Turn with me in your Bibles,
if you will, to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. I titled this message, how do
I know if I have saving faith? How do I know if I have saving
faith? And I touched on this in the
first hour quite a bit. But I find that we preach the
same thing over and over and over, and that's Christ and him
crucified. He's finished the work. He saved
his people, and that's really all the believers want to hear
over and over and over. Men everywhere believe in some
form of faith. They believe that faith is something
that we produce, something that we merit, something that we exercise. I've heard people say, we need
to exercise your faith. Like going to the gym, we exercise
our body. They believe coming to church
exercises their faith. So they get stronger in faith.
It's not true. That's just not true. Men believe
that you must keep your faith. You must keep your faith by attending
faithfully to service, going to revivals. I remember hearing
a lot about revivals and different things and used to attend them
in religion. But these things are not where faith comes from.
These things are not something that we produce. Men say things
like give Jesus your heart. Put your faith and trust in Jesus
and give him your heart. The Lord doesn't want our heart.
Did you know that? Our heart is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked. The Lord does not want our heart.
We need a new heart. We need a heart that is looking
unto Him through the eyes of faith. We need a heart that cannot
fail to look to Him. We need Him to take out that
heart of stone and put in the heart of flesh that looks unto
Him. If we can put our faith into the Lord, or put our trust
in the Lord, we can take our trust and our faith out of the
Lord. Do we see how contrary that is to who God is? We can't
put or take away anything from the finished work of Christ.
It's not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, it's
of God that showeth mercy. It's the Lord Jesus Christ's
faith that keeps his people. So the question I have for us
is, do I have saving faith? It's a question of life and death.
It's very simple. If I have saving faith, it's
eternal life. But if I do not, then it's death.
It's eternal damnation. It's separation from God forever.
So how do I know if I have saving faith? Well, to answer that question,
I want to ask us four questions this morning and answer them.
And the four questions are number one, whose faith is it or where
does it come from? Whose faith is it and where does
it come from? Number two, who does it look to? Who does it
always look to? Number three, who gets all the
glory for it? And number four, is God trying
it? Is God trying it? We know that
faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of
things not seen. Now, the best example I have
of that, I mentioned this to you before, but it would be that
of a baby, an infant being born. The baby has no consciousness
in and of itself, of its surroundings or anything that's happening.
None of us can remember whenever we first came forth out of the
womb. But yet that baby comes forth and it's not physically
breathing, yet it's alive. The doctor will take that baby
at that time if the baby, once being separated from the mother,
once the umbilical cord has been severed, the baby will then need
to start breathing on its own and therefore the doctor may
smack it on the bottom. The doctor may rub its back,
whatever it may do to agitate it in order to have that first
breath. And once that breath takes place, that is evidence
that that baby's alive, but that baby was alive before the breath
ever happened, wasn't it? Think about that. That's faith,
the breath, God saying, breathe, breathe, breathe. That's what
faith does is it just inhales the Lord, inhales his goodness. We don't produce it. And we just
the thing about the exhale. If you look at human beings,
we inhale oxygen, but we we exhale carbon carbon monoxide. All we
can produce is sin. But because we've been made alive,
all we can inhale is the Lord Jesus Christ. Do we see that?
So he gets all the glory in faith. He gets all the glory in faith.
The baby does not sit there and think, okay, I need to take my
next breath. You and I don't really think about taking our
next breath, do we? We're sitting here right now breathing and
our hearts are beating, but we're not controlling that. It is the
Lord that gives life. And it's the same in salvation.
It's so foolish for men to believe that they are doing something
or producing something that merits salvation. It would be the same
as looking at someone at a corpse, looking at a corpse, a dead man
and saying, all you have to do to be saved is breathe. That's
literally what men are doing from the pulpit every day. That
is not good news to me. I am dead in trespasses and in
sin by nature. I need the Lord to say, breathe,
live and cause me to do so. Not just when he commands something,
it happens, doesn't it? I don't need to just be given
the option. I need to be made to breathe, made to breathe.
So how do I know if I have saving faith? Well, whose faith is it,
or where does it come from? If I produce it, then it's mine,
and therefore it is sin, as I said the first hour. If I produce
it, or you produce it, it is sin. It's that simple. It is
sin, and it is enmity against God. So therefore, it must be
the Lord's faith. It has to be the faith of the
Lord Jesus. Rob just read from Galatians those exact words.
In Romans chapter 10, 17, it says, so then faith cometh by
hearing and hearing by the word of God, hearing by the word of
God. Now we know in the scripture.
The word of God is Jesus Christ based upon John chapter one.
In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and
the word was God. In verse 14 it says, and the
word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten
of the father, full of grace and truth. So Jesus Christ is
the word of God. He is the living word of God.
That is where faith comes from. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. It's not just that we come to
church and we want to hear more and more of the Bible being read
to us. And that's how our faith is increased.
No, salvation is of the Lord. It's not what we do. It's what
he does. He's the one saying, breathe.
We're not in control. He has purposed all things. He
has purposed this salvation. He gives eyes to see. He gives
ears to hear. Faith comes from Him, merited
by Him. It is His faith that He gives
to His people. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
2. We were just in Galatians, but I didn't tell Rob where to
read from. The Lord gave us that this morning.
So this is just affirmation of what the Lord had already purposed. Galatians chapter 2 and verse
20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. The faith
of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. It is
Christ's faith that is saving faith. It is Christ's faith that
is saving faith. It is not my faith. It's Christ's
faith. It is bestowed upon his elect
people. And as I mentioned in the last
hour, he gives repentance towards God and faith towards the Lord
Jesus Christ. The faith that the Lord gives
his people can only look to Christ. It must look to Christ. The Lord's
faith will not fail because it's not something that we have merited.
It's not something that we have done. It is his perfect faith
that is given. 1 John 5, verse 4 and 5 says,
for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this
is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, who
is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus
Christ is the son of God. So does the scripture contradict
itself when it says our faith? Certainly not. Christ has bestowed
it upon us. He has given us him. The Lord
Jesus Christ is our surety. Do we see that? He is our savior.
He is our heavenly father. He is ours and I am his. He is
my beloved and I am his. So his faith is my faith, our
faith. It's the same thing. It's not
something we produce. It's something that is bestowed
that he produces, that he produced for his people. So how do we know we have saving
faith? Because it is the faith of Christ. It is the faith of Christ. That's
the first question. Second question. How do I know
if I have saving faith? Well, who does the faith look
to? Who does our faith look to? Faith is made void. Faith is
made void upon our looking to someone or something other than
Christ. Faith is made void. by our looking
to something or someone other than the Lord Jesus Christ for
our salvation. Whether it be for evidence of
our salvation, whether it be favor with God, men by nature,
and I've heard this so much in religion, they believe that God's
favoritism towards man is based upon your physical goods, the
things that you have, your earthly possessions. Maybe it's your
health. Well, we know that so-and-so is not such a bad man because
he doesn't really have cancer. He's never had a problem in his
life. His house is nice and this and that. Well, we know that
man over there, he must be really in trouble because he has cancer
and he has his children have ran away and his wife left him
and all he's got left is the dog, you know, that kind of situation.
It's just not so with God. His ways are above our ways.
Who are we to reply against the Lord? We don't look to those
things that the Lord has physically given us as evidence of our salvation
or favor with God. We look to Christ. The Lord causes
us to look to him. He's the evidence that we have
salvation. And the only way that we can have that evidence is
if he causes us to look to him. We merit nothing. We cannot examine
anything in our lives nor in the lives of those that are around
us and say, well, we know that they're a believer because they
have done this and they have done this and they have done
this. I can tell you, looking at at the believers, talking
to them, you can see other people looking to Christ, but you can't
see yourself looking to Christ. Does that make sense? What do
I mean by that? I can see evidence that the Lord's
been gracious to you by the words that you say and by the things
that you do in the heart that he's given you. I can see that
in you, but I cannot see it in myself. A believer doesn't see
that he is good. He sees himself as the chief
of sinners. It's that simple. Our faith is made void if we're
looking to ourself in any way. Romans chapter one, verse 16,
he said, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth that
is you first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith, not sight, Not works, not trying
to keep the law, not examining ourself and seeing ourself as
good. We are kept by faith, by the faith of Christ. That's how
we live. Romans chapter four, verse 14
says, for if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made
void. For if they which are of the
law be made heirs, meaning if the law justifies you, faith
is made void. And the promise made of none
effect. Our justification rests in one place, and that is the
Lord Jesus Christ. And God hath made him unto us
all wisdom, all righteousness, all sanctification, all redemption.
Christ is all. It is his faith that has been
bestowed upon us, and our faith that he has given us only looks
to him. It looks nowhere else. It is the faith of Christ. He
gets all the glory for it then, doesn't He? It's that simple.
If it's His faith and it only looks to Him, and it's what keeps
us, He gets all the glory for it. And the Lord's people love
it that way, don't we? We want it that way. We don't want any
glory for it. Which brings me to my next question.
How do I know if I have saving faith, who gets all the glory
for it? Who gets all the glory for it? Turn to 1 Corinthians
1 with me, if you would, please. In verse 27. 1 Corinthians 1. All men want to have the glory
for something in their life. All men want by nature, all men
want the glory. They want to be God. I remember
the last time I was up here and you've heard this, uh, even from
Greg, after I've left men by nature, want to be God. That's
literally the problem. We, we want to be God. And it
all started back in the garden of Eden. As you all know, with
Eve, she wanted to be God. Men want the glory for themselves.
So who gets all the glory in saving faith? 1 Corinthians 1
verse 27 says, But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of
the world to confound the things which are mighty. and base things
of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen,
yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that
are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are
ye in Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. So who gets the
glory in salvation? How do I know if my faith is
saving faith? Who gets the glory for the faith? The Lord Jesus
Christ does. Let him that glorieth, glorieth
in the Lord. Now God chose, verse 27 literally starts out, but
God chose, and that's where salvation is right there. God chose, and
that's where the gospel starts. In the beginning, God, period.
If God did not do something, we would be dead in trespasses
and in sin. We would not exist. We would be eternally damned.
But God, the interjection of the gospel, but God who is rich
in mercy. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth, but God hath chosen. God's the one
that gets all the glory in this faith. We have no legs to stand
on because we're lame. Yet he says, walk, and we walk
into him. Do we not? He says, see, and
we see him. The Lord's chosen the foolish
things. The scripture calls it the foolishness of preaching.
Men by nature believe that it's foolish what we're doing right
now, because it strips them of all their righteousness. It strips
them of all their glory. To the believer, though, this
is not foolishness. This is our hope. But he's chose
the foolish things to confound the wise. He's chose the base
things, the weak things, to confound the mighty. That no flesh may
glory in his sight. These things which are despised
that he mentions in this chapter is the gospel that God only died
for his people, that he elected a people, that he only died for
his people, that he only loves his people. We don't need to
get hung up on just the fact that God only loves his people.
That's the wonderful news of the gospel. It's not just that
he only loves his people, it's that God loves. It's not amazing. We can preach that God hates
all day long, but it's the love of God. It's the goodness of
God that lead us men to repentance. Yes, we preach that Christ only
died for his people, but let us not get hung up on just beating
people over the head thinking, well, I'm a believer and you're
not because I'm elect and the Lord saved me. No, it's beautiful
that the Lord loved Jacob. It doesn't confound my mind that
he hated Esau. Esau hated the birthright. Jacob,
though, was a liar, a supplanter, a trickster. He's everything
that I am. And yet the Lord loved him. That
is what gives us hope, is that the love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts unto his people. This faith he gets all the glory
for. And this wonderful gospel he
gets all the glory for. And that's the way the Lord's
people want it. So how do we know we have saving
faith? God gets all the glory and saving faith unto the salvation
of his people. Faith believes that God is true
and every man is a liar. He that gloryeth, let him glory
in the Lord. He that gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. In
Luke chapter 18, there were two men that were in a place of worship,
a temple. It was the Pharisee and the public,
and you probably know the story well. But the Pharisee stood
there and he said, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like this man.
And I thank you that I'm not like this man. I tithe, I fast,
I do this, I do that. Lord really wasn't getting the
glory in that, was he? Not even a little bit. This man was boasting
himself before God. He was saying, I am this. I'm
thankful, Lord, that I am this and I am this. The Lord wouldn't
get in the glory in that. What about the public and what
about the center? What did he do? He beat upon his breast and
he would not look up under the ceiling wouldn't look up. They
said, Lord, have mercy upon me, the sinner. He was confessing
who he was and confessing who Christ was. And that means that
the Lord was getting all the glory in that man's salvation.
The Lord turns to him and says, Who do you think was justified?
Who do you think went away justified? We know it was the publican.
We know it was the one the Lord made the sinner, because no man
will confess that Christ is all unless the Lord has done that
work and given this faith, given the faith of Christ to him. We
have been made to know that we are the chief of sinners. We've
been made to know that. Brethren, we know that if we
were there on crucifixion day and the song that we just sung
a minute ago mentioned this, we know that it would have been
our voice as well saying, crucify him. There was nothing appealing
to man's flesh in the son of God. The scripture even says
that in Isaiah chapter 53. He said, he hath no form or comeliness. By man's standard, they were
nothing. There was nothing in the son of God that would merit
your desire of him, nothing physical. And that's the same today, because
he strips man of all of his glory. He was a threat to their position.
He was a threat to their popularity, their pleasure, their power.
And they said, away with him, crucify this man. We want the
glory for ourself. How do I know I have saving faith?
Because we have been made to know. We have been made to know. He gets all the glory for it.
He gets all the glory in our salvation because we would have
cried out, crucify him as well, had it not been but by grace.
We have been made to know. God was doing business with God
that day. He was not doing business with
man. When the Lord was offered up on the cross, his soul was
offered up as our surety. The scripture says Isaiah 53
verse 10, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin,
he shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied.
We see no beauty in him naturally, but through the eyes of faith,
he has been made beautiful to the elect of God. He is the most
beautiful thing. We see ourself as wretched and
vile and ugly and disgusting and see him as beautiful. And
the good news, brethren, is that's how God sees us as well as beautiful. He sees us as his darling son. We are literally seated in Christ. That's the hope of salvation.
So who gets the glory for that? Do we? Because of the faith that
we produced? Because of the works that we
worked? No, it's His faith. It's His works. He gets all the
glory for it, doesn't He? Only by the faith of Christ can
we see the beauty in Christ. We agree with God. We're like
the Seraphim woman that came to Him. And He said, it is not
meat to give the children's bread unto dogs. She said, truth, Lord,
I am a dog. I'm Your dog. Truth, Lord, I'm
a dog, but make me your dog. That's faith. Whatever you say
is truth. Whatever I say is false. Cause
me to confess your truth, Lord, and you get all the glory for
it. So how do I know if I have saving faith, God gets all the
glory and salvation, and Christ hath been made beautiful to those
for whom he died? Lastly, how do I know if I have
saving faith, Number four is God trying it. Now, God's not
trying to do anything. So don't misunderstand what I'm
stating this morning. But the scripture says in first Peter,
chapter one, verse seven, the trial of your faith being much
more precious than gold that perish it, though it be tried
with fire might be found unto the praise and honor and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Now, if we are honest with ourselves,
we are either going into a trial as believers, we're in a trial
right now, or we're coming out of a trial. And this is the way
the Lord has ordained it in order for us to constantly say, Lord,
save me, Lord, save me, Lord, save me. The reason that it's
been that way is because if we are left to ourselves, In regards
of not having any thought of the Lord, not having any thought
of our sin, we would begin to think highly of ourselves. He
allows these trials to come our way, so it causes us to be mercy
beggars. He tries our faith, which is
not going to fail by fire. That's the only remedy for dross.
Maybe some of the young people, I know my children might not
know this, so I'm gonna tell you. Whenever you have a metal, a precious
metal, whether it's silver, whether it's gold, when it comes out
of the ground, it has dross in it, it has impurities, imperfections. I know the adults know this,
but it's important that we understand how to get rid of that is by
fiber. That's the only way. There's no chemical compounds
that you can put together on that and it would pull the dross
out. You have to melt it down to nothing, melt it down to nothing,
and the dross is pulled out at that point. Can we see that's
what the Lord does for his people? He melts us down to nothing,
and he takes the dross. He took our dross, our sin, unto
himself, into his body. He was made sin for his people
on the cross, and the Lord tried him by fire, poured out his fiery
wrath upon his son, executed his judgment upon his son, and
justice was satisfied. The dross is gone. Casphara's
east is from the west. The Lord's the only one that's
ever made something really disappear. He made sin disappear. He sees
it no more. It's gone. And now we're the
vessel of the finer, the scripture says. He's presented us as perfect
before him, the vessel of honor in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He gets all the glory for it. Proverbs chapter 25,
verse two says, it is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but
the honor of kings is to search out the matter, the heaven for
height, The earth for death, the heart of the kings is unsearchable. Take away the draws from the
silver and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer. Take
away the wicked from before the king and his throne shall be
established in righteousness. Lord Jesus Christ took away the
wickedness of our sin by putting it into himself. And he died
for his people and satisfied the father. He no longer sees
us as wicked. He no longer sees us as full
of draws. But in this life, we're going to have tribulation. We're
going to have our faith tried by fire. We're going to have
it put to the test so that he continues to refine us. Now don't
misunderstand, that's not progressive sanctification. We're sanctified
in God's eyes. So don't misunderstand my words.
We have been presented as perfectly righteous right now. So what
does that mean if he's bringing us through the fire, the tribulation,
different thing? Well, the scripture talks about the fiery darts of
the devil, does it not? Everything that happens, all the heat that
we endure in this life, if I can say it that way. just drives
us unto Christ more and more. The Lord never becomes more exalted
and more exalted. He just is. But we become less
and less and less. Do we see that? The more that
we become less, the more we see him as high and lifted up. The
less we see of ourself, the more we see of him. And that's what
he means by removing the dross. It's our unbelief. That's what
separates us from the Lord. So our sins have been put away.
Our iniquity has been pardoned. And we've been given double.
We've been given robed in righteous and we've been given the faith
of the Lord and the glorious gospel of his salvation and we look
to him And as he as we go through this life as pilgrims and in
strangers, he's constantly gonna say seek ye my face He's gonna
turn the lights off just for a second like a child that's
in a crib Most of us here have had children the baby that's
in the crib whenever they're in the dark. They won't mama
or they won't daddy Now, I could go into the room where your children
were whenever they were tiny, but they don't want to see my
face. They want to see your face, their parents face. When the
Lord turns the light off, what is he doing? He's allowing that
fire to get a little hot for us so that we say, Lord, let
me see your face. Lord, draw me unto you again.
Lord calls me to see you again. That's what he does for his people.
That's what he's saying by this. This is what he means. That's why we say with the man
in the Scripture, search me and know me, Lord, search me, remove
my unbelief, remove my draws, draw me near unto thee. Whatever
is separating me from you, Lord, get it out of the way. Purge
me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be
made whiter than snow. Back to our text in Romans chapter
five and closing. Romans chapter 5, therefore,
being justified by faith. Now, I love the wording that
the Lord uses here. It literally says in verse 25
of the previous chapter, who was delivered for our offenses
and was raised again for our justification, that means it's
already happened. Do we see that? And then he says, therefore,
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through the
Lord Jesus Christ. We've already been justified in his presence.
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not
only so, but we glory in tribulation also knowing that tribulation
worketh patience. And patience experience and experience
hope. And hope maketh not ashamed because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us. So how do I know if I have saving
faith? Whose faith is it and where does it come from? It is
the faith of Christ. The faith of Christ. Who does
it look to? It looks to the finished work
of Christ alone for salvation. The faith that the Lord gives
to us by Christ Jesus says it is finished. It just believes
God. How do I know if I have saving
faith? Well, who gets all the glory for it? Christ has been
made beautiful to his bride by the faith bestowed to them. And
he gets all the glory and their salvation, all the glory and
revelation. You remember whenever John was
in, uh, he saw the lamb and the, what was the four and 20 elders
and the beasts and the things that they were chanting. It said
all glory, all honor, all praise unto the lamb forever. That is
our confession as believers. That is the faith that cries
out unto him. How do I know if I have saving
faith? Is God trying it? Well, he tells us right here,
we glory in tribulation. Know is that the tribulation,
that tribulation work with patience and a patient's experience and
experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed of the gospel. So
is the Lord trying it? Absolutely. He's causing the tribulation
that we face in this life to look into him. He's trying our
faith. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. He chasteneth. Now in religion, men would say
that that chastening means that he would get the rod of correction
out and he'd beat you with it. That's where, and men would use
scare tactics and different things. You better do this or God will
do this. And it was a cause and effect and it was just scare
tactics. You know what the word chasteneth means? It means teacheth. And the Scripture said, the Lord
pitieth His children. What is He teaching us? With
all these trials, all these tribulations, all the things that we're enduring
in this life, what is He teaching us? Look to Christ. Look to Christ. He gives us the faith to look.
He gives us the faith to believe. And we say with the apostles,
Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Amen. Father, bless Your Word. Give
us your faith. Calls us to believe you. Calls
us to rest in the finished work of Christ. Save your people,
we pray in Christ and we pray. Amen.