A Careful Look at Saving Faith

In this careful look at saving
faith, I have the message divided into
three parts. If you're taking notes, or if
you wish to take notes, there'll be three observations, five stated
facts, and then five important characteristics or evidences
of faith. Now, the three important facts
are these. The soul is the life of the body. Now, if the soul is not here,
my body is dead. If I have a heart attack right
now and fall on this floor and my soul departs, the body is
still visible. you'll see it lying here. It's
still present with you. But without the soul, it's useless,
it's dead. The only thing you can do with
a dead body is, pretty quickly, if you don't embalm it, dig a
hole and get rid of it. Secondly, faith is the life of
the soul. Faith is the life of the soul.
If I have not faith in Christ, My soul is dead in trespasses
and sin. That's what scripture teaches.
If I have not communion with God, if I have not fellowship
with God, if I have not a knowledge of God, if I have not faith in
God, then I'm dead. The just shall live by faith. Turn to John 11, verse 25. Listen
to what our Lord says here to Mary and Martha in John 11, verse
verse 25 and 26, he says this, Jesus said, I am the resurrection,
I am the life, I am the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. I am the life of the soul. Whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never die, never, The soul without
Christ will die forever, eternal death, the second death. But
the soul that has faith in Christ lives because it has spiritual
life. All right, thirdly, now this is important. Christ is
the life of faith. The soul is the life of this
body. Without a soul, my body is dead. Faith is the life of the soul.
Without communion with God, without faith in Christ, my soul is dead
in trespasses and sins. That's what Paul wrote in Ephesians
2.1. You have to quicken who were dead. Well, we weren't dead
physically. We weren't dead mentally. We weren't dead morally. We were
dead spiritually. The soul was without God. The
soul without God, without Christ, without hope. That is, without
faith, the soul is dead. And Christ is the life of faith.
There's all kinds of faith. But if I have not Christ, my
faith is worthless. If I have not Christ, my faith
is lifeless. My faith is dead. It's not faith
in Christ only that's saved. Now, catch this. I mean, not
faith only that's saved, it's faith in Christ. Now, that's
important. It's not faith only that's saved.
its faith in Christ. Look at our text in 1 John 5,
verse 13. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may
know ye have eternal life. He doesn't say, These things
have I written unto you that believe that ye may know ye have
eternal life. You that believe on the name
of the Son of God. You know, I was talking to a
man this week who came down from Charleston to visit with me,
and we were talking on this subject. Some lady had asked him, he'd
invited her to listen to my television program, and she said, well,
is he one of these preachers that preaches eternal security
of the believer? She said, if he is, if he is,
I don't want to listen to him. Well, you know, I said this to
him, and I say this to you. I do not hold to the eternal
security of the believer unless you identify the believer, because
there are all kinds of believers. James said, you believe in one
God, you do well. When our Lord was here, when
they saw the miracles he did, many believed on him, but he
didn't commit himself to them. We believe in the eternal security
of those who believe in the Son of God. Yes, I do, I definitely
do. I believe those who believe on
the Son of God, who believe on Christ, are eternally redeemed. Yes, I believe those who are
saved by God's grace, who are redeemed by God's grace, who
are justified by God's grace, yes, they are in grace always. Yes, I do. Once saved, always
saved, yes. If you did the saving, no. If
God did the saving, yes. If your pastor saved you, no.
If God saved you, yes. If Mama saved you, no. If some
soul winner saved you, no. If some high-pressure evangelist
saved you, no. I don't believe once saved, always
saved. I believe if God saved you, you're
always saved. There's a difference. Without Christ, faith is dead. James calls it a dead faith.
Can that kind of faith save? No, sir. So look at verse 20
of 1 John 5, "...we know that the Son of God is come, and he
hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is
true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son." This
is the true God. This is eternal life in Christ. Now, those three things are important.
The life of my body is the soul. The life of my soul is faith.
And the life of faith, that's what gives faith life, that's
what makes faith saving faith, is Christ. Now, Christ and his
blessings and benefits are available to all who seek him. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Though we believe in
sovereign election, though we believe in God's eternal grace,
Christ is available to any sinner who wants him. to any sinner
who will seek him. Turn to Psalm 145. Listen to
David writing here. Psalm 145, verse 18. Psalm 145, verse 18. Listen to this. The Lord is nigh
unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him
in truth. He will fulfill the desire of
them that fear him. He will also hear their cry,
and he'll save Whosoever will, let him take the water of life.
Our Lord is available to all who call on him. For these five
things are true. I don't know so much about what
we call the gospel offer. I don't know that that's a good
term. But I'm saying that Christ is available to all who want
him. I'm saying that Christ is presented
to the whole world. Christ is lifted up and preached,
our Lord said, to every creature. And Christ in the gospel is presented
sincerely. That's the first statement. He's
presented sincerely in the gospel. 1 Timothy 1.15, this is a faithful
saying. A faithful saying. No hypocrisy. It is a sincere saying. It is
faithful. It is honest. And it's worthy
of acceptation by all men. that Jesus Christ came into this
world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Come, the Lord said,
let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
I'll make them white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come to the water." Here's a man going through the desert, thirsty. All of his water is gone. The
goatskin is empty. He's got his horse or camel,
he's going through the desert, his lips are beginning to parch,
his tongue cleaves to the roof of his mouth, he's staggering,
the sun's getting brighter and the world begins to go around,
and over here to the right he sees a little clump of trees,
and there in the clump of trees in this oasis is a whale, and
he goes there and he drinks. Oh, he drinks, he drinks. And
he stands out there by the whale, and he sees another caravan way
off, and he says, Oh! And they turn and look at him.
He said, is anybody thirsty? Come and drink. It's sincere. Come and drink. Well, a fellow
over there says, no thank you, no thank you, we got water, and
he keeps going. But the man stands there with
a sincere invitation to everyone who was in the shape he was in,
who is in the condition he was in, and makes a sincere offer. If you're thirsty, come and drink.
And our Lord is sincerely presented in the Word of God. Our Lord
is sincerely presented. Turn to Numbers 23. Now listen
to this. Numbers chapter 23, verse 16. Numbers 23, 16. God is not a
man that he should lie. You can't believe everything
a man says, but you can believe everything God says. Neither
the Son of Man, that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall
he not do it? Hath he spoken, shall he not
make it good?" God does not invite sinners with a hand behind his
back. He invites sinners with an extended hand. Our Lord said,
Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden. The problem
is to find somebody who is laboring, and heavy laden. That's the problem,
to find someone who is thirsty. But it's sincere. All right,
secondly, here's the second. In the gospel, Christ is presented
sincerely, and in the gospel, Christ is presented undivided. Now, this is important. If you're
going to study saving faith, you better get acquainted with
this. Our Lord is presented in the gospel undivided, clothed
with all his offices. Prophet, priest, and king. The
Heavenly Father will not suffer his son's offices to be divided. He is the prophet. This is my
beloved son, hear ye him. He is the priest, one God and
one mediator between God and men. Seeing we have a high priest
over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and
full assurance. He is the King. God has exalted
him and given him a name above every name, that at the name
of Jesus Christ every knee should bow and every tongue should confess
that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And God will
not suffer you to divide the offices of his Son. There are
some people who like Christ's pardon and who don't like his
government. There are some people who like
Christ's teaching and have no use for his atonement. Some people
who like Christ's sacrifice, who have no regard for his sovereignty,
can't divide him. God will not suffer Christ to
be divided. He is presented in the gospel,
watch it now, when that trembling jailer came to the feet of Paul
and Silas and said, what must I do to be saved? Paul said,
believe on the Lord, King, Sovereign, Majestic, reigning Lord Jesus,
the sacrifice, I shall call his name Jesus, the name of humiliation,
submission, our sacrifice, our priest, Christ, the Messiah. When the Messiah has come, he'll
tell us all we know, all we want to know, all we need to know.
Prophet, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We've dropped the
Lord and we've dropped the Christ, we're saying Jesus saves. We've
heard the joyful sound, Jesus saves! It's the Lord Jesus Christ who
saves. And you can't divide him. You
can't have his teachings and drop his atonement. You can't
have his pardon and not bow to his government. You cannot have his sacrifice
and not have his sovereignty. God won't let you divide. He's
the Lord Jesus Christ. In the gospel, Christ is presented
thirdly, exclusively. He's the only Savior. Not Christ
in the Church, Christ. Not Christ in your righteousness,
but Christ. Not Christ in your profession,
or Christ in your baptism, or Christ in your sacraments, or
Christ in your tradition, or Christ in your custom, or Christ
in your ceremony, but other foundation can no man lay than that which
is laid, Christ the Lord. There is none other name unto
heaven given among men. One old writer said this, to
depend partly on Christ, and partly on my righteousness, is
to put one foot on a rock and the other foot in quicksand.
You think about that. To depend partly on Christ, and
partly on anything else, is to put one foot on a rock and the
other in quicksand. And you know what will happen.
Either Christ will be all, or he'll be nothing at all. He's
the author and finisher of our faith. He's the Alpha and Omega.
He's the beginning and the end. It's Christ, the eternal surety,
and Christ, the eternal King, and all in between. We're complete
in Him. He is unto us wisdom. Without
Him, we're ignorant. Righteousness. Without Him, we're
unclean. Sanctification. Without Him, we're unholy. Redemption. Without Him, we're lost. Fourthly,
in the gospel, Christ is presented freely. The gift of God, the
wages of sin is death, I earn condemnation, I earn judgment,
that's mine, I got a right to it. Old Barnard was preaching
one time, we were somewhere in a meeting and he's preaching
away, I never will forget this, and he said, God doesn't owe
you anything! And he stopped and he said, yes
he does too, I take that back. God does owe you something. And
you've got a right to demand that he give it to you. You've
got a right to walk right up to God and say, God, I demand
you give me what I deserve. And he will. The wages of sin
is death. You've earned them. You've worked
for it. They're yours. God owes it to you. God owes
you every lashing of the whip. And you demand that he give it
to you, but he doesn't owe you life, he doesn't owe you grace. The gift of God is eternal life. Now some of you have come through
a little party last night, you got your family around, had a
good time, we did, and you gave some things. How would you have
felt? Now you stop and think about
this a minute. When you gave your wife or sweetheart or friend
a present. And after you left, you found
that that person had put a bill in an envelope and slipped it
in your pocket and said, I didn't feel right taking that gift.
I want to give you something back for it, huh? Oh boy, that's
tough and that hurts. That's a gift. That's a gift. I gave it from the freedom and
the love and the joy of my heart. The gift of God's eternal life
in Christ. Don't insult God by bringing
your filthy rags in return, huh? Don't insult God by bringing
your prayers, or bringing your works, or bringing your loyalty,
or bringing anything else! We're not saved to serve, we
serve because we're saved. Christ is free. The believer
lays hold on Christ with an empty hand. When that person brought
you that gift and reached it out, you didn't put anything
in your hand. You reached out with an empty
hand. They laid the gift in your hand. That's the way we receive
Christ. The believer receives Christ as a gift, not a wage,
not a reward. The believer comes to Christ
like the prodigal son came home, broke, bankrupt, homesick. Now, fifthly, in the gospel,
Christ is presented freely. In the gospel, Christ is presented
personally. Now, I want you to listen to
this, personally. This is where most people miss
the gospel, right here. Are you with me? Brother Mews
said, don't move a hand or a hair. Some of you don't have a whole
lot of hair, so you won't have any trouble, you know. But don't move a hand
or a hair, right here. This is where most people miss
the gospel. First the person, then the privilege. God first gives his Son, and
then with him he gives us all things. God first gives his Son,
and then as a consequence of that gift, He gives us all things in Christ. First the person, then the privilege.
First the blessed Redeemer, and then the benefits. Now watch
this, Romans 8.32. Now come over here, Romans 8.32. Now, when a woman marries a man,
when a woman marries, she doesn't marry the portion, she doesn't
marry the portion or the inheritance, she marries the man. With him
she gets the portion. She first takes the person. She
first takes the person. She takes his name, takes him,
and with him comes the blessing. With him comes the inheritance,
with him comes the portion, with him comes the care, with him
comes the security, with him comes the provision. She can't
have the provision or the security or the inheritance first. She
takes the person. Listen to Romans 8, 32. He that
spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him? freely give us all things. Are you with me? Well, I don't
want to go to hell. I'd like to go to heaven, so
I'll just accept Jesus. No, you won't either. You're
putting the cart before the horse. You're driving a bargain with
God. You're making an exchange. You're
taking Christ in order of that. That wouldn't be very pleasing
to a man who loved you, ladies, for you to marry him for what
you could get out of him. That's not pleasing to God. First it's
the person, and then it's the privilege. First it's the Redeemer,
and then it's the redemption. First it is the Son, and then
it is the glory. First it is the grace, and then
it is the inheritance. That's where most folks miss
it. That's where they miss it. All right, Christ is available.
He's presented in the gospel in that fashion, in that fashion. And whosoever will, let him take
that Savior, that water of life, those who seek him. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. But let us not be mistaken as
to what saving faith is, and I give you four or five, I beg
your pardon, five characteristics and I close. Saving faith. What is this saving faith that
embraces a person? That lays hold on a person? Christ
lays hold on us by his Spirit, we lay hold on him by faith.
Christ indwells us by his Spirit, we dwell in him by faith. Without
faith, it's impossible to please God. He that cometh to God must
believe. I can hold out no hope for anyone
who does not have faith. Well, first of all, saving faith
knows who Christ is. That's the first mark of saving
faith. He knows who Christ is. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. Our Lord said, This is eternal
life, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast sent. By the illumination of the Holy
Spirit, then, we know who Christ is, and we know what Christ is. In order to receive him as the
Lord our righteousness, we must know who he is, the very God
of very God. And those who do not know his
person do not take Christ. You cannot call upon one in whom
you don't believe. You can't believe in one of whom
you haven't heard. You've got to know who he is.
I know thee. Whom do men say that I am? All
these things. Whom do you say that I am? Thou
art the Christ. We believe and are sure that
thou art the Christ. Christ as a man saves no woman. Christ is the God-man. You know
him as the God-man. Christ as a good man saves no
one, as a healer saves no one. Is that the way you know him?
Christ as the divine Son of God, God in Christ, God incarnate,
God in human flesh, perfect God, perfect man, he saves all who
believe. Christ as the divine substitute,
seeing Now watch this, seeing, and I'm not talking about with
these eyes, I'm talking about comprehending with the eyes of
the soul and the mind. Seeing is inseparably connected
with believing. Job said, I've heard of you by
the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes seeeth thee. And yet
God didn't appear to Job, he spoke to Job. But when he spoke
to Job, he revealed himself. He told Job who he was. He said,
Have you entered the treasures of the snow? Have you entered
this, that and the other? Do you have knowledge of this?
I'm the one that does all this. And Job said, I've heard of you,
but now might I see of thee. Seeing is inseparably connected
with believing. Turn to John 6.40 and see if
this is not true. In John 6.40, seeing who Christ
is, what Christ came to do, why he came to do it, that God might
be just and justify the ungodly. I've got to have some understanding
who he is before I can believe on him. In John 6, verse 40,
this is the will of him that sent me, that every one that
seeth the Son and believeth on him. That means those folks back there
in his day would have an advantage, because they actually saw him
in the flesh, but they didn't believe. And that's all they
saw, they saw the flesh. They said, this is Jesus, we
know him, this is the carpenter, this is the son of Joseph and
Mary. They didn't see him. They saw a form, they saw a body. And that's all people see in
these pictures. These pictures, so-called pictures of Christ,
they see a flesh, they see a form, they see a body. These statues
of Christ, these crucifixes with Christ on the cross, you don't
see anything there. No, sir. He that seeth the Son,
the man with the advantage is the man to whom our Lord said,
Blessed are your eyes, they see, and your ears, they hear. But
flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, my Father revealed
it. It's eyes of the soul and eyes of faith. Look at John 6,
45. It's written in the prophets, and they shall be taught of God.
Taught what of God? God teaches men of Christ. Every
man that hath learned of the Father cometh to me. Seeing is
inseparably connected with believing. Learning is inseparably connected
with coming to Christ. You can't come to him if you
haven't learned of him. Some of you may wonder why somebody
says, No, don't preach doctrine. Just preach Jesus. You can't
preach Christ without preaching doctrine. There's a way to preach it. You
can preach it in such a way that it's so dry and dead and cold
and intellectual that nobody knows what you're talking about
and you don't either. But when you preach Christ, you've got
to preach who he is and where he came from and why he came
and what he came to do and where he is now. Because a man can't
trust him who doesn't know who he's trusting. All right? Secondly, saving faith
knows who Christ is. Secondly, saving faith rests
completely and entirely on the Word of God. Don't miss this. It's impossible for the soul
and the heart to receive and embrace what the mind doesn't
know and agree with as true and certain. Can't do it. It's impossible. Look at that
again now. Saving faith rests on the Word of God, not on Church
tradition. Well, this is the way I used
to get this up in Michigan all the time. This is the way we
do it in our circles. They didn't say this is the way
the script, you remember that, Don? They didn't say this is what
God says in his Word. This is what we do in our circles.
That makes it right because we do it in our circles, going around
in circles. That's about all it amounted
to also. It doesn't matter what you do in your circles. What
does God say? It's impossible for the soul
and the heart to receive and embrace what the mind doesn't
know and understand and agree with as truth. My soul embraces
this because I know it so. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. Look at 1 John 5, verse 9. If we receive the witness of
men, the witness of God is greater. Verse 10, "...he that believeth
on the Son hath the witness in himself, he that believeth not,
God hath made him a liar." Why? Because he hasn't believed the
record that God hath given concerning his Son. This is the record.
These things are written that you might believe on the name
of the Son of God, and that believing on Christ you may have life.
That's why these things are written. That's why the written John,
chapter 20, verse 31, says that true faith rests on the Word
of God in an unquestionable, certain, infallible manner. I'm
not infallible, but this is. The believing heart is satisfied
with the Word of God. Let me tell you something. The first crumblings of the dam,
the first crumblings of the dyke, are when Satan comes in his subtle
way, like he did to Eve. Did you see that last night in
the Bible or the other night? Hath God said, You shall not
eat of every tree? God does know when you eat of
the tree, you'll be like God. He put a question mark on God's
And when that subtle, crafty ambassador of hell comes to you
and begins to put a question mark on this book, your faith
is scuttled. You're on your way. There's no
way to come back. It's irreprovable. Irreparable
when he questions this book. He can come and he can challenge
anything and not shake me. But when he puts a doubt in my
mind on this, I'm done for, Cecil. That's the end of the road. That's
the end of the road. I've got nowhere else to turn.
Nothing else, nothing else, nothing else is eternal. He said, Heaven
and earth will pass away, my word, forever. The glory of man
is as the grass of the field, it withers and dies and fades
away. The Word of God endures forever.
And if I don't have this, I don't have anything. That's right. Not one thing in this world. And that's where he starts. That's
where he starts. Hath God said. Is that what he
said? All right, the third thing, saving
faith. Knows who Christ is. Rests on
the Word. Thirdly, saving faith embraces
Christ. Whether, watch it now, a sincere
love. Don't, don't, please, under God,
before God, for the sake of your soul, don't make a pretense of
love in Christ. He said, you call me Lord with
your lips, with your hearts, all your hearts are far from
me. 1 Peter 2, verse 7, turn over there, 1 Peter 2, verse
7, listen to this. unto you, therefore which believe."
He is precious. He is precious. I tell you, when Christ becomes
precious to you, his word will become precious to you. His will,
his people, his purpose, when he becomes precious, When Christ
becomes precious to you, you'll be willing to take up your cross
and follow him and forsake all others and turn from your idol
when he becomes precious. When he becomes precious, no
one has to worry about you departing from the faith because you've
embraced him for time and eternity. You've found the pearl of great
price. You've found the altogether lovely
one. You've found the fairest among
ten thousand. You've found the sovereign of
your soul. He's precious. Saving Faith embraces Christ
as precious. Oh, many are valuable, but He's
precious. Many are important, but He's
precious. Many we need, but He's precious. His name shall be called
Wonderful! Wonderful. And fourthly, Saving
Faith is the consent and choice of the will, my will. My will. I will. Now, stay with me. Our Lord charged
the unbelieving world with being unwilling to come to him. He
said, You will not come to me. And we won't. Our wills keep
us from Christ. You would not. He said, How oft
would I have gathered you unto myself, or the hen doth gather
her brood? But you would not. This is condemnation. Light is coming to this world,
but men love darkness. They hate light because their
deeds are evil. If you watch that movie, The
Bible, you saw that how under every dispensation man is failed.
No matter what condition, man fails. Back there in that garden,
perfect, immaculate, unchangeable, eternal glory. Put man in there. And man, he had a rebellion. Brought him outside the garden,
gave him a way of life, promised a Messiah, two sons, Cain and
Abel. God said, bring a blood sacrifice,
bring a lamb. Salvation is by the blood. Without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission. King, he's not
going to bring blood. He's going to bring fruit of
the field. The whole world is steeped in
iniquity and unrighteousness. So God says to a man called Noah,
you found grace in Messiah, you and your three sons and their
three wives. Brought them through a devastating flood that destroyed
the whole world. Noah stepped off the ark, gave
thanks to God, built an altar, planted a vineyard, got drunk.
Him and his wife got drunk, caused their son Ham to sin. Yet Ham had seen all these things,
looked like he'd had sense enough to know that there's a God and
that God has certain regulations and rules by which people walk,
but man can't walk by God's rules, because he hates God's rules.
go through the whole scripture, I don't care. Even the angels
kept not their first estate. No creature has ever endured
or lived in obedience to God's law. No matter how much God pours
blessings upon the creature, the creature is going to rebel. If you ever just pick up a David
on the throne, he could have anything he wanted, but he wanted
what he couldn't have. So they won't come. How is God
going to have a willing people? Turn to Psalm 110. So what God
has to do is make us willing. Psalm 110. Thy people shall be
willing. Willing to what? Willing to embrace
Christ. I don't find a total willingness
to obey God's law, I wish I did, but I find a willingness to receive
God's provisions and God's righteousness and God's substitute. Thy people
shall be willing. Thy people shall be willing.
Saving faith is the will to come to Christ. This is the grand
design of effectual grace to make his people willing. Our
Lord will not have an unwilling people. Our Lord will not take
unto himself an unwilling bride. Paul said, I preached the gospel
and you received it. If thou shalt confess with thine
mouth Jesus to be Lord and believe in thine heart God hath raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. The Holy Spirit gives
enabling grace But the Holy Spirit does not
believe for us. He enables us to believe, but
we believe. He makes us willing. Now listen to this. And I can't
explain the mysteries of the gospel. God will have to reveal
them to you. But that door of that arch stayed open seven days.
And all who were outside that arch were welcome, welcome to
come in if they wanted to. But there was only one man and
his family who wanted to come in. And God said, Noah, come
thou and thy house into the ark. And he went in willingly, willingly. The rest of them stayed out willingly.
The same thing is true right now. You find any person in this
world, and I'll say to him, will you come to Christ? Will you
receive the Son of God? Will you bow to Christ? Will
you crown Christ King? Will you bow to his Lordship?
Will you receive him as your Redeemer and your substitute
and your only hope? You will, God'll save you. God'll
save you. Yes, he will. All right, five,
and I close. Saving faith sees the wisdom
of God and the righteousness of God in the gospel. I see,
knowing my sin, I see the wisdom of God's covenant grace. I never
would have chosen him if he hadn't chosen me. I never would have sought him
if he hadn't sought me. I never would have accepted him
if he hadn't accepted me. I see the wisdom. 1 Corinthians
1. Knowing, listen, knowing the
holiness of God, I see the wisdom of the perfect life of the Son
of God. God's law has to be honored. Now, God's holy, and his law
must be honored. It must be kept. Who shall stand
in his presence? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity." That's
the only way you can stand in God's presence. His perfect holiness
would consume any taint of sin or spot of iniquity. God said,
Moses, even Moses, you can't look on me and live. My very presence, my immaculate,
immutable, eternal, majestic, spotless holiness would melt
you if you turned with those eyes of sin and looked upon me." People talk about seeing the
Lord, the Lord appearing to them. I'll tell you this, if the presence
of God ever in his immaculate, eternal holiness ever appeared
to you, it would burn you to a cinder because of your evil
iniquity. When God appeared to men in the
Old Testament, he appeared in the form of a man. That's right. Christ came down here as a man.
God was in Christ, clothed in the likeness of sinful flesh,
or nobody could have looked on him. When God appeared to Abraham,
it was in the form of an angel, in the form of a man. Melchizedek
met Abraham, a man met Abraham, not God. God was in the man. You don't do business with Elohim,
you do business with Jehovah Savior. So knowing the holiness of God,
I see the wisdom of his perfect life. And knowing the justice
of God, I see the wisdom of his cross. Look at 1 Corinthians
1.18. The preaching of the cross is
to them that perish, foolishness. But unto us who are saved, it's
the power of God. I see it. Do you see it? Look
down at verse 23. We preach Christ crucified unto
the Jews, a stumbling block unto the Greeks, foolishness. But
unto those which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the Power of God and the wisdom of God. I see the wisdom of God
in sending Christ into this world to walk in human flesh and to
obey the law and to go to the cross and die and be buried and
rise again and ascend to intercede. I see God's wisdom in that. I
see that's the only way God could save men. I see that's the only
way God could impute to me a perfect righteousness is for a man to
do in the flesh what I couldn't do. I see the only way that Almighty
God, his justice can be satisfied, he can be just and justify me,
is for a perfect man to die under his judgment and wrath and condemnation,
bearing my sins in his body, so that God can set me free and
still be God. I see the wisdom in that. And
I rejoice that he did. Saving faith. Our Father in Heaven,
for every promise of the book which is precious, the promises
of Christ, for him in his person who is precious, and for this
blessed faith in Christ, of which Christ is the life which is precious,
we give thee thanks. Who am I, Lord, and what is my
house? Who are we to be called thy people? to be partakers of that precious
person, thy blessed Son. Make us thankful. Make us aware
of thy mercies and blessings to a greater extent with each
passing day. Help us to be faithful to him
who called us. In his name we pray. Amen.

A Careful Look at Saving Faith

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A Careful Look at Saving Faith

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