So in our previous message we
looked at the elements of this belief that these men had that
wasn't saving faith. And the Lord Jesus Christ would
not entrust himself to them. 24 but Jesus did not commit in trust
believe under them because he knew all men and he needed not
that any should testify man for he knew what was in man I wanted to talk about what true
and saving faith is for a little while, and I wanted to particularly
spend our last I trust time in sort of isolation and separation
as we have. I don't know, it'll be We'll
wait and see but I'd like us to think, I'd like to think that
this is the last time I'll ever have to do this again and that
we can meet face to face because these are momentous passages
of scripture and they're so familiar but they speak. so powerfully. If the Lord Jesus Christ didn't
entrust himself to these, then he has people that he does entrust
himself to. And he'd given them a sign, which
these men seem to have ignored. They were interested in the miracles
of healing and the miracles and other things that he'd done that
week. but they had apparently no interest in the great sign. The great sign is the death and
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's that great sign
by which sinners are saved. It's the great sign that real
sinners need and it's the great sign that real sinners cherish. And of course it's the one event
in particular in which the real character, the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the name of our God is revealed in his absolute
sovereignty and his holiness and his justice and his love
and his grace and his mercy and his justifying of sinners by
declaring himself and revealing himself to be the just God and
the Saviour. So it's all about the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. His death and resurrection
is the greatest evidence of the revelation of the character of
God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. And
we just want as a church, I trust, to be people who just say, this
is what God says. Thus saith the Lord. God's people love Him. These people were attracted by
signs. We are drawn to a person. I have a deep and serious interest
in what true and saving faith is. We have been taken on a remarkable
journey by our God in these last, for me, 20 odd years and longer,
and for you, 12 years or more. The painting that Meryn did behind
Me here is a painting that's been our church logo for years
and it speaks very much about this verse I trust as these passages
and what it is for there to be an entrust in Christ. You see
religion, the reason we've chosen that is religion is all about
polishing the stump that you can see there and getting the
stump better in terms of how it lives through this world.
But the stump is dead and the stump is unchanging. and the
entrusting Christ entrusts himself in the new creation and it's
the new creation that sees him, it's the new creation that is
that life from above, it's the new creation that the Lord Jesus
spoke to Nicodemus about, he must be born again, there must
be a new creation, a new creation truly believes. In our flesh,
we look to the things that we do and we're just horrified by
how unbelieving we are. The slightest strain and pressure
comes upon us and we just act in the most appalling unbelief.
We'll talk about God's sovereignty and then we'll immediately, in
a heart breath, we'll think, well I've got to do something
to fix this. And these things are out of control in some way.
we have a good and glorious God and he's taken us through an
extraordinary journey and he's taken us to a place which is
not one that we chose ourselves We thought that the glorious
truths that we were describing about an eternal covenant of
God who made promises simply for the foundation of the world
and saved his people from before the foundation of the world and
he robed them in the very righteousness of God, the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ and the work on the cross was not an
attempt, an offer. It wasn't a possibility. satisfied God is satisfied the
offering of the Lord Jesus Christ was an offering to God and it
was an offering to God with us in him we were crucified with
him we were buried with him we were raised with him we were
circumcised with him we kept the law in him we perfectly obeyed
God in with all of our heart and all
of our soul and all of our mind and all of our strength. And
we've loved our neighbour as ourselves and we've done all
of these things to the satisfaction of God's holiness and perfection
and we did it in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you would think that
these glorious liberating truths, the truths that set you free,
would be truths sinners would embrace and yet when we brought
these truths to the religious world some like these people
here before us in John chapter 2 they believed for a little
while and yet they faded away like half the soils in that parable
of the soils for a little while they flourished and they looked
like there was going to be something wonderful come forth as fruit
and yet as the lord says because there was no root in them when
trials and other things came along they faded away i want
to have true faith in saving faith john writes this gospel
that we might believe he says in john 20 verse 31 all these
things we're reading are written are written that you might believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing,
and that word believing is in the tense that says believe and
keep on believing, that you might have life through his name. See, the spiritually born again
man looks to the forgiveness of sins as the way into the presence
of the one he's met. You can read about it in Jeremiah
31. Because he's forgiven us our
sins, he then comes and deals with us because we are holy and
righteous and unblameable and unapprovable in his sight. We
are, we are before our God. And it's a wondrous thing to
think of, isn't it? We are made. by the perfect and
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, to be perfectly fit homes
for God to dwell in, to be a temple. See, true saving faith sees the
beauty of his holiness, the wonder of his presence, and the words
of his grace and love. They look beyond the signs to
the sign giver. They look beyond the things that
they can see with the eyes of flesh and with the eyes of faith.
We see so, so much war. That woman who broke the alabaster
box of ointment and had filled the house, what a remarkable
evening that must have been. She adored and kissed his feet
because she loved him. And she loved him because she
was forgiven much. Mary at that term on that resurrection
morning saw the most amazing sight ever seen, the resurrected
Lord Jesus Christ, and she clung to Him. Peter saw the miraculous
catch of fish and was caused by the realization of whose presence
he was in and who the Lord Jesus Christ really was. He had a glimpse,
didn't he? And he says, I'm a sinful man. I'm too sinful to be in your
presence. There is a reverence. Malachi speaks of those that
feared the Lord. Real sinners need soul healing. Getting on well in this life
is not the big issue. that matters. I trust the Lord
leads you to think about what it is to leave this world and
to stand in the very presence of God. It's a good thing, as
the wise man said, it is better to go to the house of mourning
than to be in the place of feasting. It is good to contemplate these
ends. We so much want to see our lives
and things in this world polished up and better, but it's a vapour. All flesh is grass, just like
the flower of the grass that just withers and is blown away. We're here for a breath, a hard
breath, and we're in eternity in the presence of God forever. May we be captivated by our God,
cause us to be captivated by the things of Him in eternity,
in His name and His character. These men reflect the natural
man. Man at his best state. Nicodemus reflects the natural
man. He's a teacher and he recognises
the Lord as a teacher. And even his commendation of
the Lord is inadequate. He must be taken out of the darkness
of that religion. and into the light of the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want us, as I said earlier,
I want us to spend some time, just a little time, just looking
at what is saving faith. And I don't know a better place
that speaks of it, because it begins by speaking of the very
character of God. So turn with me in your Bibles
to 2 Timothy chapter 1. I just love this passage of scripture,
I love. what it says about our Lord Jesus
Christ, about our God, what it says about the eternal covenant
of grace, the eternal covenant in the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that the God of peace put forward. This is Paul's testimony. This is Paul's dying testimony
to his son in the faith, Timothy. Let's begin at verse 8. Be thou
therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, the witness of our
Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. But be thou partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us,
who hath saved us. Note the order, he has saved
us, and called us. The saving began before the calling,
with an holy calling. Not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished
death, and hath brought light and immortality to light through
the gospel. Abolish the death, brothers and
sisters, if your death is gone and the sting is gone. The death
of believers is but a translation from us, from one room in the
house to another. Our company You saints of God,
our company doesn't change. And we lose this flesh, which
just hinders us. He's brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. Where unto, verse 11, I am an
appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles. For the witch cause, I also suffered
these things. have believed and am persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him
against that day in John chapter 2 there's a committing isn't
there they in a sense believed in his name but he did not commit
himself to them he did not entrust himself to them We see through the eyes of faith. I love what Hebrews 11, 27 says
of Moses. He saw him who was invisible. We see God through the eyes of
faith, through this new creation that God gives to the hearts
of his people. I know whom I have believed. I know whom, says Paul in 2 Timothy
2. He doesn't say what I believe. He says, I know whom I believe. So many people want to say that
the differences that have caused us to take this journey are insignificant
things. and that we're really all going
to the same place and we really all believe in the same God and
that we have no justification for being separate from them. People would say that these people
are sincere. Nicodemus was sincere. Saul of
Tarsus was sincere when he was killing and crucifying those
people. The Galatian false teachers were
sincere when they went to Galatia. They were sincere when they travelled
over land and sea. It's not about your sincerity,
it's knowing whom you have believed. And if you know whom you believe,
that will determine what you believe. If you know whom you
believe, you'll have no problem about the absolute sovereignty
of our God. You'll have no doubts about the
wonder of electing love. You'll have no doubt that salvation
is by grace. If you know whom you believe,
you'll know what you believe about God and his character. of helpless, hopeless sinners
who are nothings. You'll learn what you believe
when you know whom you believe. You'll learn a lot about yourself
and you'll learn about the salvation. You'll learn about that blood
and you won't treat that blood as a common thing to be trodden
underfoot. It's precious blood to the children
of God. People say that people can be
wrong in their heads and their hearts are right. That is just
rubbish. That is just rubbish. I know whom I have believed. There is a true saving knowledge
and it comes with true saving faith. It comes as the darkness
is taken away and the light is shined. We were dead. I love what Paul says in Ephesians
2, isn't it? Even we were dead in sins, dead
and captive to Satan. We were religious but dead. We
were moral but dead. We probably had changed lives
but dead. for God, verse 4, who is rich
in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us. Even when
we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ by grace,
he has aid, and has raised us together and made us to sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come
he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. for by grace are you saved through
faith and that's not of yourselves it's the gift of God's not of
works oh so thankful he says that not of works lest any man
should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them we know we know him Paul says he knows whom I have believed. And then he says, I am persuaded. I am persuaded. What am I persuaded about? What's
Paul persuaded about? What does true saving faith have
its persuasion about? I'm persuaded that he is able. I'm persuaded that he is able
without any help from me. He is able without my cooperation. He's able without my exercising
my free will. He's able as he is to save me. I'm persuaded that he is able. What a great persuasion that
God has the power, the right and authority to do all that
he does. and he then says he's able to
keep he's able to keep it he's able to guard he's able to protect
and to guard what I have committed which I
have committed which all that I have committed what have you or nothing. All our eggs, believers,
are in one basket. If he fails, we all fail. On the basis of his success,
we all succeed. He's committing it unto him.
I'm relying There is a commitment, isn't there, that I'm relying,
I'm entrusting everything to Him. And I don't have a plan
B. I don't have any other way. We
have, by the grace of God, been led to take a stand before God. and it's a stand that is based
on what is written, what God says about his character, about
God, what God says about what I am and who I am, and about
what God says his Christ is. And I've got nowhere else to
go. I've got nowhere else to go. We have no other on the basis of our commitment
to God. Just like Israel, quivering and
hiding from Goliath as he taunted those people, those cowering
Israelites. And David comes along And the
deal was, wasn't it, David says there is a cause, there is a
cause in this world, there is a cause that exercises all the
children of God. This man, no matter how big he
looked, this man was blaspheming the name of the God, the Lord
God of hosts of Israel. and on the basis of David's success
we all succeed. He is so typically pictured before
us as like the Lord Jesus Christ. We stand and fall in this world
on the basis of who he is and we stand and fall on the basis
of who he is and what he has promised in the world to come. We entrust everything to him.
These are not little things the Lord did not commit himself
unto them but he commits himself to his people he knows all men
and he knows what's in man and if he didn't commit himself to
those then he does commit himself to his people that's That's why
he came. He will save his people from
their sins. He's made a commitment to his own. I want
us to think as we finish about that remarkable commitment that
he made to his own. I love what he says. in John chapter 13, the last
of these passovers. When Jesus knew, John 13 verse
1, when Jesus knew that his hour has come, that he should depart
out of this world unto the Father. And then he describes what he'd
done in this sojourn of his, when he walked before us, before
God and before the Lord of God. and before these people who believed
in him, but he didn't believe in them. And look what he says,
having loved his own, having loved his own, which were in
the world, he loved them to the end. He loved them to the end. He, brothers and sisters, has
made a remarkable commitment, hasn't he? to the end. He calls them his sheep in John
chapter 10 and they follow the voice of the shepherd. These
other men that didn't, that wouldn't commit themselves, they said
nothing about his words. They said nothing about the great
sign that he'd given. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
great one who commits himself, entrusts himself to every child
of God. And what's the evidence? It's
not signs and wonders. Faith is the evidence. Faith
is the evidence. And faith is reliance. Faith
is entrusting. Faith, as Paul says in 2 Timothy,
is a commitment. It's a persuasion. It's a commitment
to Him. It's a commitment about His work
and not ours. It's a commitment about who He
is. and not about who we are in this
Adam flesh. He's committed himself to his
people. Has he committed himself to you? If he's caused you to believe,
to rest and rely on him, oh, what a grace, grace gift. You
see, as we read earlier in 2 Timothy, God the Father has entrusted
his children into the son's hands there's a lot of commitment and
a lot of entrusting there's a lot of covenant making and covenant
keeping throughout the scriptures he's committed he's entrusted
his children into the hands of his son and he is relying entirely upon the
son bringing them back gloriously to him he's got the into the Son's hands, all of
His glory. Why is He doing what He does?
Ephesians 1 says again and again and again, for the praise of
the glory of His grace, for the praise of the glory of His grace,
for the praise of the glory of the name of God the Father. And God the Holy Spirit has been
entrusted with the glorious work of this creation of new life,
this quickening of revealing to us What God has done in eternity. Revealing to us who the Lord
Jesus Christ is. Revealing to us why he came. Revealing to us what really happened
on the cross of Calvary. Revealing to us what these scriptures
say. That we now have a word and this
word is the word from God. Nicodemus and his other men had
the words of God and knew them off by heart. But when the word
of God came, His words, as He said, so often
have no place in their hearts, but they have a place in the
hearts of those to whom He entrusts them, and the Blessed Holy Spirit.
I do love what John 16 says, the Holy Spirit comes and He
takes the things of the Lord Jesus Christ, everything about
Him, everything about Him in His person, everything about
Him in His work, and He causes His people to behold the Lamb
of God. disciples where do you dwell?
I don't want to see a miracle or a sign I just want you I want
to be in your company I want to hear your words the Lord Jesus
Christ entrusts himself to us and we are entrusted with this
gospel he's raised us up world to be a witness to him
before this world whether they believe or not we are entrusted
to be his witnesses we are entrusted with this extraordinary
sacred deposit Paul speaks in first Timothy
chapter 1 verse 11 He says, according to the glorious gospel
of the blessed God, which was entrusted to my, was committed
to my trust. There is a commitment, isn't
there, into the hands of God's servants. to declare faithfully
who he is, and to declare it in such a way that when Paul
goes on to say, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation,
verse 15, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
of whom I am chief. We don't come before men parading
our righteousness. We come as saved sinners. become a saved sinners listen
to what Paul how Paul describes himself and I think verse 12
and I thank Christ Jesus this is what the committed person
says of himself I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled
me and counted me faithful putting me into the ministry who was
before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious but Oh, I love
the butts of scripture, I obtained mercy. I didn't earn it. Because
I did it ignorantly, in unbelief. And the grace of God was exceedingly
abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. And
he says in verse 16, Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy,
that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering. Don't you love that word? the
long-suffering of our Lord. You think of what we are, you
think of what thoughts go through our mind, you think of how so
appallingly we behave in this world and so appallingly behave
before each other so often. And we're ashamed of ourselves
and here's long-suffering. You might show them all long-suffering
for a pattern of them which should hereafter believe on Him. to everlasting life. We have a gospel committed into
our hands by a God who has committed himself. He's committed this
precious deposit, this precious deposit into our hands. He's committed himself. He's committed himself to us,
this glorious gospel, because he loves us. And he's made us
a new creation. And he's committed in such a
way that he knows that however frail and weak and feeble we
are in this world, his work must succeed. be successful he must
bring his people home he doesn't make an offer to all the world
he made an offering to God and he has a people in this world
and he must have them with him what an extraordinary trust this
Lord Jesus Christ has so purified us that we can have a new heart
created in righteousness in and true holiness. What reason could
there ever be for a just and holy God to ever reject that
which is true, righteous and holy? He entrusts himself because
he's made us to be like him. As he is, so are we in this world. All religion is about polishing
the old man. So much religion is looking. How many people do you have in
your church? How many people? How many? If we have one, brothers and
sisters, and it is the one, we are perfectly sufficient. The
new wine. is poured into all into the new
wineskins this is our testimony brothers and sisters may it be
yours may it be a sign the sign that the lord jesus christ has
entrusted himself into your hands i know i know whom i have believed I am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. Let's pray.