Evening, everybody. If you want
to turn your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Every
time I've met with you all, we've had a message out of this chapter.
We're going to finish it up tonight. This will be the last message
out of this chapter, Lord willing. If you want to look down at verse
13. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse
13. Paul speaks, and he says, we,
having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I
believed, and therefore have I spoken. We also believe, and
therefore speak. Now, Paul uses a phrase here.
It is not found anywhere else in the scriptures. I looked and
that phrase is this, the spirit of faith. Now we think of a man's
spirit, we think of men of bold spirit, men who are bold, confident. Men of weak, timid spirit, shy,
reserved. We think of a child, maybe he's
mischievous, he's mouthing, we call him, he's spirited, he's
a spirited kid, right? But a man has a spirit, a spirit
about him. This is the spirit of every believer,
this is what he does. The spirit of faith, he trusts
Christ. And Paul's going to use verses
13 all the way down to the end of the chapter to explain what
that spirit of faith is, what that looks like. But before we
get into that, I went through and I looked everywhere in the
scripture where it uses that term, the spirit of something.
I looked at some of these things. We're going to look at some of
these scriptures, and this list is not all-inclusive, but I want
just to pick out a few and talk about them real quick because
they have, yet they display the gospel beautifully and simply,
I believe. The first one we give you is
this, and you don't have to turn to these. I'll read these to you. This is Romans
8, verse 2. Paul says, for the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law
of sin and death. Now Paul addresses two laws here.
He says the law of sin and death. What is that law? Why does a
man die? He dies because he's a sinner.
We're born in this world, sinners, nothing more. And as soon as
we're born, we begin that process of dying. This whole life is
spent dying. That's what we do. A man dies
because he's a sinner. Why does a man die the second
death? If the Lord passes that man by, and he leaves him to
himself, and that man goes to hell, why does he suffer there?
Because God is just. and he must punish sin. It is
part of his character. But Paul says this for the believer.
He says, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ hath made me
free from that law of sin and death. We're in Christ, and in
Christ we have life, because in Christ the justice of God
has already been satisfied. In Christ, we have the very life
of Christ, the righteousness. In Christ, we have the very sufferings
of Christ on our behalf. In Christ, we have the death
of Christ. In Christ, we have the resurrection of Christ. In
Christ, there is life. And that law of sin and death
can never touch us because it touched him. Romans 8.15 says this, Paul says,
for you have not received the spirit of bondage. Talking about
the spirit of something here. Again, to fear. but you have
received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."
You know what happens when someone is adopted? When someone is adopted,
they become heirs of whoever adopted them, which means whoever
adopted them, they get everything that that one who adopted them
has. And it says right here, we're the children of God, adopted
by God himself, if you're a believer. Heirs of God, joint heirs with
Christ and everything God has, everything Christ has, it truly
is ours. Full acceptance with God, we
have that in Christ. Full favor with God, full access. Come boldly now to the throne
of grace. Don't hold yourself off. Come
boldly now in Christ. We have free access. All that
God has, it is ours. We've been adopted. Not just
children of adoption, child by birth as well. We're born of
the Holy Spirit. We have the very Spirit of God
dwelling in us. That's why we have this spirit of faith here.
And this thing it says here, it says, whereby we cry, Abba,
Father. Everyone who's been adopted,
the adopted sons and daughters of God, they do the exact same
thing. They cry, Father. And to cry Father is not just
to address the Lord in His most dominant office as God the Father.
What is a father? Father's the sovereign. We're
crying out to him, Lord, in his sovereign character, you are
the one who rules, you are the one who reigns, you are the one
who controls all men. All men rest in the palm of your
hand. Salvation is yours. You can give it, you can withhold
it, and you're right whatever you do. But to call out to Him
the Father, the Sovereign, it's not just calling out to Him in
that office. We are relying on Him in that attribute. He must
be Sovereign. I must have a Sovereign Savior
that overrules my will, that overrules the will of everything
else, that always has His will be done. That's the only way
I can be saved is if my Savior, if my God is Sovereign. I must
have Him in that office. I'm relying on that attribute.
And to call on him as the father is to call on him as the provider.
What does a father do? He provides for his family. Father,
provide for me. Everything you require. You require
perfection. You require righteousness. You
require holiness. You require a perfect life. Provide all those
things for me. Provide for me and protect me.
Protect me all the way to the end. We cry, everybody who's
been adopted, the sons and daughters of God, they cry, Abba, Father,
Sovereign, Provider, Protector. 2nd Corinthians 3 17 says now
the Lord is that spirit and Where the spirit of the Lord is There
is liberty You're free. If right now your hope is in
Christ, you are free from bondage. You're free from the bondage
of the law. The law has absolutely nothing to say to you because
Christ kept the law. And when He kept the law, you
kept the law. The justice of God is satisfied
in Christ. You have no sin. Christ put it all away. The law
of God, it's completely satisfied. Christ kept the law. You kept
the law in Him. And now you're free. Trust Christ
and do whatever it is you want. That's a true statement. You're
free. But here's the thing, you can't. Not like you really want
to. What would you do? I'd never
sin again. What would you do? I'd take the
lowest seat and I would always honor my brother as better than
me. I would believe God at all times,
never doubting, never once. I would love my God with all
my heart and all my soul and all my strength and love my neighbor
and myself. That's what I would do. But as
long as I'm in this world, as long as we're in this world,
we're going to drag around this old man, this old nature with
us. And so we cannot do exactly what it is we want to do. But
the point is, folks, you're free. You're free from the law. You
have freedom in Christ. Galatians 6.1 says this. Brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, can you identify with that? Being
overtaken in a fault, I can identify with that. Brethren, if a man
be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such one
in the spirit of meekness. Considering thyself, lest thou
also be tempted. He speaks of the spirit of meekness.
And this is just not an attitude we have toward our brethren.
This is the attitude of the believer before his God. It's a spirit
of meekness, a spirit of loneliness, a spirit of humility. Why? Because
we're sinners. Because the Lord doesn't owe
us anything. Because we can't bring anything to the table.
We have the spirit of meekness before our God because he owes
us absolutely nothing. This is 2 Timothy 1.7. It says,
for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power
and of love and of a sound mind. You know who has a reason to
fear? This is a man who has a reason to fear. He is a man who is coming
to God on the grounds of his own obedience. seeking favor
with God. He has a reason to fear because
he will never be accepted that way. But for the believer, one
who's coming pleading nothing but what Abel pleaded, the Lamb
slain alone, that's it. He has absolutely no reason to
fear. And he's been given this. He's
been given the spirit of power. He knows that Christ is the power
of his salvation. And any strength he has, the
strength to believe, the strength to repent, the strength to love
God, that's the power of God in him. It all came from him.
It's his power. He has the spirit of love. He
actually loves the Lord Jesus Christ. He actually loves His
people. He loves Christ as He is. He wouldn't change Him. He
loves Him in all His attributes, His sovereignty, His holiness. His immutability, His omniscience,
He loves every attribute and He needs every attribute. He
relies on those attributes of God. He wouldn't change Him if
He could. He loves the fact that Christ
gets all the glory in salvation. He wouldn't have it any other
way. Because if Christ gets all the glory, that means Christ
has earned all the glory, which means He's done all the work.
And that's what we need. We need a Savior who does all
the work. And He's been given the spirit of a sound mind. What
does a sound mind look like? Let me read this to you. 2 Corinthians
10, verses 3 through 5, it says this, it says, We do not war after the flesh,
for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through
God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and
every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ. This is the sound mind that every
believer is given. Number one, it does this. All
the strongholds are pulled down. Those strongholds of our works,
strongholds of our will, those things we have confidence in
are ourselves. When we're given that sound mind, those strongholds
are pulled down. And every thought is brought
into the captivity of the obedience of Christ. What's our only hope?
Christ is our obedience. He was obedient to His Father
in all things. He was obedient even unto death. It is His obedience. That is my hope before God. Every
thought about salvation is brought into this captivity. We can't
get away from it. We can't think anything else. It is Christ's
obedience, not my own. That's a sound mind. Now, I want to spend the rest
of our time talking about this thing of the spirit of faith. I've got, I think, six things
for you here. Look down to 2 Corinthians verse 4 and look at verse 13
again. Paul says, we having the same spirit of faith. If a man has the spirit of faith,
he has the common faith. Now, when Paul was writing to
Titus, this is what he said to him. This is Titus 1.4. He said
to Titus, my own son after the common faith. Every believer
has the exact same faith. Every believer believes the exact
same thing. Now this is not common to the
natural man. The natural man cannot believe. He will not believe
because he hates the God on which this faith rests. But this common
faith, it is common to every believer. Every believer believes
the exact same thing and they believe on the exact same one. And this faith had to have a
starting place. Somebody had to have this faith first. You
want to know who it was? This is Ephesians 1 verse 12,
that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted
in Christ. Who first trusted Christ? It
was God the Father. Before the world began, God the
Father trusted the Lord Jesus Christ with the two things He
held most dear to Him. Here are the two things. his
own glory, the glory of the Godhead united. That's the first thing.
And here's the second thing he trusted Christ with, those he
loved, his elect people. God the Father was the first
one to trust the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that covenant of grace,
he gave to Christ those things that were most important to him.
He said, here's my people. These are my people. These are
your people. These are the ones I love. They are now yours. And
here's what you're going to do. You're going to go. You're going
to live for them. You're going to die for them. And you are
going to return them to me without a scratch on them. And I'm going
to hold you 100% accountable. I'm not going to hold them accountable
for themselves in any way, shape, or form. Nothing will be put
on them. Everything will rest on your
shoulders. Success or failure, it will rest completely with
you. And this was always God's purpose. That through the salvation
of these particular people, these people that God loved and He's
always loved eternally, this would be the pinnacle of the
glory for the Godhead. Through this single-handed salvation
by the Lord Jesus Christ, the pinnacle of the glory of the
Godhead would be achieved. These two things intricately
linked. Lord's people and God's glory. And God the Father trusted
Christ with every bit of it. He said, my hands are off. It's
on you. He had no plan B. He had no safety net. He completely
and utterly trusted Christ to do exactly what he said he was
going to do. And he didn't have a plan B,
and he didn't have a safety net, because Christ can't fail. It's impossible. And the faith
of the believer is the exact same. It is the faith that the
Father had in Christ. We trust Him to deliver us safe
and sound before the Father, without a scratch on us, and
He's going to do everything. Everything that God requires,
He's going to do. He has done. It's over with.
It's finished. And now we just rest in Him.
Folks, that's the spirit of faith right there. It is the same faith
that God the Father had. If a man has the spirit of faith,
his faith is grounded in what is written. Look at verse 13
again. We having the same spirit of
faith according as it is written. How do we know who to believe
on? How do we know what to believe?
because it's written right here. This is 2 Peter 1 verse 20 and
21. It said, Knowing this first,
that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
This book right here, it doesn't mean something to one person,
it means something different to somebody else. This means
exactly what God means for it to me. It has one meaning. Christ
did it all. That's the meaning of this book
right here. It has one meaning. It's not open to any private
interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will
of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost. This is God's Word. It is inerrant. It is error-free. God wrote this
book. and he wrote it without error.
And he has preserved this book and he always will preserve this
book. And this is the grounds of everything we believe. If
it does not come from this book, it is not to be believed. It
is not true. And if it comes from this book, it must be believed. Everything God has to say to
man in this world is from this book. That's it. What is the
grounds of who we believe? It is written. I was thinking of this, and I'll
share this with you. What about this? There's plenty
of stuff I read in this book, and I read it, and I say, I just
don't understand. I don't understand what that
means. Happens all the time. I read through this book, I don't
know what that means. What am I supposed to believe
about that? I believe whatever God means about that. And here's
what I mean by this. Let me see if I can explain this
to you. Think of the thief on the cross. He was a man who the
Lord saved him in the last moments of his life. Probably spent the
shortest amount of time as a believer on this earth than just about
anybody, right? If the Lord would have looked at that man and said,
thief on the cross, do you believe that every believer has two distinct
separate natures? One being the old man, that's
nothing but sin, that can do nothing but sin, that doesn't
believe God, that can't believe God, that hates God naturally.
And he has a new man. He has a new nature that's holy,
that's perfect, that believes God at all times, that cannot
change. Do you believe that thief? What
did the thief know? All he knew was, Lord, remember
me when you come into your kingdom. You're the Lord, and you're coming
into your kingdom, and if you remember me, I'll be safe. That's all
he knew. But if the Lord would have said
that, do you believe this, thief? I suspect he would have said
this, Lord, you tell me. You simply tell me what to believe.
Anything comes out of your mouth, that's what I'm going to believe.
That's the spirit of faith, folks. Whatever God says, whatever He
meant, that's what I believe. Spirit of faith. Where were we at? If a man has
a spirit of faith, he speaks what he believes. Now look at
verse 13 again. Paul says, we having the same
spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed and
therefore have I spoken. We also believe and therefore
speak. Now that is a quotation from
Psalm 116. That is David speaking. But this
is the scripture that I thought of when Paul said that. This
is Luke 645. Just listen to it. It says, a
good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that
which is good. And an evil man out of the evil
treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil. For
of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh." Now every
believer, he has this new heart, this perfect heart. And this
heart is abundant. It is full. It's full of Christ. It's full of love for Christ.
It is full of adoration for the person of Christ. And you know
what's going to happen to that heart? It's going to come out of the mouth.
The abundance of the heart comes out the mouth. And this is the
beautiful thing about the believer. We all speak the exact same thing.
Asking these questions, you'll hear the exact same thing at
every believer. How about this? Ask them, what are you in and
of yourself before God? Every believer's gonna say the
same thing. I'm a sinner, nothing more. I've got nothing to bring
to the table. I've got nothing that God would
be pleased with. I have absolutely nothing. My hope's in Christ.
I'm a sinner, nothing more before God. Every believer's gonna speak
the exact same thing. Ask them this. Do you choose
Christ? Or Christ choose you? Christ
chose me. It's my only hope. My only hope
is before the world began, God chose me. That He loved me. That
He saved me and He's going to preserve me all the way to the
end. That's my only hope. That He chose me. I didn't choose
Him. He chose me. Ask them who's in control of
everyone and everything and every event up to and including the
salvation of every man. They're all going to say the
same thing. God is in control. God is sovereign. Amen. Ask them how much of their salvation
is by the sheer mercy and grace of God. They're going to say
the same thing, 100%. It's all grace. They all speak the same
thing. And ask them what their grounds
of acceptance before God is. What is your hope when you stand
there on Judgment Day? What hope could you possibly
have that God is going to look at you and say, well done, thou
good and faithful servant? What's your hope of that? You're
going to get some variation of this. My only hope is when he
says that he's looking at Christ. That he looks to Christ for everything
he requires of me, that Christ did it all, and that's it. Every
believer speaks the same thing. What he believes, he speaks.
We believe the same thing, we speak the same thing. If a man has the spirit of faith,
he has the faith of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 14 of your text.
Paul says, knowing, something every believer knows, knowing
that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also
by Jesus, and shall present us with you. Now a moment ago we
talked about this spirit of faith, believer's belief. It's the same
faith that the Father had in the Son. We talked about it just
a moment ago. What this is talking about here
is we have the same faith that Christ had in His Father. Now
when Lord Jesus Christ was on the cross, when he was suffering
under the wrath of God, bearing the sins of his elect, this is
the last words he said. He said, Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit. These are his parting words.
And after that, he let go. Sovereignty, omnipotence, let
go. He let death take him. And he
did this, saying this, Father, into your hands I commend my
spirit. The entire time he was suffering
under the wrath of God. The entire time the wrath of
God was pouring down upon him. He had no smile from his father.
All he had was the wrath, the frown, the fire. That's all he
had. He never stopped believing his father. And this is what
he believed, that the father was going to keep his word. The
Father said, if you go, if you live, if you die for them, you
bear the wrath, if you put away all that sin, I'm going to raise
you from the dead. And that's exactly what Christ
was doing. He was trusting His Father to do what He said He
would do. He's going to raise me from the
dead. And He let go and He trusted His Father to do exactly what
He said He was going to do. And you know what? The Father
did exactly what He said He was going to do. After three days,
the Lord Jesus Christ opened his eyes and the Father raised
him from the dead. He did that because the Lord Jesus Christ
did exactly what he said he was going to do. He put away all
the sins of all the elect. He swallowed up all the wrath,
all the reason that God was angry towards His people. He put it
away completely. And having put all the sin away,
the Father raised Him from the dead. And now we have the same
faith in the Father that Christ had. We believe we're going to
close our eyes in this death, in this life, if the Lord doesn't
come back first, and the Father's going to raise us from the dead.
And the evidence of that is this. He's already raised Christ from
the dead. He raised Him from the dead, which was the sign
that Christ was successful in what He did. And now we know
the Father is going to do exactly what He did for Christ for us.
He's going to raise us from the dead, incorruptible with Christ. We have the same faith that Christ
had in the Father. If a man has the spirit of faith,
he hopes in the grace of God. Now look at verse 15. It says,
for all things are for your sakes that the abundant grace might,
through the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God. Now when he says there the abundant
grace, that word abundant, what that means is to abound or to
superabound. Let me read this to you. This
is Romans 5, verse 20. It says, moreover, the law entered. that the offense might abound.
But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That as
sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now think about this statement
for a second. Sin hath reigned unto death. How much power do
you and I have to stop death? Might eat right? Take care of
yourself, exercise, and all those things are good. I'm not saying
anything about that. But folks, the healthiest person on the
face of the earth has got a date with death. What power do you
and I have to stop death? Absolutely none. Sin hath reigned
unto death, but this is the abounding grace of God. This is the grace
that we hope in. As sin has reigned unto death
so much, grace abounds in the same way. You can't stop grace.
And nobody can stop grace. Nobody can stop the grace of
God for reaching His people. No principalities or powers can.
No one can snatch me out of the hand of God. But also this, we
can't mess it up either. Folks, we could, or we would
if we could. But this is the beauty of this
thing, this superabounding grace of God, this grace that always
saves the object. This is the beauty of it. The
reason for that grace is not found in the object. The reason
for that grace is found in Christ. That immutable, that holy one,
that righteous one, that one that God is completely and utterly
pleased with. And so this is super abounding
grace. This cannot be messed up. If
God purposes to be gracious to a man, gracious he must be. And
that grace is always saving. It's super abounding. We can't
mess this thing up. Not principalities or powers
that might be against me, not me. It can't be messed up because
that reason for that grace, it's found in Christ. Finally this, if a man has the
spirit of faith, he looks to things which are not seen. Look
at verse 18. While we look not at the things
which are seen, but of the things which are not seen, For the things
which are seen are temporal, they're just right now, but the
things which are not seen are eternal. Now we looked at this
verse, I think in the first message that we looked at throughout
this, looking to things that are not seen. What are those
things I haven't seen, that I can't see? I can't see this folks,
I can't see right now that I am completely and utterly righteous
before God himself. I can't see that. When I look
at myself, all I see is a sinner. I can't see it. I can't see that
I am loved of God. I don't have a sticker, I don't
have a sign, anything like that. I can't see in the Lamb's Book
of Life to see my name written on those pages. I can't see in
the mind and heart of the Lord Jesus Christ as he suffered on
the cross knowing that my name was on his mind, that my name
was on his heart. All those things I have not seen. But we have
this, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. Now I want to be clear about
this, as clear as I can be. Folks, we don't look to our faith. Faith
looks to Christ. It looks to Him alone. But folks,
that faith, if right now you're looking to Christ alone, nowhere
else, nothing in yourself, please understand that is the evidence
of all those things you can't see. You truly are righteous
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You have no sin. And the evidence
of that is you trust Christ to be your righteousness. You truly
are loved of God. The evidence of that is you believe
on Christ. You truly are secure in Christ, never to be taken
away, never to be plucked out of his hand. The evidence of
that is you look to Christ, looking to those things unseen. He talks
about these two things. He talks about things that are
temporal and things that are eternal. I'm going to give you
this last scripture. This is the parting scripture.
It's Hebrews 12, 27. It says, in this word, yet once
more signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken,
as of things that are made. that those things which cannot
be shaken may remain. Now folks, a day is coming when
everything that is man-made is going to be shaken, and it's
going to be burnt up, and it's going to go away. Every confidence
a man has in his works, his will, And something he's done, something
he's made, all those things are going to be shaken, they're going
to crumble before God. And the only thing that's going
to remain unshaken is going to be what Christ has done. And
folks, that's what the spirit of faith looks to. It looks to
Christ and those unshakable things that he has done. And folks, if that's where your
faith rests, in Christ alone, in His unshakable work, you have
that spirit of faith. That's where I'm going to leave
you.