I'm reading a passage of scripture
found in the book of Titus, chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. Paul, the
apostle, writes to young Titus, and this is the way he begins
this epistle. He says, Paul, a servant of God
and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's
elect. and the acknowledging of the
truth which is after godliness, in hope of eternal life, which
God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began. Paul,
an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect. That's my subject today, the
faith of God's elect. And I want us to think about
five things. Now, I'll give these to you before
I begin the message. You may want to write them down.
But I'm going to deal with five specific things in this message.
First of all, can a person know that he has saving faith? Is
it possible to know, to have assurance and confidence that
you have saving faith? Then secondly, I'm going to answer
this question or deal with this specific area, saving faith is
the most important thing in the world to you. In fact, it's more
important than everything else in your life put together. To
have a saving interest in Jesus Christ is worth more than everything
else in this world put together. And then thirdly, how do we determine
if our faith is saving faith? How do we determine if we have
a saving interest in Christ? How does one go about examining
his faith? And then the fourth thing that
I want us to think about is this, just exactly what is saving faith? What is the faith of God's elect?
And then I'm going to close the message dealing with this particular
point. Let's remove some mistakes about
saving faith. Now, does that get you interested
in this broadcast, in this message? I hope that it does. Let's look
at the subject now, the faith of God's elect. Paul writing
to young Titus, he says, I am an apostle according to the faith
of God's elect. Now, can a person know that he
has saving faith? Is it possible to know that we
have an interest in Jesus Christ? Well, we're commanded in the
Word of God to examine our faith and determine if it's genuine
faith. God has commanded us to examine
our faith. He says in 2 Corinthians 13,
verse 5, examine yourselves. That's a command. Examine yourselves
whether you be in the faith. Prove yourselves, know ye not
your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except you
be reprobates. And then Peter wrote in 2 Peter
1.10, Wherefore, the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling
and election sure, for if you do these things, You'll never
fail. So we're commanded in the Word
of God to examine our faith, to determine if we have a saving
interest in Christ. God has commanded us. When we
come to the Lord's table, what did Paul say? Examine yourself. Let a man examine himself, and
so let him eat. So we're commanded by God to
determine if we have saving faith. And then we have many examples
in the Word of God of men who knew. that they had saving faith. They were positive that they
had an interest in Christ. David said, the Lord is my shepherd. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed, and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. John said, we know. that we have passed from death
unto life, because we love the brethren. So these are just three
testimonies, and we could go on for a long time giving you
examples of men who knew that they had a saving interest in
Christ. The Lord is my shepherd, David
said. Job said, I know that my Redeemer
liveth. and that he shall stand at the
latter day on this earth, and I shall see the Lord, not another,
but I myself in the flesh will see the Lord." These men had
confidence, they had assurance, they knew they were in Christ.
And then I would say this, that a strong assurance of an interest
in Christ is what enabled these men to forsake the world. This
is what enabled them to endure severe trials like the trial
of Abraham when he sacrificed Isaac. What gave him the strength
to go through such a trial? Noah building the ark, Daniel
in the lion's den, the three Hebrew children in the fiery
furnace, Moses leading Israel through the wilderness. These
acts of faith were motivated by confidence in God and assurance
that they knew the Lord. And it enabled them to bear persecution
and enabled them to live for the glory of God. So these men
received strength from their faith. They knew they were in
Christ, and therefore they had strength to endure whatever God
called upon them to bear. And then a genuine assurance
of faith in Christ enables a man even to rejoice on his deathbed. Paul said, the time of my departure
is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I've
finished my course, I've kept the faith. Henceforth there's
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord shall present
to me in that day, and not to me only, but to all them who
love his appearance." He said, I'm in a straight betwixt the
two. I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is
far better. He said, for me to live is Christ, but to die is
gain. I want to leave here and to be
with the Lord. And David said this, "'Although
it be not so with my house, God hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure, and this is all my
salvation, and this all my desire.'" So assurance of an interest in
Christ will give a man confidence even on his deathbed and will
deliver him from fear of death and fear of judgment and fear
of eternity. So we may know that we have saving
faith. It's commanded of God. We have
examples throughout the scripture of men who knew that they had
a saving interest in Christ. And these men received their
strength from this faith. And even to the day of death,
they received the strength of faith to enable them to bear
whatever God called upon them to bear. Now, the second thing.
A saving interest in Christ, saving faith, the faith of God's
elect, is the most important thing in this world to you. In
fact, to be in Christ is more important than anything else
or everything else put together. For our Lord said, what shall
it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul? Your interest in Christ is more
important than your health, It's more important than your possessions.
It's more important than your popularity. It's more important
than your family. It's more important than all
of these things put together to be in Christ. Christ Jesus
is salvation. Christ Jesus is eternal life.
And not to be in Christ and not to have a saving interest in
Christ is to lose all anyway and to perish eternally. In 1
John 5, verse 11 through 13, John wrote, this is the record.
God hath given to us eternal life. This life is in His Son. That's where it is. Everything
is vested in Christ. It pleased the Lord that in him
should all the fullness of God dwell. That's where it is. That's
where God's mercy is in Christ. That's where God's grace is.
That's where God's love is. That's where the life of God
is. That's where acceptance is. That's where approval is. That's
where wisdom and righteousness and redemption, it's all in Christ.
So if a man misses Christ, he's going to miss everything. He's
going to lose everything. Finally, everything will be taken
away from him. So to be in Christ is worth everything. Our Lord said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. I must have Christ. One old hymn
writer put it this way, give me Christ or I die. Other foundation
can no man lay than that which is laid in Christ Jesus. There's
none other name unto heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. So whatever I miss on earth,
is not nearly as important as missing Christ. Whatever I miss
on earth, I must not miss a saving faith, a saving interest in Jesus
Christ. For of Him, of God, He is made
unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. So to be in Christ is more important
than everything else put together. I might give up and bypass and
surrender everything in this world, but I must not miss Christ. I must not miss a saving interest
in Jesus Christ, for that's where everything God has is. It's in Christ. And to be in
Christ is to be an heir of God and to be a joint heir with Christ
of immortality, of holiness, of perfection, of righteousness,
and all things. All right, the third thing now.
Saving faith. How do we determine if we have
saving faith? God commands us to examine our
faith. He commands us to know if we're
in Christ. And to be in Christ is worth
everything. It's worth everything in the
universe. Well, how do I determine if my
faith is saving faith? Almost everybody has some kind
of faith. Almost everybody believes in
some God. Almost everybody has a religion,
all right? In examining my faith, in examining
my position, my spiritual position, how do I determine if my faith
is the faith of God's elect? When Paul wrote to Titus, he
said, I'm an apostle according to the faith of God's elect.
There's one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. There's one
God and one mediator between God and men. I must not miss
that faith of God's elect, that one faith and that one way. Christ
said, I'm the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved. To miss Christ is to miss everything. So how do I determine it? Well,
Romans 10, 17. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. This is the foundation of faith.
Now, Christ is the object of faith. Christ Jesus is the goal
and the object of faith. Everything's in Him. But the
foundation of faith is the Word of God, not my feeling. Not my
feeling, but God's Word. My feelings cannot be trusted
because my feelings change. God's Word never changes. My
feeling depends a whole lot upon my circumstances or my environment
or my emotions, but God's Word is sure. It's immutable. It's
unchangeable. So I cannot find out if I've
got saving faith by how I feel, because I may feel saved today
and feel lost tomorrow. I may feel good today and feel
bad tomorrow. I may feel close to God today.
I may feel spiritual. I may feel carnal tomorrow. So
my feelings change. I cannot base my eternal hope
on my feelings, because they change. But I can build my hope
on the Word of God. It never changes. And then I
must not build my hope on experiences, because experiences depend upon
environment. Experiences depend upon emotions. Experiences depend upon circumstances,
companions. All of these things give us experiences,
even Evil spirits can give us experiences. In fact, the Scripture
says, try the spirits, whether they be of God. He said, we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness
in high places, rulers of the darkness. So we can have experiences
and it not be of God. And so we must not build our
hope on experiences. And then we must not build our
hope on our works. Our works may be motivated by
self-love. They may be motivated by selfish
goals. They may be nothing but filthy
rags in God's sight. They may look good to us. Yea,
they may even look good to people about us. But you see, our works
are not judged by what people think of them or what we think
of them, but what God thinks of them. That's how they're judged. So I cannot, if I'm going to
examine my faith, and whether or not I have interest in Christ,
and whether or not my faith is saving faith, I must not resort
to my feelings. I must not look to my experiences.
I must not look to my doctrine. I must not look to my works.
Where shall I look? God's Word never changes. And
because God's Word is true, and because God's Word is the only
foundation of faith, He hath said, so that we may boldly say. And the only reason we can say
something is because God's already said it. The only right we have
to believe anything about God is because He said it in His
Word. Christ now is the object of faith. We don't believe in
the Bible. We believe in a person in Christ Jesus. We don't look
to the Bible for life. We look to Christ for life. Our
Lord rebuked the Pharisees, and He said, now you search the Scriptures.
For in them you think you have life, but they are they which
testify of me." We go to the Scripture for our foundation. We go to the Scripture for our
instructions. We go to the Scriptures for our
directions, but we look to Christ for life. He's the object of
faith, but the Word of God is the reason for faith. Christ
is the goal of faith and the object of faith, and we look
to Christ for redemption. We look to Christ for forgiveness.
We look to Christ for mercy. We look to Christ to make us
acceptable with the Father. We look to Christ to redeem us,
but we look to the Word of God to tell us about Christ. The
reason we look to Christ is because the Bible said, look to Christ.
How do I know that God will show mercy? How do I know? Can I go
out and look at the sun, or the moon, or the stars, or the trees,
or the rippling stream, or the rivers, or the mountains, or
valleys? Will they tell me God will show mercy? They'll tell
me God's powerful, for He made these things. They tell me that
God is wise because only a wise God could create such beautiful
things. But they do not tell me that God will be merciful
to a guilty sinner like myself or like you. I have to turn to
the Bible to find that out. And the Bible says, quoting God,
Moses said, Lord, show me your goodness, show me your glory.
And God said, I'll make all my goodness to pass before you.
I will be merciful. I will be merciful. That's the
reason I believe God will show mercy to sinners, as he said
so. And that's the only reason that I can believe that. Not
because I feel it. Not because I think it, not because
I heard it, but because God said it. How do I know that Christ
Jesus is the only Redeemer? Maybe the church is the Savior. Maybe the sun is the Savior.
Maybe the moon or the stars or maybe my good works are the Savior. No, God's Word says Christ is
the Savior. God sent his Son into the world
to save sinners. That's what he said. For God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. That's
what Scripture says. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were born under the law. That's what the Word of
God says. So that's what I believe. I believe that because God said
it. You see, that's the foundation of faith. I believe Christ. He's
the object of faith. I believe in Him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. I believe that He is our surety.
He is our representative. He is our sin offering. He is
our substitute. He is our Savior. He is all things
to us. But the Word of God tells me
those things. And the Word of God is the only rule of faith. and the only foundation of faith.
How do I know that Christ died on the cross, was buried, and
rose again? Is that just a rumor that came down through the past
nineteen hundred years? Is that something somebody thought
about or heard about or felt ought should have happened? No,
sir. God's Word says that He died according to the Scriptures,
that He fulfilled every type, every shadow, every symbol, every
promise, and that he died for our sins, was buried, and rose
again. And he ascended to the right hand of God, where he sitteth
in glory and majesty and approval and acceptance. And that's what
the Word says. How do I know that he's the only
mediator? Because God's Word says so. Take
away the infallibility of God's Word. Now, I know there are a
lot of preachers, and possibly some of you, who doubt the inspiration
of God's Word. who doubt the verbal inspiration
of the Scripture, who doubt that the Word of God is just exactly
that, the Word of God. But let me tell you this. Take
away the infallibility of the Scripture, and you take away
every foundation of faith, every reason for faith, and every right
to believe anything. Now, if you don't have the Word
of God to tell you who God is and what God does and why God
does it and to whom God does it, then you have no reason for
faith at all. The Word of God is the only foundation
of faith. Now, that's so. So how do I determine
if my faith is saving faith, if it's the faith of God's elect?
How do I determine if what I call a spiritual interest is a spiritual
interest at all in the living God? What does the Word of God
say? Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. You can't go beyond the Scriptures.
If you go beyond the Scriptures, you get out there in never-never
land. There's nothing out there. There's
no proof of it. Somebody says, well, I think
this. Why do you think it? Well, I just think it. That doesn't
make it so. You don't receive anything because I say so. It's
according to the Word of God. That's the foundation of faith.
All right, here's the fourth question. What is the faith of
God's elect? What is saving faith? Well, faith
is expressed in the Scripture in several ways, and I'm going
to give you just about three things about this faith of God's
elect, this saving faith. First of all, the faith of God's
elect is looking to Christ. In Isaiah 45, 22, the Scripture
says, Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth,
for I am God, and there's none else. Now, Israel was out there
in the wilderness, and they had murmured and complained and found
fault with God's providence. And they had said many times,
it'd been better for us to stay in Egypt, it'd been better for
us to die in Egypt than to die in the wilderness. And God grew
angry with them. And the Lord God, in His judgment,
sent fiery serpents into the camp of the people, and they
bit the people, and they were sick, and they were dying. And
Moses cried to God for help. for a remedy. And God said, Moses,
take a serpent in the likeness of the fiery serpent, make it
out of brass, and put it on a pole, and lift it up. And whosoever
shall look upon that serpent shall live. And so Moses took
the brass, and he made a serpent in the likeness of the ones that
had bitten the people. And he put it up on a pole. And
the people looked and they lived. They just turned their eyes in
that direction. They looked. That was faith.
They believed God. They believed the remedy. They
believed that God would show mercy. They looked and they lived.
And our Lord himself referred to this incident in the Old Testament. He said, as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. Now, you and I, in our murmuring and complaining and ingratitude,
in our sin, we have been bitten by the serpent of sin, the flesh. And Christ came down here in
the likeness of sinful flesh, just like that serpent of brass
was made in the likeness of the fiery serpents, Christ was made
in the likeness of sinful flesh. And as Moses lifted up that serpent,
even so was the Son of Man lifted up on a cross, that whosoever
believeth, looketh, unto him should not perish but have eternal
life. And so we look to Christ, we turn in that direction, we
believe God and we turn in that direction by faith and we just
look to God, look to Christ. Look to God in Christ because
God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. Jesus
Christ is the God made and we look to Christ in our helplessness
as they did In our dying condition, as they did, we look to Christ
for grace. We look to Christ to continue
in grace. We look to Christ, even yea,
unto his coming for glorification. Looking to Christ. All right?
Secondly, faith is looking to Christ, and then faith is trusting
Christ. Trusting. Isaiah 26, 34 says
this, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on
thee. Is stayed on thee. because he
trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever,
all the days of your life, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength." Now, Paul is a pattern of faith. Wouldn't you say that?
God says that. See, that's something else. We
say Paul is a pattern of faith. Well, the Bible says that. that
he's a pattern of those who should afterwards believe. What we preach
and say, we must have the Scripture to back us up. And Paul said,
he gave us a definition of his faith. He said, I know whom I
have believed. I'm persuaded he's able to keep
that which I've committed to him. I've trusted, entrusted
my soul into his care. Trust him. Thou wilt keep him
in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee. It's not just
a fleeting, passing thing, but our mind has stayed on Him. Trust
Him. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on Thee. Abraham was fully persuaded that
what God had promised, he was able to perform, trusting Him.
And then thirdly, what is the faith of God's elect? It's receiving
Christ. John 1, 12 says, as many as received
Him, to them gave He the right to become sons of God. It is
to receive Christ as He is. Now listen to this. It is to
receive Christ not as I think He is, not as somebody said He
is, not as I want Him to be, but as He is. Who is Jesus Christ? He's the Messiah. He's the one
who created the world. He is the Son of God. He is our
surety. He is the prophet. to teach us
God. He's the priest to intercede.
He's the king to reign over us. So it's to receive Christ, not
as I think He is, not as I want Him to be, but as He's revealed
in the Word of God. And saving faith is to receive
Christ, not partially, not in some of His offices, but totally. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth Jesus to be Lord, the Lord of your life, the Lord of your
heart, thou shalt be saved. All right? I hold out to you
no doormat named Jesus. I hold out to you the Lord of
glory. It's to receive Him totally.
That's what saving faith is. That's faith of God's elect.
All right, let's remove some mistakes concerning saving faith. The first mistake is this. It
is a mistake to believe that everyone who is in Christ has
a full and complete assurance. Now, everybody is not going to
have a full and complete assurance. Doubts and fears are not uncommon
with God's people. Now, you'll find that so. You'll
find David once in a while saying, the Lord is my shepherd, and
then he'll say, is his mercy clean gone forever? So doubts
and fears are not uncommon. Do not be disturbed because you
have doubts and fears. Be disturbed when you doubt God,
but not when you doubt yourself. Secondly, it's a mistake to believe
that all who are in Christ have the same degree of assurance. There's little faith and there's
great faith. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Everyone doesn't
have the same degree of faith, the same object of faith, but
not the same strength, not the same degree of faith. All right,
thirdly, it's a mistake to believe that everyone has assurance,
who has assurance, will always have that assurance. You may
be confident in Christ for days and then have a difficult time,
a struggle, and then the confidence comes back. It'll come from the
Word of God, though. And then it's a mistake to assume
that all who have an interest in Christ can answer all the
objections and charges of an infidel world. complain because
you can't handle every difficult situation and every difficult
question, babes in Christ need to be taught and need to grow
to maturity. And even when you get mature in Christ, you meet
with obstacles you cannot handle. It's a mistake to assume that
everyone who says, Lord, Lord, is going to enter the kingdom
of God or has saving faith. Looking to Christ, trusting Christ,
receiving Christ, that's the faith of God's elect.