All right, thank you, Winston. If I get too loud, it's because
of this microphone. I want you to know that. I want you to open your Bibles
to John chapter 8 this morning. And while you're turning, again,
let me say how Debbie and I really enjoyed being here this week
and how we are glad to be here this morning with you. and to
preach the gospel, and to be in fellowship with you on this
day, to worship the Lord in truth and in spirit, and to hear the
glories of Christ lifted up. That's what I pray that I do
this morning. Now, in John chapter 8, I want to read just a portion,
beginning at verse 30. The title of this message is,
A Primer on Faith. And when we speak of a primer,
we're not talking about paint now. Talking about basics, you
know back in the old days when they talked in school, they had
primers. Primers in English, primers in
math. What those were, they were books
full of lessons that got you back to the basics. And so that's
what I want to do this morning. This is a back to basics message
on faith. The word faith, a primer on faith. Now look at verse 30 of John
chapter 8. This is the Lord speaking. It
says, As he spake these words, many believed on him. Now, from the context, we
know that this is a claim of faith, a claim of believing. How do we know that? Well, look
at verse 31. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed
on him, If you continue in my word, Are ye my disciples indeed? Now, notice the word then is
in italics. That means it was supplied by
the translators. And many people, when they look
at this verse, they will automatically think of what we call conditional
salvation. And what they say, well, see
there? It means if you continue, then, if you meet that condition
of continuing or persevering, Then are you his disciples, or
you will be his disciples. But the verse doesn't read that
way. The verse reads this way. If you continue in my word, are
ye my disciples indeed. Now what Christ is teaching here
is not a conditional if, but an evidential if. In other words,
your continuing in his word is not a condition or a qualification
you must meet in order to attain or maintain salvation. But your
continuing in the faith is an evidence that you are his disciples
indeed. Really his disciples. For those
who are truly the disciples of Christ, sinners saved by the
grace of God, will without fail continue in the Word. Those who
claim to be saved, who claim to be disciples of Christ, but
who fail to continue in the Word, what does the Bible say about
such people? Well, in 1 John chapter 2, we
won't turn there because I'm limited in time, But in 1 John
2, you read it, beginning at verse 18, it tells you that they
never were his true disciples to begin with. John says there,
had they been of us, they would no doubt have continued with
us. But they went out that it may
be made manifest that they were not all of us. What is a disciple? A sinner saved by grace. A sinner
chosen of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ, justified by
his righteousness, and called into the fold by the Holy Spirit
in power. The new birth. And he's one who's
also kept by the power of God. Now look at verse 32. He says,
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free. Set you free. Well, they answered him. Verse
33. We be Abraham's seed. Now, this was the Jewish religionists
who claimed to be children of God based on the fact that they
were physical descendants of Abraham. And so they said, well,
we're Abraham's descendants. We're Jews by birth, physically. And they say, and we're never
in bondage to any man. How sayest thou you shall be
made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." Now, we're all
sinners. There's only two types of people
in this world. You know that. There's lost sinners and then
there's saved sinners. And those who are saved are still
sinners within themselves. Now, sin is not charged to their
account. That was taken care of at Calvary. They're justified
before God. The Bible says in Romans chapter
8, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's
God that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. Yea, rather He's risen again and seated at the right
hand of the Father making intercession for us. In other words, our right
standing before God as being forgiven, as being justified,
is based on the accomplishment that Christ finished at Calvary. That's a done deal. That's the
finished work of Christ. But in ourselves, as to our experience,
while we exist in this world until the time we die, or until
the time the Lord comes back again, we're still sinners who
fall short. The old wretched man of Romans
7 is the confession of a saved man, for a lost man will not
confess such. For after that, he says, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? And he says, I
thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. That's the confession
of a saved man, not a lost man. He said the law of God was written
on his heart. There's a new principle within
that shows him his sinfulness and causes him to desire to be
like Christ. That's a saved man, not a lost
man. Yet he says, I'm still a sinner in myself. Now one day, I will
be delivered from even the very presence and influence and contamination
of sin in myself. But that's when Christ glorifies
me, and not until then. So when he says, whosoever commit
a sin is a servant of sin, he's talking in the context here of
those who believe on him and continue in the faith. Now, those
who believe on him and continue in the faith have been set free.
But those who commit a sin, who do not believe on him and who
do not continue in the faith, are still in bondage to sin. And they cannot see the truth.
And they will not receive the truth. They cannot, and they
will not. They're in bondage. And that
fits with the context. What did they say? We're Abraham's
seed, and we were never in bondage to any man. They thought they
were free. Based on what? Based on the fact that they were
Abraham's seed. Remember when John the Baptist
came preached, and he preached repentance. That change of heart
and mind where a sinner sees the glory of Christ and what
he accomplished at Calvary and sees the wickedness of his own
efforts to save himself and establish a righteousness of his own. And
John the Baptist, before they even said a word, he said, think
not to say in yourselves that we're Abraham's seed. In other
words, don't you even think that you're a child of God just because
you're a physical Jew. He said, the axe has been laid
to that root. In other words, God doesn't save
sinners because they're physical Jews. God doesn't save sinners
because they're good people. And let me tell you something.
God doesn't even save sinners because they make the choice.
You see, we're going to talk about faith. Faith is not a choice
that you make. It is not. Somebody says, well,
don't sinners who believe choose God? Yes, they do. They most
certainly do. They're made willing in the day
of God's power to choose Him. They see they've got no other
choice. They're like a drowning person. Somebody throws them
the lifeline, they grab it. They don't even have to think
about it in that sense. But they know some things. But what about
this thing about faith and choosing? Faith is not a choice you make. Faith is a persuasion that God
brings you to. And I'm going to show you that
in the scriptures. Now, that may not fit with man's
way of thinking, but that's the way God shows it. So he says,
Whosoever commit a sin is a servant of sin. Look at verse 35. He
says, And the servant abided not in the house forever, but
the son abided forever. Now, those who are slaves in
the house of the master, who are slaves because of a legal
debt that they owe, Their position in the household of their master
is always conditioned on their fulfilling the duties of their
servitude. And if they stop fulfilling the
duties of their servitude, what happens? Well, they're either
whipped or they're killed. But he said, but the son abideth
ever. Now, if you're a son, a child
of the master, You're your master's son no matter what. You abide
forever. Your position in the household
of your father is not conditioned on your performing any duties.
You're his son. He's your father. Now he may
get mad at you. He may whip you. He may even
kick you out of the house. But you're still his son and he's
still your father. So look at verse 36. If the Son, now Christ
is referring to Himself, therefore shall make you free. You shall
be free indeed. If Christ makes you free, He's
the Son of God. And you can't make yourself free.
And I can't make myself free in salvation. But if Christ makes
you free, then you shall be what? Free what? Indeed. Now, go back
to verse 31. He says, If you continue in my
word, are you my disciples indeed? Verse 36, if the Son therefore
shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Now connect them
together. You say, what does all this have
to do with faith? Faith, the word faith. Let me give you some things to
consider. When we think about the word
faith, now you know as well as I do, faith is a much misunderstood,
much abused word today. in religion. Somebody says, you
got to believe. Well, that's true. Somebody says,
well, all you got to do is believe. I hear preachers say salvation
is not by works, it's by faith. What do they mean by that? You
know, there's some common thoughts on faith that are not scripture.
You know, there's basically two major fallacies on faith. And
when I'm talking about faith in this context, I'm talking
about our believing. First of all, some think that
faith is a condition or a qualification or a stipulation that sinners
must meet in order to obtain salvation. And they'll go to
verses like, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
saved. Well, that's a good verse. But it's not making faith a condition
or a stipulation or qualification that a sinner must meet in order
to attain salvation. You see, if God saves you or
me or any sinner, Based upon a free will choice that we make,
then you might as well stop talking about salvation by grace. And
call it what it is, it works. What you're actually saying is
God saved you because you're a better sinner. Now that's right. You say, well I believe. Well
what about those who don't? Are you better than them? You
must be if God saved you based on your believing. You're less
obstinate. You're less rebellious. You're
less stubborn. You're more pliable. You see
what I'm saying? That's not the ground of the
sinner's salvation. And somebody says faith is that
which makes Christ work effectually. You may have heard that. Somebody
said Christ is powerless to save unless you believe on Him or
let Him. I used to hear preachers stand
at the end of aisles and claim this, trying to drag people down
the aisle, and they'd say, did Christ die in vain for you? Well,
my friend, let me tell you something. Christ did not die in vain for
anybody. There's no scripture in the Bible
that describes, implies, or represents His work on the cross as being
fruitless or worthless or powerless to save anybody. His work on
the cross His work to redeem his people. He redeemed them.
That's what the scripture says. That means he redeemed them.
That means he paid the price. He'll have them. He justified
them. That's a right standing before
God. God cannot send any sinner to hell who's justified. He's
been made righteous. That sinner has. Before God. And then a second common fallacy
is that faith is wishful thinking. In other words, if you believe
it long enough, hard enough, strong enough, and sincere enough,
it'll come true. A lot of faith healers, so-called
faith healers, use that. They'll have people come up who
are sick or in some kind of an ailment, and they'll pray for
them, and they'll say, Do you believe? Do you believe? And
if they get healed, they'll say, Well, you believed. If they don't
get healed, they'll say, You didn't have enough faith. All that is is wishful thinking.
It's kind of like a blind leap in the dark. Well, neither of
those views are biblical. Neither of them are honoring
to Christ. Let me give you these three things about faith. Now,
you know, faith is a big word in the scripture. I've often
likened it to salvation. You know, when we use the word
salvation or saved, it's a big word. I mean, think about it
now. Salvation includes everything,
everything, that God does for a sinner to bring that sinner
to final glory in heaven. I mean, it includes God's electing
purpose before the foundation of the world. It includes the
work of Christ on the cross. He finished his work. That's
our redemption. That's our justification before God. That's our adoption.
It includes the new birth. You must be born again. And our
believing in Him, laying hold of Him, and our experience by
the power of God, the Holy Spirit, when we're brought unto the preaching
of the Gospel, and come to faith in Christ and true repentance,
it includes our perseverance, continuing in the faith by the
preserving power of God. We keep on keeping on because
He keeps us. And if He didn't keep us, we
wouldn't keep on keeping on. Just like I've said several times,
if we could, somebody says, well, you can be saved by grace, but
if you don't do right, you'll lose it. Now let me tell you
something, you've already lost it. If salvation can be lost,
it would be. We'd fall a thousand times a
day if the Lord didn't keep us. And then it includes our final
glory in heaven, which we've not yet experienced. That's what
Paul meant when he said in Romans 13, our salvation is nearer than
when we first begun. That doesn't mean we might not
make it. That just means we haven't been
yet glorified, raised again unto eternal life in glory that he
describes in 1 Corinthians 15. Sometimes when you see the word
salvation, it refers to one specific aspect of salvation. Sometimes
it refers to God's purpose before the foundation of the world,
his purpose to save. Sometimes it refers to the finished
work of Christ on the cross to redeem us and justify us. Sometimes
it refers to the new birth, our believing in him as he brings
us to faith, by the gift of faith. Sometimes it refers to our final
goal. Well, faith is the same way, the word faith. And there
are three main aspects of the word faith. Let me give you these
three. Number one, when you see the word faith, and listen, you've
got to determine the meaning by the context. Number one is
the faith of Jesus Christ. The faith of Jesus Christ. Now that refers to the ground
of a sinner's salvation. It refers to the faithfulness
not of the sinner, But the faithfulness of the sinner's substitute, Christ. Are we to be faithful to God?
Yes, we are. But you see, salvation is not
grounded on our faithfulness to God. Salvation is grounded
upon Christ's faithfulness to fulfill all the duties He was
given to do to save His people from their sins. Now let me show
you that. Look back at Romans chapter 3.
And the verses that I'm going to give you are just representative
of many verses. I just don't have time to turn
to them all this morning. But look at verse 19 of Romans
chapter 3. The faith of Christ. Christ had faith. He had perfect
faith. You don't. I don't. He had perfect,
uninterrupted faith. He never had a moment of doubt.
I know preachers say he did, but he didn't. His experience
in Gethsemane was not a moment of doubt. It was a moment of
pain and sorrow and suffering, which we really cannot understand
and explain fully. But we know he totally depended
upon his Father. But before the foundation of
the world, the Father and the Son covenanted together. The
Father chose a people, gave them to the Son, and put all the responsibility
of their eternal salvation and final glory upon the shoulders
of the Son. All of the conditions were put
upon Christ, all the responsibilities, all the stipulations, all the
qualifications were put upon Christ and on Him alone as the
Savior, the representative, the mediator, the surety of His people. It was all on His shoulders.
That's represented in the old tabernacle, the priest. Remember
the priest? He had a breastplate. And on
his breastplate there were 12 names written. It was the names
of the 12 tribes of Israel. That was representative of spiritual
Israel. God's elect out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue and nation. And on his shoulder, six names
were written on this side and six names were written on this
side. Same names. And what that represented is
not only were we on Christ's heart in his love, the Bible
says in John 13 and verse 1, he loved his own until the end. And that word end means until
the finishing. It's the same word that he used
when he was on that cross and right before he died he said
it is finished. It's the same word that's used
in Romans 10 and verse 4 when it says Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. He
finished the work. That's what it means. All the
work, all the conditions, all the stipulations were placed
upon him. And he agreed to do it. You see, we need a Savior,
a high priest, a mediator, a surety who is both willing and able
to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. That's right. And Christ was both able and
willing. He was able to do it. And here's
what it means. Look at Romans 3.19. It says,
Now we know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law. That every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world may become guilty before God. That word
guilty means subject to God's judgment. And it says in verse 20, Therefore
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his
sight. Sinners cannot be made righteous, not guilty, cleansed,
washed in the sight of God by their works, for by the law is
the knowledge of sin. What does the law do? It shows
us our sinfulness, our impotence, our depravity. But verse 21 says,
but now the righteousness of God. Well, that's what we need. We don't need, I don't need my
own righteousness. I don't need righteousness of
men. I need the righteousness of God. What is that? Well, it's
without the law. What does that mean? Without
my obedience to the law. In other words, my works are
excluded. And it said it's manifested.
It's been made known, it's been ever present, being witnessed
by the Law and the Prophets. This is the same righteousness
that was preached in the Old Testament. Even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. This is a righteousness
that is not by your faithfulness, but by His. The faith of Jesus
Christ. He was faithful to keep the Law.
He said He would do it. He promised he would do it. He
was willing to do it. And he was able to do it. And
you know what? He did it. You can't keep the
law. I can't keep it. But Christ did.
He was faithful to do that. But not only that. He was faithful
to go to the cross and die for the sins of his sheep. He said
the good shepherd loves the sheep. The good shepherd lays his life
down for the sheep. He said he would do it. He was
able to do it. He promised to do it, He was
willing to do it, and He did it. He saved His people from
their sins. He bore their sins away. He justified
them. He enabled God to be just and
justify the ungodly. And this righteousness is unto
all. That means it's to be preached
to everybody. That's what you need to hear,
and that's what I need to hear. Christ and His finished work. And it's upon all them that believe.
This righteousness was imputed at Calvary. How do I know it
was imputed to me? I come to faith in Him. I believe
in Him. And he says, for there's no difference.
For all sin and comes sure the glory of God. But look on. He
says, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. Our justification was through
the redemption. That Christ wrought out on the
cross. But that's the faith of Jesus Christ. That's the ground
of salvation. And that's the issue of the cross. That's the heart of the gospel.
It's not what sinners do for God, but it's what God did for
sinners. It's the justification, the redemption,
the adoption of a sinner by Jesus Christ. It's enabling God to
be just and yet justify the ungodly. It's the faith of Christ. Now let me give you the second
one. It is the faith of the gospel. And what I mean by that is the
body of truth and doctrine that is preached. It's the revelation
of Christ and the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of
Christ and Him crucified. Look over at Ephesians, the book
of Ephesians chapter 4. Now there's the faith of Christ.
That's the ground of salvation. Then there's the faith of the
God, the faith of the gospel. That's the body of truth. That's
the revelation of the gospel. Remember back in John 8, he said,
the truth shall set you free. You've got to hear the truth.
You must be born again. That refers to the to the body
of truth the doctrine of Christ and look at Ephesians chapter
4 Paul speaking of the church here and he says in verse 4 he
says there's one body that is one church one true church now
we're not talking about denominationalism here but now let me tell you
something there are denominations that deny the gospel What are
we talking about one body? The body of Christ. Christ is
the head, the church is his body. And who is that body? Who are
members of that body? All who know the truth. The truth of
what? The truth of who God is, the
truth of who we are, the truth of how God saves sinners through
Christ. Those who believe salvation by
works are not members of this body. They have not been brought
into this body. And he says there's one spirit.
I believe that's referring to the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy
Spirit who drives sinners to Christ. Somebody said, a long
time ago, said, well, when a person comes under conviction over sin
and wrongdoing, and many people do, how do you know it's a work
of the Holy Spirit? How do you know it's just on
natural conscience? You know, natural conscience can bring
you down. Society can bring you down, they can make you feel
real guilty, and your denomination can do the same. But how do you
know if it's a work of the Holy Spirit who is convincing you
and convicting you of sin? And I'll tell you how you know.
You've heard me say it half the time. Where do you find relief? That's the key. Where do you
end up? Because if it's the Holy Spirit,
who's bringing you down and convicting you for your sins, you'll find
relief nowhere but in Christ and Him crucified. Now that's
it. If you find relief anywhere else,
in your denomination, in your family, in your promises to do
better, even in your faith, in your act of believing, it's not
the Holy Spirit for him. The Holy Spirit's going to glorify
Christ. He's going to lift up Christ. He's going to see that
you have no relief, no cure, no salvation, no right standing
before God except Christ and Him crucified. And that's the
issue. So there's one Spirit. He says
in verse 4, Even as you are called in one hope of your calling,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who
is above all and through all and in you all. You see that
one faith there? Somebody said, well, we're all
Christians, we're just going different ways to God. Oh no,
there's one faith. One. You know, among the Jews
of old, during the time of our Lord here on this earth, there
were different denominations of Judaism. There were the Pharisees,
they were the moral majority, the strict legalists. There were
the Sadducees, they were the modernists, the liberals. There
were the Essenes, they were the super spiritual, who went off
and lived in a cave and prayed. There were the zealots, they
were wanting to draw swords and go after Rome. But you know what? They all believed one thing in
common. They all believed that salvation
was by their works. And that's what held them together.
And that's the way it is today. There's only two religions actually.
You can look at it this way. One is the religion of Cain.
Center's bringing something to please God other than the blood
and righteousness of Christ. And then there's the religion
of able that's the religion of grace. There's only one thing
and that's it. It's the faith. Look over at
the verse 11 of Ephesians 4. He says in the church. He gave
some apostles. and some prophets, and some evangelists,
and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints,"
that's the maturing and growth to the fullness of the saints,
"...for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith." That
is, until all of Christ's sheep are called into the fold by the
preaching of the faith, the gospel. and of the knowledge of the Son
of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of
the fullness of Christ. In the book of Acts chapter 2,
when the gospel began to be spread out after Pentecost, it says
this in verse 42, they continued steadfastly in the apostles'
doctrine, the faith. Sometimes it's called the apostles'
doctrine. Peter and James and John and Paul, they all preached
the same faith. In 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5,
it says, Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. Whether
you believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's grace.
In 2 John, verse 9, it's called the doctrine of Christ. Whosoever
transgresses and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath
not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. Anything else is
a false gospel. Now let me ask you this. Over
in Galatians chapter 1, the apostle begins it by admonishing the
Galatians who claim to believe the gospel. Because they had
been drawn away from that gospel. They had been drawn away from
the faith. To another gospel. Now let me
ask you this. What constitutes another gospel? That's a good question, Hither.
What constitutes another God? We know what Paul preached to
them. He preached the same thing to the Galatians that he preached
in Romans. Preached the same thing to the
Romans that he preached to Timothy. It was the gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace in Christ and Him crucified. It was how
God could be just and justified the ungodly based solely upon
the blood and the imputed righteousness of Christ. In other words, when
Paul preached He left no room for sinners to look anywhere
for salvation, for righteousness, for life, but in Christ on the
cross. They had no place else to go.
Now they may go other places because of their own stubbornness
and unwillingness. That's man by nature. That's
us by nature. Unless God empowers the Spirit
to give us life. So what constitutes another gospel?
Well, we know what was going on in Galatia. Those false preachers
claimed to believe in Jesus, but they were preaching that
you had to be kept by your works of the law. That even though
Christ is our Savior, you have to be justified by your works.
You have to be made holy by your works. Paul says that's legalism. That's another gospel. Over in
2 Corinthians chapter 11, they were doing the same thing when
he mentioned those false preachers who were preaching another Jesus
by another spirit, another gospel. Their message was works salvation
at some point, to some degree, at some stage in salvation. In
other words, they would bring it down at some point, to some
stage, to some degree, that it has to be conditioned on the
sinner. And Paul said, that's another gospel. In the book of 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, there were those who were denying the resurrection
of the dead. That was another gospel. In 2
Timothy, he spoke of those who claimed that the resurrection
had already passed. That was another gospel. What
constitutes another gospel? Well, there's a lot of ways you
can say it. There's a lot of ways you can characterize it.
And we have plenty of examples in the New Testament and in the
Old Testament. But here it is in a nutshell
as simply as I can put it. Another gospel is any gospel
that leads a sinner to rest in anything or anyone but the Lord
Jesus Christ and his blood and his righteousness imputed alone
for all of salvation. If it doesn't leave you with
no hope, no rest, no salvation, no peace, no assurance, but in
Christ and what He accomplished on the cross to save you from
your sin, if it leaves you with any other ray of hope outside
of Him and what He accomplished, it's another gospel. If it causes
you to look elsewhere, within, without, to a denomination, to
an experience, to a dream, to a vision, anything but Christ,
and what he accomplished at Calvary to save us from our sins. His
blood and his righteousness imputed alone. It's another gospel. But
my friend, if your hope is in him and him alone, and what he
finished, and that's the true gospel. Now that's the faith. Here's the third one. Now this
is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is our believing. Look over
Romans chapter 1. Romans 1. This kind of makes
the transition here from the second one to this last one.
Look at verse 16 of Romans chapter 1. Paul says, For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. Now that's the faith, and it's
the gospel of Christ. In other words, it proclaims
the faithfulness of Christ. He says, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. That's faith
in Christ. So you have all three of them
right here. It's the gospel of Christ. It
proclaims what He was faithful to do in establishing the ground
of salvation. It's the gospel. It's the message. And it's to everyone that believeth.
That is our believing. That's the work of the Holy Spirit
in the new birth. when he gives sinners life, spiritual
life, and ears to hear and eyes to see and hearts and minds to
understand and know the truth and they come to faith in Christ.
That faith is not of you naturally. It's not of me naturally. It's
the gift of God. And he says to the Jew first
and also to the Greek, verse 17, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. Now we've already spoken of that.
What is that righteousness of God? That's the finished work
of Christ on the cross. And he said it's revealed from
faith, that's the faith, the preaching of the gospel, to faith,
that's the grace of faith given to sinners by the Spirit to receive
Christ in the new birth. As it is written, the just or
the justified shall live by faith. Now look over with me back to
John chapter 8. Now this faith, this believing, This aspect of faith is described
many different ways in the Bible. Sometimes it's called knowledge.
Sometimes it's a persuasion. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I have committed unto him against that day. It's hope. It's hearing. Over here in John chapter 8,
Christ said in verse 47, He that is of God heareth God's words.
It's called looking. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and what? Finisher of our faith. It's called
resting. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. We enter into
His rest. You know what it is? That's why
Sunday's not our Sabbath. Christ is our Sabbath. Sunday's
the Lord's Day we meet together. Christ is our Sabbath. We don't
rest in a day. We rest in Him for salvation.
And what do we do when we enter into His rest? We enter into
the work that He finished. He ceased from his labor. Somebody
said, well, don't you cease from yours? Well, we cease from trying
to save ourselves by our labors, but we rest in him. Sometimes
it's called obedience, the obedience of faith. And here it's called
continuing. Now look at it in John chapter
eight, verse 36. He says, if the son therefore
shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. That's the faith
of Christ. That's what he accomplished at
Calvary. He set his people free. He bore their sins away and justified
them before God. And then look back at verse 32. And you shall know the truth.
That's the faith of the gospel. That's the doctrine of Christ.
Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. And the truth shall make you
free. Liberate you now with that in
mind one more verse and we'll quit Romans chapter 6 That's our believing in him When
we come to see what Christ accomplished Now the first half of Romans
chapter 6 is speaking of our Standing before God in Christ
what he accomplished at Calvary as the representative and substitute
of his people And it says there in verse 7 look at it It says,
for he that is dead. Now who is it talking about there? Now what it's talking about is
all whom Christ represented in his death. All for whom he died. When he died, they died. When
he was buried, they were buried. When he arose again, they arose
again. That's what we confess in water
baptism. That's what we confess when we're
baptized publicly. So he that is dead is freed from
sin. Now that word freed there, if
you've got a concordance, it might say justified. That's what
it is. That is, when Christ died, all
whom he represented were justified in him. Their sins were borne
away and his righteousness was given to them. Alright? So if you died with him, you
were justified. You say, well, I wasn't even
born then. That's right, and Abraham was already dead then.
Yeah, his sins were laid. When were Abraham's sins put
away? If you're in Christ now, if you're a believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ, Abraham's sins were put away the same time yours
was. At Calvary. That's when all the sins of God's
sheep were made to meet upon Christ. That's when he was made
sin by amputation. And that's when we were made
righteous by imputation. Now, how do you know that was
for you? Well, in time, here's what's going to happen. Look
down at verse 17. But God be thanked that you were the servants
of sin. Now, you remember Christ said
in John 8, He that commits sin is a servant of sin. What's He
talking about there? He's talking about those who
are still under the wrath of God. He's talking about those
here, those who are unregenerate, rather. And he says, but you
have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered
you. Now, that form of doctrine, that's the faith. And that doctrine
testifies of the faithfulness of Christ. And the fact that
you've obeyed it from the heart is evidence of the work of the
Holy Spirit within you to give you life. And look at verse 18. He says, being then made free
from sin. Now the word free In verse 18
is different from the word freed in verse 7. Remember in verse
7 it's justified. That's our legal standing before
God in Christ. But the word free in verse 18
means liberated. Like you've been set free. And
that's what he's talking about in John chapter 8. The truth
shall make you free. In other words, and he says you've
been made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness.
If you've been freed at the cross legally, justified in Christ,
at some point in time, when God brings you under the preaching
of the gospel, you're going to obey from the heart that faith,
that preaching of Christ and Him crucified, which is preached
to you, and you'll be liberated in your mind, in your heart,
in your affections, and in your will. You'll be set free. Now, how do you know you've been
set free? I'll tell you how you know. You'll look to Christ as
the author and finisher of your faith. Your hope, your peace,
your assurance, your conscience will be freed from guilt of sin
because Christ bore it and took it away. You'll be free to serve
him, not out of a legal debt like a slave, but you'll be free
to serve him as a son. If the son sets you free, you'll
be free indeed. You'll be free to serve him as
a willing, loving bond slave. You know the difference. The
bond slave served not because he had to, but because he wanted
to. He loved his master. His debt had already been paid.
He'd already served his seven years. Well, my friend, that's
what a believer is. He's a bond slave of Christ.
He's not serving because he has to pay the debt. The debt was
paid at Calvary. In full. Now you serve out of
love, grace, gratitude, and that's freedom. That's freedom to serve
Christ. All right, let's pray. Our Heavenly
Father, we thank you for the blessings of your grace in Christ
and what he accomplished at Calvary on our behalf. We pray, dear
Lord, that as we who know him had been set free at Calvary,
We thank you, dear Lord, for the work of the Spirit to liberate
us in our hearts and our minds, our affections, our will. We
pray that you will continue to lead us back to Calvary to see
that liberation and freedom that Christ has accomplished and the
Spirit, by His grace, has worked in us so that we might serve
Christ out of love and gratitude. For it's in His name we pray.
Amen.