Saving Faith

I want to speak to you today
on the subject, Saving Faith. Now, I believe this message will
be very helpful to many of you. I preached this message some
time ago, and a person said that it was of more help to them on
the subject of faith than any sermon they'd ever heard in all
their life. Now, I want you to listen carefully.
If you have your Bibles, you may open them to the book of
Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 8 and 9. in which Paul wrote, for by
grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Now
in dealing with the subject, saving faith, I want to talk
about three questions. First of all, what is saving
faith? And then, why is faith the channel
of salvation. Why did God decree that faith
should be the channel of salvation? And then the third question we'll
be dealing with is how may I obtain saving faith? Now that's the
subject, for by grace are you saved through faith. What is
faith? Why is it the channel of salvation,
and how may I obtain saving faith? But before we answer these questions
about faith, one thing needs to be emphatically emphasized
and clearly understood. One thing needs to be strongly
emphasized, and that is that the fountainhead of salvation
is the grace of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith. The fountainhead of salvation
is the grace of God. We are saved, we are forgiven,
we are pardoned, we are made sons of God by God's grace. saved, not by faith, but by grace,
through faith. We are saved because God is gracious. That's the reason we have eternal
life. It is the gift of God. Faith is the gift of God, as
well as eternal life is the gift of God. Now listen to Romans
6.23. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 John 5.11, this is the
record. God hath given us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son. The river of salvation, the river
of life flows from the throne of God. God is the fountainhead
of all salvation. It comes from him. Whatever we
have by way of faith, life, pardon, forgiveness, is the gift of God. Paul says that in Titus 3, not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
his mercy he has saved us. So it is because of God's grace
that we have eternal life, that we have salvation. That needs
to be clearly understood. And then secondly, it is because
Christ died for our sins that we are forgiven. We must not
make a Savior out of faith. Christ is the Savior. Faith is
not the Savior. Faith didn't die for us. Faith
doesn't intercede for us. Faith doesn't pardon us. We are
saved by the grace of God. It is because Christ our Lord,
as our substitute, took our sins in his body and died on the cross,
that we have eternal life. Peter said that in 1 Peter 1.18.
You know you are not redeemed with corruptible things such
as silver and gold. from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ. Christ is the Savior. It is Christ's
work that redeems us, pardons us, and gives us eternal life. That needs to be clearly understood. Faith is not the Savior. Christ
is the Savior, and we're saved by his grace. But now watch this. Faith is the channel. Faith is
the means. through which we receive these
spiritual blessings. They come from God. He's the
source of grace. He's the source of mercy. He's
the source of forgiveness. It's because He's gracious that
I'm pardoned and not condemned. It is because He's gracious that
I'm forgiven and not punished. It is because Christ died for
me. He took my place on the cross and paid my debt. And because
He suffered as my substitute, I won't have to suffer He's the
source of life. But we're saved by grace through
faith. Faith is the means or channel
by which we receive those blessings. Now let me see if I can illustrate
that. Electricity lights our homes. It is the electricity
that makes the bulbs burn. It's the electricity that makes
the stove hot. It's the electricity that makes
your iron work. But that electricity comes to
us through wires. The water in our homes meets
our needs. But that water comes to us through
the pipes. Now the pipes do not satisfy
or quench our thirst, the water does. But it comes to us through
the pipes. You see what I'm saying? Food
builds our bodies. But we eat that food through
our mouths, by chewing it and swallowing it. It's the only
way that the food has of getting into our bodies is through our
mouth. We receive it that way. But it's the food that builds
the body. So Christ is our peace. He is
our peace, but we receive him by faith. Christ is our righteousness. The Bible tells us that. He of
God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
He is our righteousness, but we receive him by faith. Christ
is our atonement, but it's faith that looks to him and receives
that atonement. So this clear note must be emphasized,
and I believe it's a missing note today. I believe it's a
missing note in present-day preaching, and it must be sounded loud and
clear. Two things. First of all, we
are saved by the grace of God. We are saved by grace. That's
what Paul says here in Ephesians 2.8 and 9. We are saved by the
grace of God. We are saved by the work of Christ. We are saved by the regenerating
power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God quickens
and gives us life. God is the Savior, Christ is
the Redeemer, and we are saved. These blessings come to us through
faith, never without faith. They never come without faith.
Our Lord said to his disciples, you go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. In Hebrews 11, verse 6, Paul
said, Without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh
to God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of
them that diligently seek him. So we've laid that foundation.
You remember, as we proceed through this message, it is by grace
that we are saved. Faith is not the Savior. Christ
is the Savior. Christ Jesus, our Lord, is the
source of all mercy. and of all grace, it comes from
the throne of God. Let us come boldly before his
throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, that we may obtain
mercy and grace to help in time of need. Now let's get to the
question. First of all, what is saving faith? What is saving
faith? There are many definitions of
faith. I've heard definitions of faith all my life, and unfortunately
Most of them leave us more confused than we were before. I hear people
say, well, have faith. And somebody else will come along
and say, well, keep the faith. And somebody else will come along
and say, well, just trust the Lord. And then someone else will
come along and say, well, only believe. But what is it to trust
the Lord? What is it to have faith? What
is it to believe? What is saving faith? Now, I
have made some studies of God's word and tried to preach the
gospel for about thirty years, and the best definition that
I have ever found of saving faith is a threefold definition. And
it's taken from Paul's statement in which he said this, I know
whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to
keep that which I committed unto him against that day." There
you have a definition of saving faith. First of all, faith is
made up of knowledge, confidence, and committal. That's the threefold
definition. Now, knowledge comes first in
saving faith. Would you listen a moment? Knowledge
comes first. You cannot believe what you don't
know. That's impossible. You cannot
trust a person whom you do not know. Paul said, I know whom
I have believed. I know him. He deals with this
again in Romans 10. Listen to this. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. We believe that,
don't we? Certainly we do. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. A person in misery, in sin, in
need, shall call genuinely, sincerely, humbly, on the name of Jesus
Christ shall be saved. But how shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? A man cannot believe in a person
whom he does not know. A man cannot believe a truth
that he has not heard. That's what Paul is saying here.
So there are two ways by which we come to know Christ, hearing
and seeing. Listen to the scripture, John
5.24, Our Lord said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath eternal
life. You can't believe until you hear.
And then over in Romans 10, 17, Paul said, Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. And John said in 1 John 5, These
things are written, that ye might believe on the name of the Son
of God, and believing ye might have life in him. You've got
to hear. Faith cometh by hearing. You've
got to hear of ruin by the fall before you'll understand the
extent of that ruin. You've got to hear of redemption
by the blood before you can understand how sinners are redeemed by the
blood. You've got to hear of a regenerating Holy Spirit before
you'll understand what the new birth is all about. Hearing,
hearing. You cannot believe in one of
whom you have not heard. That's the importance of preaching. That's the reason God has sent
forth prophets and apostles and evangelists and pastors and teachers,
that you might hear the word of God. and that you might believe. You've got to hear before you
can believe. And then seeing. Our Lord said in John 6.40, This
is the will of him that sent me, that every one that seeth
the sun, and believeth on him, might have eternal life. You
see these two things? He that heareth my word, and
believeth on me, hath everlasting life. He that seeth the sun,
and believeth on him, hath eternal life. Now we're not talking about
seeing the Lord with these eyes. We're not talking about seeing
the Lord in a bodily form. We're not talking about seeing
a vision at all. We're talking about eyes of faith.
Abraham saw my day, Christ said. He saw me. Moses saw me. He wrote of me. Isaiah saw him. He said he was wounded for our
transgression. That's before we ever came. They
saw with eyes of faith. And to talk about seeing Christ
We're talking about seeing him in his eternal glory. Before
the world was, he said, I had glory with the Father. We're
talking about seeing him in his incarnate glory. He came into
this world in the likeness of sinful flesh, was made sin for
us. And talking about seeing him
in his redeeming glory, seeing him there hanging on a cross
between heaven and earth, bearing our sins in his body on the tree. We're talking about seeing him
in his resurrected glory, in his interceding glory. We're
talking about seeing him in his coming glory. Eye hath not seen,
ear hath not heard. What's that talking about, Preacher?
Talking about the natural man, the unregenerate, talking about
the unspiritual. They have not seen his glory.
They have not seen his power, they have not seen his justice,
they have not seen his redemption and his holiness, they have not
seen these things. The natural eye can't see it.
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. So faith, first
of all, is made up of knowledge. You cannot trust him if you don't
know who he is, and you don't know what he did, and you don't
know why he did it. And you don't know where he is
now. You've got to know him. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. I know whom I have believed.
I know the person I'm trusting, believing in, resting in, hoping
in. I'm trusting in Christ. And I
know who he is. I know he had eternal glory.
I know he had incarnate glory and resurrected glory. And I
know right now he's at the right hand of God interceding for me.
Where'd you find all that out, Paul? The Word of God. That's
where you find it. Secondly, faith is not only knowledge,
but after knowledge comes confidence. Now listen to Paul again. I know
whom I have believed. I've been introduced to him by
the Holy Spirit. I know him, and I am confident
that he is able to keep that which I've committed to him against
that day. Now what the ear hears and what
the eye sees, the heart believes. what the ear hears, having heard
who he is, having heard what he's done, having heard what
he's doing now for us, having heard why he did it, that God
might be just and justify the ungodly, having heard where he
is at the right hand of God, interceding for me, having heard
of his glory, of his effectual substitutionary work, I am confident,
I am persuaded beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is able to
do all that he said he would do. And he is able to do for
me what no one else can do. That's what the disciples said,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. There's no hope in the world.
There's no hope in fantasy. There's no hope in religion as
such. There's no hope in ourselves.
There's no hope in one another. There's hope in thee. There's
hope in thee. He's able to save to the uttermost
them that come to God by him. He is able to keep us from falling. He is able to present us before
his Father's righteous, holy throne without stain, without
sin, unblameable, holy. He is able to raise our bodies,
our vile bodies, Paul said in Philippians, and make them like
his glorious body. He's able. Now, that's two parts
of faith. It's to know it's to be confident
that he can do what he says, all that he promises. Thirdly,
it's a committal to Christ. I know whom I have believed,
and I am persuaded that he's able to keep that which I have
committed to him, committed to him. Now, my friends, the scripture
speaks of a two-fold committal to Christ, a two-fold And I want
you to listen carefully to this, this will help you. First of
all, it talks about a committal of the heart, and then a committal
of the vow. In Romans 10, verse 9 and 10,
that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord, and
believe in thine heart God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, And with the mouth, confession is made
unto salvation. First of all, there's a heart
committal. God does not look on the outward countenance, he
looks on the heart. And we might walk down all the
aisles in this country and shake the hands of all the preachers
and make open public professions of what we believe and what we're
going to do and all these other things, but if there's not a
heart committal to Christ, it's not worth the time that you take
to do it. The scripture says, keep thy heart, for out of it
are the issues of life. That's the first committal. Before
there's any public committal or mouth committal or profession,
there's got to be a heart committal to Christ. And that's something
that takes place between me and the Lord. You've got nothing
to do with that. You're not involved in that at
all. That's between me and Christ, a heart committal. It is to believe
in the heart, who he is and what he did. that God raised him from
the dead, that he's the only mediator between God and men.
And then it's to confess with the mouth. Now, you say, well,
Preacher, how does a man make a public confession of faith
in Christ? The Bible's public confession
of faith in Christ was baptism. That's the way we publicly confess
Christ. You can take your New Testament
and go all the way through, and you'll find all of these people
who heard the gospel and who believed the gospel were gladly
baptized. Now, baptism is identification
with Christ. It is going beneath the water
and being brought out of the water, saying this, When Christ
died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried.
And when he arose from the grave, I rose with him. It's identification
with Christ. It's confession of faith in Christ.
And you'll find the Philippian jailer was baptized, Cornelius,
the 8th Open Unit, Lydia, all of these people. followed the
Lord in baptism. That's the reason Christ said,
you go preach the gospel. And as you preach the gospel,
the gospel is good news. You preach the gospel to sinners.
Preach it to all creatures, Jew and Gentile, black and white,
old and young, rich and poor. Preach it to every creature.
And those who hear it, they hear the good news of Christ. They
hear it with their They know they are sinners and they know
they have broken God's law and they were thin in every point
and come short of the glory of God. They are not able to save
themselves, they are not able to put away their sins, they
are not able to write their name in the book of life. They are
not able to do those things. There is no hope, there is no
help. They are without God in this world. And to hear this
good news that God gave his Son in human flesh to be our representative
to face the law as a man, be tempted and tried in all points
as we are, yet without sin. He lived a perfect life, bone
of our bone, flesh of our flesh, in the likeness of our flesh
on this earth. He met every law, the law of
the home, the judicial law, the ceremonial law, the moral law,
every law, and he did it all without sin. Then he went to
the cross of Calvary and there he bore our sins in his body
on the tree. that Almighty God might be just
and pardon folks like us, that our sin debt might be paid, that
our guilt might be put away, and he was buried as our scapegoat,
and he rose again, our justifier, and he ascended to the right
hand of the Father, where right now he is our mediator. And I
hear that, and in my heart I say, that's it, that's it. That's
what the Bible teaches, that's what God said. That's the only
way that a guilty sinner can be accepted by a holy God, is
for somebody as a man to do for him what he couldn't do for himself.
And I believe that. And so then I confess it. I say
to my family and to my friends, I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. I believe that Jesus Christ died
on the cross for my sins. I believe that Jesus Christ was
buried and rose again for my justification. I believe that
Jesus Christ right now is on the right hand of God, interceding
for me. I believe that. Well, how am I going to confess
it? I go to the baptismal waters, and there I go down beneath the
water, dead to the old life, dead to the old way, and I rise
to walk in newness of life with my crowned King, with my resurrected
Lord. And I want the whole world to
know, this is my hope, this is my refuge, this is my foundation,
Christ died for me. Now you say, well, why is faith
the channel of blessing? Why did God choose this way to
save sinners, by grace through faith? You know, any time we
deal with why did God do something, we have to be careful. We have
to be modest and humble and approach it with great, exceeding caution.
But I want to give you three reasons why I believe that faith
is the channel of blessing. The first one is this, because
it gives all the glory to God. Now, that's why. There can be
no human boasting by those who have received forgiveness and
pardon as a The pauper, the hand that receives charity, cannot
boast. And it's not of works, lest any
man should boast. That's what Paul said. And we
would, we'd boast if we could. If we made a contribution to
the salvation of our souls, we'd brag about it. They'd never hear
the last of it in heaven. We'd brag about what we did for
God and what we gave up for Jesus and what we sacrificed for eternal
life. So it's by faith, not of works,
lest any man should boast. He that gloweth, let him glow
in the Lord. God's going to have all the glory for saving sinners.
Secondly, faith is the channel of blessing in order that all
whom desire might be welcomed. All. Now, my friend, you can't
keep the perfect law, can you? But you can believe. My friend,
you cannot satisfy God's justice, can you? God's perfect, holy,
immaculate justice. No, you can't. But you can believe.
I'm saying you can't write your name in the book of life, can
you? But you can believe. There is no condition, there
is no position from which I cannot believe. When those people were
bitten by the fiery serpents out in the wilderness, Moses
lifted up the brazen serpent, and what did he say to do? Walk
to it, run to it, draw a diagram of it, figure out all the things
about it? No. A four-letter word and two of
them are just alike, L-double-O-K. Anybody can look. You can look.
You can turn your eyes on Jesus. You can believe. And that's the
reason it's about faith, so that it opens the door of mercy to
all who will come. And then thirdly, faith is a
channel of grace because it brings me into union with Christ. If
a man is floating down the Niagara River and he's headed for the
Falls, the Falls of He can grab a log or a board or a boat or
anything else and he'll just go on over, because those things
are out there in the same shape he's in. And if I trust my Church
membership and trust my good works and trust all these other
things, I'm going to perish with them, because they're all flesh.
But if somebody throws me a rope from the shore and I grab that
rope, I'm not going to perish unless he does, because he's
stationed on the shore. He's stationed in a fixed position.
And when I hold that rope on one end and he holds it on the
other, he's got to perish if I perish. And when I believe
in Christ, who is in the fixed position at the right hand of
the Father, the position of power and love and acceptance and glory,
if by faith I can look to him and establish a union with him,
I can't perish unless he does. That secures me in Christ. How
is it to be obtained, saving faith? Well, I urge you to look
to the word of God. God will bless his word. Forsake
tradition and customs and ceremonies and all these things. Let God
speak to you. Let God speak to you. And pray
for faith. The disciples did. Lord, they
said, increase our faith. And thirdly, let this be a matter
between you and God. Sue for mercy. Cry out, Lord,
you save me or I perish. Don't get somebody in between. These messages can be obtained
by writing to me. They are on cassette tapes. There'll
be a small charge, but we'd like you to have them. Join us next
week at this same time. Until then, Henry Mahan, bidding
you a very pleasant, good day.

Saving Faith

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Saving Faith

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