Please turn to Luke's Gospel,
chapter 7. I want to rehearse once more the statements that we first
looked at, at least in recent memory, Wednesday night. And there are some four of these
to be found in Luke's Gospel. The first one we look at will
be in Luke chapter 7. Luke 7. May we pray together. Lord, you have favored us again
this day, not only to allow us to gather
in this place, but Lord, you have caused us
to be here, and we give our thanks and our praise for your grace,
your mercy, and your sheer goodness to us, and for allowing us again in
this day to have the Scriptures opened before us, that we might
come to know and to understand to a far greater degree than
at present we do, the truth of your grace and mercy to poor
sinners like ourselves in the Lord Jesus Christ. We sing of
his name, of his blood, and of his merit, but, Lord, truly we
little understand how gracious and glorious our Savior is. in His glorious names and offices
and person, and in His glorious redemptive work. Oh, that we
might know Him in the power of His resurrection, in the fellowship
of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death. So we beg of you this night,
that we might again visit the Holy Scriptures, and that you would bless our
feeble attempts. Make them beneficial and helpful
in regard to our souls concerning our blessed Savior, the Lord
Jesus. Lord, in your infinite wisdom, you have seen fit to place us
where we live. You have brought us into being at a certain point in the history
of mankind in the particular generation in which you have
brought us to be. We are here in this world, in
this particular spot on this globe, and in this particular
auditorium. We are here by divine appointment. This we know to be undeniable. But Lord, we live in a world,
in a religious world, that has totally lost any concept of who
you are, of who Christ is, of who man is, and what regeneration
and salvation is in the hand of your Spirit. So, Lord, we
must be constantly on the lookout in regard to ourselves that the
very same poison that is used in multitudes without number
in this present day, I too have imbibed my share. And the moment
we think we are rid of it all, it rears its ugly head once more. So we beg of you that you would
bring us to your holy and teach us that which it pleases you
to teach us concerning your grace for us in your blessed Son. Lord, cause us above all else
to find in our precious Lord Jesus a hiding place for our
soul that we might take refuge in the rock of ages cleft for
me. We beg for your help and your
aid. Teach us, Lord, by your Spirit. We beg it for Christ's sake and
His honor and His glory. Amen. Now quickly, just to rehearse
these things, I won't take the time tonight to give the setting You can read this for yourself,
and I'll just tell you the passage that it's in, but we're looking
at just one verse, I think, in each of these cases, these four
cases. But the passage actually begins,
the passage proper, having to do with this poor sinner woman
who came and fell at our Lord's feet, begins back at verse 36. But the passage itself concludes
with verse 50. And it is to the words in verse
50 of Luke chapter 7 to which I call your attention. Our Lord
has pronounced this woman that her sins are forgiven, and he
turns at the conclusion of these encounters between himself and
her and Simon the Pharisee and many others, and he said to the
woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. I repeat again tonight what I
said this morning. If you and I could have interviewed
this woman and asked her, how were you saved? I stake my life on this fact
that she would not have said, my faith has saved me. She would be talking about her
precious Redeemer, the Lord Jesus. And if she isn't, then she is
not saved. But our Lord said she was saved. So why does the Bible state things
in such a way as this that can, for some persons at least, deliberately
mislead? This book, in every part of it,
deliberately, frequently uses language to give the proud and
arrogant of heart something to wear down their teeth to the
nothing so that nothing is left. Some of you that have that book,
The Biography of John Berridge, will remember that he himself
addresses this very issue. Why does God in His Word say
things that seem to say one thing when in fact they mean something
altogether different? And it is for that very purpose.
Those who are determined that they must and will be saved by
something that they do can find in this book plenty of ammo to
load their gun with. And that is precisely why that
is. This woman is saved by Christ
and by Christ alone. All right, we turn to Luke chapter
8 and verse 48. Here's the woman with the issue
of blood, whose encounter with Christ is
virtually unplanned. Our Lord is going with another
man to his house to heal his daughter. who is very ill and
at the point of death, and before they reach the man's house, the
servants have come to report to their master that his daughter
is dead. But in the meantime, as they make their way to this
ruler of the synagogue's house, this woman in this crowd that
throngs around our Lord Jesus Christ comes up behind him, touches
only the hem of his garment, And according to the last statement
in verse 47, she was healed immediately. Verse 48, Luke chapter 8, And
our Lord said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort. Your faith has made you whole. Go in peace. The third one is
in chapter 17 of Luke's gospel. In verse 19, here we have ten
lepers who have come to our Lord Jesus and applied for mercy that
they might be healed of their leprosy. And our Lord sends them
to present themselves to the priest, and as they are going,
they discover themselves to already be healed. And only one out of
the ten returns to give our Savior thanks. So in verse 19, our Lord
said unto him, mind you, he did not send him
to the priest. Our Lord said unto him, your
faith has made you whole. No, not faith, but faith's object,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 18, verse 42. Here is the blind man on the
road to Jericho, and our Lord encounters this man who constantly
cries out, Have mercy on me, you son of David. And our Lord
indeed stops and does have mercy on this poor man. And in verse
42, Jesus said to the man who had been blind, Receive your
sight. Your faith has saved you. Now, if faith has merit, then
faith is a work and not grace. It cannot be both. In this book
of God, faith is a grace. Always, ever and always, it is
grace, grace, grace. It can be nothing except Grace. Now the confusion comes when
we mix up conditions for evidences. When we say, if you will believe,
God will save you. We have taken an evidence, which
is faith, and we have made it a condition. And that, my friend,
is no gospel of God whatsoever. Cannot be. Never has been. Though
I believed it was for the major part of my life until I was at
least in my thirties. And maybe even longer than that.
I can't remember how long it was. I got mixed up last Sunday
night and told you I was 62 years old and I'm really not but 61.
So I was glad to find that out. This one rule will straighten
out a great many scriptures in our minds. If we deliberately
and carefully distinguish And only God can help us and enable
us to do so if we carefully distinguish between the root and the fruit. You understand? Between what
is evidence and what is condition. Now salvation, God's grace and
mercy has conditions, but it's all conditioned on Christ alone. Christ alone. Not on us. My Lord, if the condition is
on me, we will perish. I will perish. And so will you. All right, if you'll turn for
a moment to Isaiah chapter 66. Now, it's been some years ago,
I think. It may not be as many as I think. could be more, I don't know.
But if you'll turn to Isaiah 66, that's the last chapter in
the book of Isaiah. And this blessed chapter of Isaiah
is certainly a book of full gospel all over this book
of Isaiah. Chapter 66, here's a text in
point to illustrate the importance of distinguishing between conditions
and evidences. The second verse of Isaiah 66, For all those things has my hand
made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord. Now starting
with the word but, look very carefully. But to this man will
I look, to this person will I look, even to him that is poor, and
of a contrite spirit, and trembles at my word." Now, by nature,
none of us have naturally in us a poverty of spirit. Now, do not confuse spiritual
poverty of spirit with people that are less assertive, a little more,
oh, what's the word, like to stay in the background,
don't wish to be noticed, do not talk about themselves, who'd
rather let you talk about yourself and they just sit there and listen
like it's the most interesting thing they've ever heard. But
that's not to be confused with poverty of spirit, nor is it
to be confused with a contrite spirit and trembling at my word. Now, if these things are conditions
in order for God to look on us with favor, then we will never
have divine favor. But this is the work of God in
Christ to give us these things. This is what our Savior did in
all four of those encounters that we just looked at in Luke's
Gospel. And throughout the four Gospels
and all over the pages of the Bible is example after example
after example of God giving men what He requires of them. That
is the very essence of the covenant of grace. that that which God
demands of me in mercy and grace in Christ, He gives me. That's
the glory of God, to do things exactly this way. It is honoring
and exalting to Himself, and it is precious indeed. Now while
we're right here in the Old Testament, let's run a few more references.
We're not doing an extended reading tonight so we can have the liberty
to look at more references along the way. Right here in the same
book, Isaiah chapter 26. I picked up one of those little
volumes of William Mason, and I was looking for something else,
and stumbled on a particular devotional that he writes in
that little book, and here's the verse of Scripture that he
quoted. Did I give you the chapter? All
right, 26. If you read all 21 verses. All right, verse 12. Verse 12. Lord, you will ordain peace for us
on what basis? If we behave, if we have a contrite heart, if we're poor in spirit, Lord,
You will ordain peace for us. Why? For You also have wrought
all our works in us, the King James says, and others say, for
us. I say take it both ways, in us
and for us. God has wrought all our works
in us. That's exactly what the Lord
Jesus says in the closing statements of the third chapter of John
as He's conversing with Nicodemus about the necessity of being
born again. And He says that man by nature
refuses to come to the light because his deeds are evil. But
those that believe, those that God gives the gift of faith,
they come to the light. Why? that it might become evident
that their deeds are wrought in God. And the word wrought
is the word for worked, except it is a special word that is
sometimes used in very, very, very difficult tasks. And that
indeed is the case when it comes to spiritual and divine things. Let's read this one more time,
and I want to illustrate it by some other scriptures from the
Old Testament. See, this is not anything new. This is not New Testament doctrine.
This is God's doctrine. It's all over the Scriptures.
We've found that in hundreds of different things. Lord, You
will ordain peace for us because You also have wrought all our
works in us and for us. My, my, my, what a statement.
What a statement indeed. All right, if you'll turn to
Psalms, first of all to Psalm 68. If you can't find a doctrine addressed in the book of Psalms,
we might ought to just put it back on the shelf, because this
book The book of Psalms just covers everything in God's precious
gospel of grace in Christ. Psalm 68, verse 28, Thy God has commanded thy strength,
Strengthen, O God, that which you have wrought for us. Has He worked faith for us? Then
here's permission, more than permission, here's an injunction
to pray that God would strengthen that which He's given. Whatever
the mercy or the grace is, it is right to ask Him who has worked
it to strengthen it." My, what a
statement. Strengthen, O God, that which
you have wrought for us. All right, Psalm 57. And there are statements like these throughout
all sixty-six books of our Bibles. And if we live long enough and
read this book long enough, we'll stumble into them. But here's
another one in Psalm 57 and verse 2. I will cry unto God Most High,
unto God that performs all things for me. Paul said to the Philippians,
it is God who works in you, both in the willing and in the doing
of His good pleasure. And an arrogant sinner stands
on his two feet and defies God's own Word and claims to be the
author of these very things. And the truth is, if that is
the case, we have none of them and will never have them. I will
cry unto God Most High, unto God that performs all things
for me. All right, I want you to try
one other. One other reference here in Psalms,
Psalm 87 and verse 7. We've seen this one umpteen times,
I'm sure. But we need to see it in reference
to those things that God demands of us, to put us on our face
as beggars in the dust before the feet of Christ, that God
in mercy and grace would give us the very things that He requires
of us. In the last part of verse 7 in
Psalm 87, this blessed psalm says, All my springs are in you. All of them. The spring of faith,
the spring of repentance, the spring of anything else you wish
to name that God demands and requires of a sinner. All my
springs are in you. And if you'll turn quickly to
Hosea chapter 14, We'll find a verse that complements this
one quite well. Let's see, the trick is finding
Hosea, isn't it? But at least it's got fourteen
chapters, so you stand a better percentage of running into it. Though I'm having trouble. Hey,
I found mine. Hosea chapter 14 and verse 8, Ephraim shall say, What have
I to do any more with idols? I have heard him and observed
him. I am like a green fir tree. And now this statement, from
me, from the Lord, from the Lord Jesus, is your fruit found. And that's gospel in both Testaments
in every generation and in every age. And if we use the language
of the New Testament, we could prove the same. Ephesians 2 verse
10 says that we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works. Hebrews 13, 20 and 21, where
it talks about the everlasting covenant, tells us, let me just
read that one to you because it is of such weight and importance.
Hebrews 13, 20 and 21, Now the God of peace that brought again
from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Here's what that covenant
in Christ does through the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Make you perfect in every good
work. Well, if it ain't perfect, the
Lord can have nothing to do with it. But if it's perfect, it must
be His doing and not mine. make you perfect in every good
work to do his will." What does he mean by that? Working in you,
that which is well-pleasing in his sight. Well, how? Through
Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Now, everybody in this room knows that when God's children get
to glory, there's not going to be any peacocks up there strutting
around with their crowns and their rewards and all these high-sounding
names and titles. No. To whom be glory forever
and ever. Amen. That is to the Lord Jesus. Down here now and up there then. That's how it is. And if we're
born again, that's how we want it to be. Don't want it to be
any different than that. Now, I specifically want to come
in the New Testament to the subject of faith and repentance, just
for a little bit before we close it down. I've got a few minutes
left, so let's... We'll start in John. I'll just
put them in chronological order for you. John chapter 10. John
10. When it comes to the subject
of faith, this one single verse in the tenth chapter of the Gospel
of John would shut the mouth of every proud boaster who claims
to have produced his own faith that he might be a believer in
the Lord Jesus. Would you care to venture which
verse that might be? I thought sure Bill Myer would
have it just like that. If I was sitting out there, I
wouldn't dare answer the question because I'm afraid I'd get it
wrong. Verse 26. Our Lord explains why it is that
men and women living in this world in a body of flesh don't
believe. He said, but you believe not.
Why not? Why don't they believe? Because
you are not of my sheep. Now that sounds hard and it sounds
harsh. unless you are one of His sheep. The only people in this world
who can have faith that saves the soul are the people that
God gave to Christ as His sheep in old eternity. You believe not because you are
not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." Now, if
that is not absolute positive proof that faith is entirely,
altogether, without a shade of difference, the gift of God in
His grace and mercy in Christ, Faith is not something that's
partly of our own making and partly of God's gift. If it's
grace, it's grace. And if it ain't grace, it works.
Paul makes that abundantly plain in the letter to the Hebrews.
All right, look at another one with me, if you will, in regard
to this same subject. Let's see, I promise to keep
it in order. 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy. Chapter 2, verse 25. Now, I remind you, concerning
faith, that faith has a twin sister in grace, and her name
is repentance. And there never is one without
the other, never, never, never, never. There's no such thing
as a believer who is unrepentant. In Romans 11, 29, the Scripture
uses this expression to tell us this, the gifts, plural, and
calling of God The gifts of God associated with divine calling
in regeneration, the gifts of God are without repentance. That is, He never takes them
back. He never calls them back in and
says, well, you didn't use it. I'm going to take it back. No.
They're without repentance, without change. If once He bestows it,
It's ours till we leave this world for glory. In verse 25 of 2 Timothy chapter
2, Paul says to Timothy, in meekness, instructing those that oppose
themselves, and when it comes to our souls, we are all our
worst enemy. If God, peradventure, if perhaps
God, will give them repentance." Will do what? Give them repentance
to the acknowledging of the truth. Now, you can put faith right
in that same place and make that statement. If God, per adventure,
will give us faith to the acknowledging of the truth of God in His Son,
the Lord Jesus. Back up in chapter 2, 2 Timothy
chapter 2, Let's take a look at this statement in verse 13.
There's a series of statements in 11, 12, and 13 that is one
of some five sayings in the letters of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus
that are called faithful sayings. But the one to which I address
your attention is found in verse 13. If we believe not I thought you said that all believers
had faith, but they also have a little something that the Bible
mentions called unbelief. Do we not? Sure we do. We always struggle with that
and always will. If we believe not God's purposes
are destroyed. His intentions are ruined. He
has to just start all over. No, sir. No, sir. It never depended on us, and
it does not now. If we believe not, God abides,
remains faithful. He cannot deny Himself. God cannot deny God. And if our
blessed Lord Jesus, who is Himself God Almighty, has paid the sin
debt of His people, then He'll have every last single one of
those people, or God is not God. If we believe not, yet He abides
faithful, He cannot deny Himself. So if I proudly attribute to
myself the mustering of my own faith,
then I must fly into the face of dozens upon dozens upon dozens
of statements in the Word of God just exactly like this one. And in order for me to remain
ignorant and arrogant and proud, it means that I must read my
Bible with blinders on, not daring to look in either direction But
to take that statement out of Luke chapter 7 and verse 50,
your faith has saved you. And deny myself any possibility
of looking at a single other statement in the Word of God.
2 Peter 1.20 declares that the Word of God is not of any private
interpretation. It must be interpreted Scripture
upon Scripture. All right, quickly, in this Oh, I had a couple more here.
What did I do with them? 2 Peter 1. I'll read you four verses out of 2
Peter 1. We must have read these together
hundreds of times, but it's all right here. It's all right here. See, there's no problem between
Paul and Peter. There's no problem between John
and the other apostles. There's no problem between these
guys. They're all telling us the same thing. This book is
divinely inspired. It's not dependent on the human
writers. My soul, if that were the case,
we would have a hodgepodge of just absolute mass confusion. 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 1 through
4. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus
Christ. Watch this now. To them that
have not merited, not earned, not deserved, to them that have
obtained like precious faith with us. Peter, where did you
get your faith? A Savior gave it to me and keeps it alive in my soul. If He did not, I would certainly
lose it. He said they obtained the persons
to whom this letter is written obtained saving faith precisely
as the apostles did. Through the righteousness of
God and our Savior, that is, God our Savior, Jesus Christ,
grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge
of God and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power
has given unto us All things, as in everything, that pertains
to life, that is, the life of God in the soul, and to this
matter of godliness. Because the charge leveled against
the gospel is, if you tell sinners the truth about this, that everything
is in Christ, it will make people ungodly. We don't need any help being
ungodly. We all have enough in us to damn
us. but keeping the truth from people
and causing persons to be filled with pride in their approach
to God. My soul, is pride not a sin?
Is pride not ungodly? Surely it is. I seem to have
read somewhere in my lifetime, God hates a proud look. according as His divine power
has given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness
through the knowledge of Him, our blessed Lord Jesus, that
has called us to glory and virtue. Here it is, whereby, verse 4,
are given unto us great and precious promises that by these you and
I might be partakers of the divine nature and miracle of miracles,
to be said of us that they have escaped the corruption that is
in this world through the lust of the eyes, through the lust
of the flesh, and the pride of Lord, thank you for your word.
We bless you. We bless you in Christ Jesus, our dear Lord and Savior, our
only hope, the one who is our only plea. We call upon you in
his name. For Jesus' sake, amen.