. Jesus Christ died
for sinners. That is a fact pertaining to
the work of Christ. But that fact is not made the
object of saving faith in the Word of God. It is not any facet
of the work of Christ that is made the object of saving faith,
but it is the person himself who accomplished the work. not
only the crucifixion, but the incarnation, the perfect life,
and the glorious resurrection and heavenly session. Now, to
demonstrate this, I need only take the most familiar gospel
text and quote them in your hearing, and you will see. Let's take
John 1, 12. All right? Familiar text to many
of us. He came unto his own, verse 11, and his own received
him not. Now, notice carefully. As many as received his finished
work, to them gave he the right to become the children of God,
even to them that believed in his finished work. Is that what
the text says? A lot of you are shaking your
head, no. If you've got a version that says that, it is a perversion,
it is not an accurate version and translation. No, the text
says this, as many as received him, the person, To them gave
he the right to become the children of God, even them that believed
on his name. And his name means the setting
forth of his person. Now you see, it is not believing
in the one who died in Rose, I'm sorry, believing in the fact
that he died in Rose, but it is the person who is the object
of saving faith. Take John 3, 16. Again, I'm taking
only familiar texts. so that as what may be a new
thought to some of you dawns upon you, you'll be confident
that it isn't because someone slipped in some obscure text
and twisted it out of shape and fooled you. God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in
his death upon the cross should not perish. That's not what John
3.16 says. That's the way it's taught and
preached, but that's not what it says. Look at it in your own
Bibles. It says, God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
on him, the object of the faith is the person. Whosoever believeth
on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Turn to Acts chapter 16, when
the jailer comes under conviction of sin and realizes that he stands
under the wrath of Almighty God and cries out of the agony of
his soul, sirs, what must I do to be saved? What is Paul's answer
in Acts 16 and verse 31? He does not say, Believe that
Jesus Christ died on the cross for you, and you will be saved.
No, no. The text says, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Literally, believe
upon, and the object of saving faith is none other than the
person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Likewise, in Acts 20 and verse
21, this text that we looked at last Lord's Day in conjunction
with the doctrine of repentance, here the apostle is summarizing
his apostolic preaching ministry at Ephesus, and he says that
he testified, Acts 20, 21, both to Jews and to Greeks, repentance
toward God and faith towards not the cross of Christ, nor
the tomb of Christ, nor the manger in which he was born, but paid
toward our Lord Jesus Christ, the object of saving faith being
nothing less than the person of our Lord himself. And likewise,
when our Lord in the days of his flesh gave in his own person
and word the overtures of grace to sinners. To what did he invite
sinners? Not to place their faith in some
facet of his work, but in his person. That wonderful gospel
invitation of Matthew 11, 28, Come unto what? Not my cross. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and
ye shall find rest unto your souls. Take the familiar Gospel
text, John 6, 37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. Well, I don't want to weary you
with text upon text. I could do that without any effort
whatsoever. But I challenge you to go to
your own Bible and scour the Scriptures and see if the object
of saving faith is any fact about Christ. or whether it is the
Lord Jesus Christ himself who is the object of saving faith. You will come to the conviction,
if you are honest with Scripture, that the statement that the Lord
Jesus Christ himself is the object of saving faith is a well-established
fact of biblical revelation. Now, granted, it is not the person
of Christ apart from his saving work. I took care of that in
the introduction. You remember our three building
blocks? That wasn't filler just to use up time. That was setting
the framework for clarity of understanding. The person who
is the object of saving faith is that unique person who is
God in man, who accomplished a unique work by way of Mary's
womb, his perfect life, his substitutionary death, his literal, physical,
bodily resurrection, his session at the right hand of the Father.
Yes, it is not the person apart from his work But it is the person
who is the object of faith, and all the virtue of the work of
Christ is bound up in the person of Christ. And if you do not
have him, you don't have any of the benefits of his work.
John says in 1 John 5, 12, he that hath the Son hath life. Not he who has a conviction about
the reality and factuality of the cross. There are multitudes
who have that conviction, who are as lost as the devil himself. It is only those who have the
Son who have life. In saving faith, the sinner in
the totality of his need comes into direct contact with the
exalted Savior in the plenitude of his saving grace and power. No man is saved by belief in
his pre-incarnate glory, in his sinless life, in his substitutionary
death, in his bodily resurrection. No, no. We are saved only when
we come into living one-to-one contact with the Savior Himself. So then, as we contemplate the
nature of saving faith, that first point needs to be clearly
understood. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is the object of saving faith. Now, the second point I want
to establish from the Scriptures is this. Unreserved self-commitment
to Christ is the essence of saving faith. The object of saving faith
is the person of Christ himself. The essence of saving faith is
unreserved self-commitment to that person. Unreserved self-commitment
to Christ is the essence of saving faith. Now the Bible nowhere
gives us a formal definition of saving faith. It does give
us something that approaches a formal definition of certain
aspects of faith in Hebrews 11. I'm familiar with that passage,
but nowhere does the Bible attempt to give us a formal definition
of saving faith. However, by the word which the
Holy Spirit uses for faith or to believe, By the pictures it
draws of what faith is, and by the analogies given telling us
what faith is like, we can come to the safe conclusion that saving
faith in its essence is unreserved self-commitment to Christ. Turn
please to John 2 for an illustration of the use of the word for, the
word believe itself. Then we'll look at one of the
analogies of faith, and then one of the descriptions of faith
at work. So from three standpoints now,
the linguistic, the very word that is used, then from the standpoint
of a picture or an analogy of faith, and then from the standpoint
of a description of faith at work. And in each case we will
see that unreserved self-commitment is of the essence of saving faith. In John 2, a verse to which I
alluded earlier, we read in verse 23, Now when he, Jesus, was in
Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, Many believed on his
name, beholding the signs which he did. But Jesus did not trust
himself unto them. Literally, Jesus did not believe
upon them. For he knew all men, and because
he needed not that anyone should bear witness concerning man,
for he himself knew what was in man. Verse 23 says that these
people who saw the miracles of Christ came to some kind of faith
in Christ, but it was obviously not true and saving faith because
Jesus would not unreservedly commit himself to them. He would
not recognize in them his true disciples. He would not recognize
in them his true followers. He knew that that faith of theirs
was a surface faith. He would not unreservedly entrust
himself to them. Why? Because they had not unreservedly
entrusted themselves to him. There was a kind of faith. They
saw the miracles which gave credibility to what he was doing, but that
faith of theirs fell short of saving faith, which finds a beautiful
description in what Jesus refused to do to them. He would not commit
himself to them. And if you'll turn that over
to John 3, this very familiar picture in which our Lord himself
likens his work for sinners to that lifting up of a serpent
in the wilderness in the days of Moses. You remember the people
had grumbled and groused, and God was angry with their grumbling.
And God sent fiery serpents to bite them, and as the poison
entered them, many died. And they came to Moses in the
language of repentance, and said, Oh, please pray to God for us.
And Moses prays, and God tells him to take a serpent made of
brass, and to put it upon a pole, and to hold it up in the midst
of the camp, and then to assure the people that all who will
look upon that serpent of brass will live. And the text tells
us in the book of Numbers that as many as looked did indeed
live. Now Jesus picks up on that and
indicates that it's a beautiful picture of saving faith. As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth may in him
have eternal life. When someone whose body was infected
with that poisonous venom, conscious that there was no hope in himself,
when Moses stood in the midst of the camp and lifted up that
serpent of brass and cried out, Look and live! What did it mean
to believe in that divine provision? It meant that a person rested
the whole weight of his future life and health and well-being
upon that which God has appointed as the means of deliverance.
They had to not simply glance out of the corner of the eye,
but they had to look with the look of what? Unreserved self-commitment
to God's appointed means of delivering them from the malady that had
come upon them. Then, when we turn to a text
such as Matthew 11, here we find saving faith described in its
actions in relationship to Christ. Our Lord does not use the word
faith, but he is calling sinners to faith in himself, and notice
what he says. Matthew 11, 28, come unto me. What is faith? Faith is a coming
to Christ, not with physical feet, for he is not physically
present. Now, as he speaks to us in the
gospel and says, come to me, we can only come with the feet
of the soul. But when one person comes to
another, it's a whole person going out to meet another person. Jesus says, Come unto me, all
you that labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Give yourself up to me, to be
yoked to me. My yoke is easy. My burden is
light. The yoke of the devil is a chafing,
burdensome yoke. The yoke of unmortified self-will
is a burdensome, chafing yoke. Come and take my yoke unreservedly. Give yourself up to me, and I
will lift the burden of a guilty conscience. I will lift the crippling
burden of the slavery to sin that crushes and bows you down. Come to me. I will lift that
burden. I will then place my yoke upon
you, take my yoke upon you, learn of me, for I am meek and lowly
of heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls." To what does
our Lord invite sinners? Not just to a glance at one part
of His work for them, but He invites them to unreserved self-commitment
to His own person. Therefore, when we read, as one
author has written, that saving faith is self-commitment to Christ
in all the glory of His person and the perfection of His work
as He is freely and fully offered to us in the gospel, there is
something in us that says that is it. That is the essence of
saving faith, self-commitment to Christ in all the glory of
His person. in all the perfection of his
work, as he is freely and fully offered to us in the gospel. Now, if Christ is the object
of saving faith, if unreserved self-commitment to him is of
the essence of saving faith, then there are three inescapable
conclusions that come from those premises, and the first one is
this. It is morally and spiritually impossible to receive Christ
as Savior while refusing to bow to Him as Lord. It is morally
and spiritually impossible to receive Christ as Savior while
refusing to bow to Him as Lord. Now, why do I make this point?
Well, for the simple reason that in the majority of our evangelical
circles, this notion is not only expounded as truth, but it is
believed to the damnation of multitudes of souls. that it
is perfectly proper and wise and possible and everything else
to acknowledge I'm a sinner on my way to hell, believe that
Christ died for sinners, and as it were, snatch at the benefits
of His cross while refusing to bow to the demands of His crown. Now that's the subtle wickedness
of making the work of Christ the object of saving faith. You
can believe in the death of Christ for sinners and still go on in
love with your sins. But you can't receive the Christ
who died and is seated upon a throne without giving up the government
of your life. And salvation is in a person. And that person not only has
the marks in his hands and his feet and his side received when
he died for sinners, but he is seated upon a throne and the
scripture says he is king of kings and he is lord of lords. And in saving faith, you are
to unreservedly commit yourself to him. To come under the gracious
benefits of the cleansing of His blood, yes. To come into
that fountain open for sin and uncleanness, yes. For the work
of cleansing and pardon is bound up in His person. But, my friend,
if you receive that person, you come under His gracious yoke
and His authoritative crown. You can't receive a half Christ. You can only receive a whole
Christ. And when Paul directed that Philippian
jailer to believe, he did not say, Believe in Jesus Christ
as your personal Savior. Where do we get that language?
Not out of the Scriptures. He said, Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that jailer man knew what
the word Lord meant. He lived under the Roman government.
And one of the facets of that government was to say, Caesar
is Lord. He sits on a throne of unquestioned
authority and power. Mr. Jailer man, you want to get
saved? You've got to reckon with somebody
who sits on a throne of absolute power. He is the Lord who came
to that throne by way of a bloody Roman gibbet, who came to that
throne by way of the humiliation of the cross. And Mr. Jailer
man, if you're ever going to get saved, you're going to believe
upon Unreservedly entrust yourself to someone sitting on a throne,
and if he's on the throne, you can't be on the throne. Thank
God He is Jesus, name given to Him at His incarnation. Name given to him when the eternal
Word became flesh, that he might live the life we did not live,
and die the death we should have died. He is God's Messiah, Christ
the Anointed One, the final and true prophet, the only true and
final priest, the glorious King of grace. Mr. Jailer Man, believe
upon, unreservedly commit yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, and
you will be saved. We often quote the text, Revelation
320, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my
voice and open the door, I will come in to him who stands at
the door and knocks. Well, you read Revelation 1 and
you see there the account of the vision John had of the exalted
Lord in all the glory and splendor of his resurrection, life and
power. And he says, behold, I am alive
and was dead and I'm alive forevermore. He identifies himself as the
one who was crucified through weakness, but lives by the power
of God. And he says, I stand at the door
and knock. In the overtures of the gospel,
Christ comes and knocks. But he says, if you open the
door, I will come in. Not half of me. Not a third of
me. I will come in. He comes in as
the pierced one to forgive and to cleanse us, yes. But he comes
in as the crowned one to govern us and to rule us. And you may,
as it were, in the struggles and throes of God's dealings
say, Oh, I don't want to perish in my sins. I don't want to go
down into hell laden with the guilt of my sins. Oh, I'd love
to have the benefits of the pierced one. That crown upon his head
disturbs me. Because I've got plans of my
own and notions of my own as to what I want out of life and
what I want to pursue in life. And I've got my own set of values
and goals and standards. And I know if he comes in as
the crowned one, he will come to impose his gracious will and
scepter. But I fear that at many points
it will counter my own. So I'd love to have him as the
pierced one. But I don't like this idea of
the crown upon his brow. Suppose you were to say to the
Lord Jesus, Lord, let's see if we can strike a bargain. I'd
love to have the benefits of your death upon the cross applied
to me. I'd love to welcome you into
my heart and life as the pierced one. But, Lord, won't you just
take that crown from off your brow? That disturbs me right
now. Won't you just lay that crown down outside the door of
my heart and life? And then, Lord, I promise, sometime
down the road when it's continued to me, I will then allow you
the privilege of picking up your crown, placing it upon your head,
and crowning you as the Lord of my life. My friend, do you
think Jesus Christ will stoop to that kind of dickering? He
won that crown at the price of the bloody agony and sweat of
Gethsemane and Golgotha. The scripture says God has highly
exalted him. Why? Because he was obedient
unto death. Do you think he's going to lay
that crown aside to pander to your desire to go on sinning
without any fear of hell? Do you? Every person who says,
Christ is my Savior, but not my Lord, is saying that you got
Jesus Christ to pander to your carnal desire to go to heaven,
a forgiven sinner, while still living in rebellion against the
authority of Christ. And it all comes down to the
crux of this matter. What is the nature of saving
faith? And the nature of saving faith
is to be understood in the terms we've expounded tonight. The
Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the object of saving faith. Unreserved
self-commitment to Him is of the essence of saving faith. And that being true, it is morally
and spiritually impossible to receive Christ as Savior while
refusing to own Him as Lord. And that's why the New Testament
speaks very simply in the language such as Colossians 2.6. As you
have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. Paul describes Christian experience
as this, receiving Christ Jesus the Lord. In that classic passage
in Romans 10, and I'm quoting familiar verses to you, He says,
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. 2 Corinthians 4, 5 We preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves your servants
for Jesus' sake. Romans 14, 9 To this end he both
died and rose again, that he might be Lord both of the dead. end of the living. That's the
first conclusion, you see, that comes from a proper understanding
of the nature of saving faith. Morally and spiritually impossible
to receive Christ as Savior while refusing to own Him as Lord.
Second conclusion, it is morally and spiritually impossible to
be made a believer while not becoming a disciple. In our day, a believer and a
disciple are understood to be two distinct entities. A believer
is one who has trusted Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and
is ready to die and go to heaven in the virtue of Christ's work
for sinners. A disciple is someone who has
given himself up to Christ to accept the word and law of Christ
as the rule of his life and is pursuing a life of obedience
to Christ. And we are told in our day that
there are multitudes of believers who are not disciples. My friend,
that has absolutely no basis in the Bible. You want to open
your Bibles with me and see. How in the scriptures, becoming
a believer and a disciple are synonymous realities. When Jesus
commissioned his oath to go into the world and preach the gospel,
what did he tell them to do? Matthew 28, 18. We read, Jesus
came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given
to me in heaven and on earth, going therefore, now notice,
not get decisions of all the nations, Doesn't say make believers
of all the nations. He says make disciples of all
the nations. Now notice, baptizing them. In other words, discipleship
is not an advanced stage of Christian growth and development. It is
the initiation into Christianity. And if you've not been made a
disciple, you're not a believer. And this is borne out by the
language of the book of Acts. Look, please, at several sets
of text in Luke's account of the early ministry of the apostles. In Acts chapter five and verse
fourteen. Acts chapter five and verse fourteen. And believers were the more added
to the Lord multitudes of men and women. Now, how are people
added to the Lord when by faith they embrace the Lord who was
offered in the gospel? So Luke, in describing the increase
of the church, describes it as an increase of believers. But when he comes to chapter
six in verse one, he describes the increase in different terminology. Look at it. Now, in those days,
when the number of the disciples was multiplied. Now you see what
Luke has done? Believers were multiplied and
now he says disciples were multiplied. Is he telling us that those who
had become believers back in chapter five, great numbers of
them were now going on to a higher level of Christian experience?
And from simply having Christ as Savior, they were now taking
Him as Lord. From being merely saved, they
now got surrendered. From merely being indwelt by
the Spirit, they now became full of the Spirit. There's absolutely
no warrant for putting that construction on the meaning whatsoever. Luke
is using, as synonymous terms, multiplication of believers,
multiplication of disciples. Verse 7 of chapter 6, the word
of God increased. and the number of the disciples
multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly, and a great company of the priests
were obedient to the faith. He can describe coming to faith
as an act of obedience. Why? Because the call of faith
is a call to self-commitment to Christ without reservation.
Then we turn to chapter 11, verses 21 and 26, and we see a similar
construction. 1121, the word of God goes up
to Antioch as the believers are scattered, and we read in verse
21 of Acts 11, the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great
number that believed turned unto the Lord. So there are a great
number of believers, but yet in verse 26 we read the latter
part of verse 26 or let's start back. All right,
verse 25. And when he went forth to Tarsus
to seek for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him
to Antioch. And it came to pass that even
for a whole year they were gathered together with the church and
taught much people. Now notice, and that the disciples
were called Christians first in Antioch. Luke says there were
a great number who believed and turned to the Lord. He now describes
them in verse 26 as disciples who are subsequently called Christians. Why? Because their faith had
brought them into living attachment with Christ, and Christ so dominated
their lives that they are called Christians first at Antioch. Now, when we turn to the Gospels,
the call to discipleship is very plain, is it not? If any man
will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and
follow me. Is that a call to a level of
Christian experience beyond faith? No. It is simply a call to repentance
and faith couched in the language of discipleship. Nothing more,
nothing less. That's why when our Lord dealt
with the rich young ruler whose question was, what shall I do
to inherit eternal life? He calls him to discipleship
and he says in obedience to that call, you will have eternal life
and treasure in heaven. He wasn't calling him to some
advanced stage of Christian experience. He was calling him to the bare
bones of true Christian experience. And so it is morally and spiritually
impossible for a person to be made a true believer while not
being made a disciple. And then, finally, the third
conclusion that is drawn from our understanding of the nature
of saving faith is this. It is morally and spiritually
impossible to exercise saving faith without a miracle of regeneration. It is morally and spiritually
impossible to exercise saving faith without a miracle of regeneration. Now, often in our day, people
say, well, look, everyone has his own little bundle of faith.
It's sort of a commodity you're born with. along with the shape
of your nose, along with a certain measure of gray matter and intellectual
endowment, along with your heart and your lungs and your liver
and your intestines. Why, you've got this something
called faith, and you use it all the time. When you go and
sit in a chair, you use your faith, and you prove that you
have faith in the chair. And when you get in an airplane,
you use your faith. You believe that the airplane
is going to fly and land again. And you have faith in the pilot,
in the co-pilot. You have this thing called faith,
and you use it in lots of areas. Now all you need to do is use
it with reference to Jesus and the work he did on the cross.
Whereas up till now, you haven't put your trust in what Jesus
did. Use that thing called faith that you have natively and naturally
as part of your own endowment as a human being, and just put
it on a different object, namely, the death of Christ. My friend,
that's sheer theological and biblical nonsense. Listen to
these texts, and I'll quote them without comment, but not without
emphasis. Jesus said in John 6, 44, no
man can come to me except the Father
which hath sent me draw him." No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him. Jesus did not appeal to men on
the basis that they had some inherent commodity that was just
waiting to be used, and if only they'd used it, they could come
to Him. He says, no! Unless the Father
grants something that they do not have by nature, they'll never
come. I quote the apostle now in 1
Corinthians 2.14, The natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. The
natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God,
and in the context The things of the Spirit of God are the
gracious provisions of God in the gospel, forgiveness and pardon
and life offered in the Lord Jesus Christ. The natural man
does not receive these things. Why? The text tells us he cannot. Neither can he know them. He has no innate faculty to discern
the beauty of Christ. He has no innate faculty to discern
the suitableness of Christ to his need. The preaching of the
cross is to them that are perishing foolishness. Again, I quote from
our Lord's words in John 3 and verse 3, except a man be born
again, he cannot. He cannot see the kingdom of
God. He can't make sense out of all
of this. How often have you and I sat
when preaching has been lucid and clear and under the unction
of the Spirit and said to ourselves, how could anyone out of Christ
fail to see the beauty of the Savior, the danger of his own
state? How could anyone do anything
other than flee to Christ? Yet people have gone out as unmoved
and untouched as though the preacher were trying to sell bananas to
people dying with rotten bananas all around. Why? Because unless
a man is born again, he cannot see, he cannot perceive, he can't
make sense out of the kingdom of God. Romans 8, 7. The carnal
mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can it be. You see, there is this element
of self-commitment in faith, but the carnal mind is enmity
against God, God the Father, God the Son, as well as God the
Holy Ghost. And Paul says the carnal mind
not being subject to God cannot be. And the sinner will stand
in his rebellion, and he will not. He cannot be subject unless
God does something. to change that rebel will. And
that miracle which God performs is the miracle of regeneration.
He takes out the heart of stone. And the first consciousness the
sinner has that God has done that work is that he sees a beauty
and a suitableness in Christ that perfectly answers to his
need. And his only consciousness is
that freely and joyfully, with unreserved self-commitment, he
puts himself and the state of his soul into the hands of Christ. to be saved from sin and its
consequences unto all the privileges of the children of God. That's
why Paul can say in 2 Corinthians 4, 6, God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. My friends, in that original
creation, the light did not create itself. There was nothing but
darkness upon the face of the people. And the scripture says,
God said, let there be light. And there was light. It was a
created word. And Paul draws that very picture
from Genesis 1 and says, that's what God does in the darkened
heart of the sinner. God, who commanded light to shine
out of darkness, not in the darkness, but out of it, created light
that it should shine out of it, hath shined in our hearts. And
when God creates spiritual light in the human heart, you know
the first object that that light shines upon? Jesus Christ. The first consciousness of a
quickened sinner is the loveliness of Jesus, the suitableness of
Jesus, the perfection of Jesus as the Savior of sinners, so
that for the first time we see in our need, and in what Christ
is and what Christ has done, a perfect suitableness between
us and our need, Christ in His grace, and then the heart runs
out to him in the actings of saving faith. My friend, do you
know anything about that? Do you? Do you believe with a
faith that has brought you without reservation to the feet of Christ,
resting the weight of your guilty soul upon him alone, taking his
gracious yoke with full purpose of an endeavor after a life of
obedience. How sad it is that the note of
the nature of saving faith is a missing note in contemporary
gospel preaching. This country has probably in
all of its history never had more people, percentage-wise,
who profess to believe in Jesus Christ while at the same time
being in its most sickened state morally, religiously, and in
terms of vital godliness. Why? How can this be? One of the answers lies right
here. People have not understood the nature of saving faith. And if you are one who has been
lulled to sleep thinking you could snatch at the benefits
of the cross of Christ, while refusing to bow to the crown
of Christ, thinking you could have the benefits of his work
while refusing to embrace his person. In love, I declare to
you, my friend, you've been deceived by a defective presentation of
the gospel, and I call upon you to repent of that kind of faith. and to cry to God that you may
be enabled to embrace his dear son as he is truly offered in
the gospel. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for
our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for his willingness
to become the incarnate Word to take upon himself the likeness
of sinful flesh, to live the life we did not live but should
have lived, to die the death we should have died. We thank
you that you made him who knew no sin to become sin for us,
that you made him to become what he was not in himself, that we
might be made what we would never be in and of ourselves. We thank
you for an imputed righteousness, that in Christ Jesus you behold
us fully accepted before all the demands of your law, and
we pray that your spirit would so attend the word this night.
that sinful men and women, whether they are open sinners or secret
sinners, scandalous sinners or respectable sinners, young or
old, grant, O Holy Father, that sinful men and women, boys and
girls, will flee to Christ, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
find the promised salvation in Him. We pray for us as your people
that we may be well established and well grounded in the nature
of saving faith, that when we call others to faith, we may
call them to that faith which you have set forth as the only
appointed means of being bound and united to your Son. Bless,
we pray, then, the preaching of your word. Seal it to our
hearts, to our prophet, and to your own eternal praise, we ask
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.