Dale Partridge - March 14, 2023


Do You Have a LIVING Faith？ - Dale Partridge


Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

161.94382

Word count

1,764

Sentence count

134

Harmful content

Hate speech

12

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, Pastor Ken teaches on the role of faith and works in the New Testament and why they are mutually exclusive in the eyes of the Old Testament and how they can be seen in relation to the promises of God.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.080 The Bible does speak of a broader promise
00:00:03.760 that has to do similar to this covenant with Abraham.
00:00:07.800 And it's an inheritance that extends
00:00:10.160 beyond the land of Canaan.
00:00:12.320 In the New Testament, for example, 0.94
00:00:13.340 Jesus teaches that the meek shall inherit the earth. 0.99
00:00:16.060 That's Matthew 5.5. 1.00
00:00:18.480 And in the book of Revelation,
00:00:19.560 it's written that God's people will reign with Christ
00:00:22.320 on the earth.
00:00:23.320 That's Revelation 5.10.
00:00:25.280 That is that the promised land of the Israelites
00:00:28.340 was the foreshadow of the promised land to the Church. I'm going to say that again. I want you
00:00:34.340 to understand that. The promised land of the Israelites was a foreshadow of the promised land
00:00:39.700 to the Church. They inherited Canaan and the Church will inherit the earth. They conquered 0.66
00:00:46.500 Canaan by God's power. We will conquer the earth by Christ's gospel. And so when you think about 0.92
00:00:53.860 how all these wars that were happening in the Old Testament
00:00:57.480 and they were coming into these different lands
00:01:00.660 and they were inheriting vineyards that they did not plant
00:01:05.720 and wells that they did not dig
00:01:08.140 and fields that they did not cultivate
00:01:11.100 and buildings that they did not build.
00:01:13.360 When God was giving them all these things,
00:01:15.980 they were inheriting these things by God's power.
00:01:18.340 Every time they stopped having faith in God,
00:01:21.580 they would lose these battles.
00:01:22.820 but every time they would win, it was because they had faith in God. And God was essentially
00:01:27.440 having them conquer through his power physically. Now, in the New Testament, we see that God is
00:01:36.720 conquered the serpent. The serpent crusher has essentially crushed the head of the serpent.
00:01:42.160 And he is our general. And by his gospel, now God is conquering, not through physical war,
00:01:49.120 but he's conquering his enemies through conversion.
00:01:52.220 He's actually converting people to the gospel.
00:01:55.340 And now it started with 12 guys.
00:01:57.120 Now it's 36% of the world population
00:01:59.320 professes to follow Christ.
00:02:00.920 We have millions upon millions upon millions of Christians
00:02:03.460 that are converting all across the world.
00:02:05.540 And that number has never gotten smaller.
00:02:08.260 It's only gotten bigger.
00:02:09.780 And Jesus is essentially,
00:02:11.140 because all authority has been given to him
00:02:12.500 in heaven on earth and the gates of hell
00:02:14.360 will not prevail against the church. 0.75
00:02:15.680 We can trust that the church will continue to conquer. 0.64
00:02:18.400 and we will inherit that promised land
00:02:21.080 in the same way that the Old Testament saints did.
00:02:24.680 We will inherit the earth.
00:02:26.400 Obviously, none of it's by our power.
00:02:28.160 None of it's by the church.
00:02:29.060 We are the body of Christ.
00:02:30.160 He is the head of the church
00:02:31.280 and we are going by Christ's power.
00:02:33.600 But the central point that Paul is trying to make
00:02:36.120 is really in regards to how Abraham and his descendants
00:02:41.240 would be heirs to these promises of inheriting the earth
00:02:43.900 or numerous as the stars,
00:02:46.540 these promises in the Old Testament to the covenant of Abraham. He wants them to see that
00:02:51.760 the heirs are not going to receive the substance of the promises through obedience to the law,
00:02:57.440 but through faith. That the channel, essentially, the river or the channel by which we receive the
00:03:03.420 material promises of God come by faith. That's what it is. And so Paul goes on to cross-examine
00:03:10.280 the alternative position. If you didn't agree with what I just said, he cross-examines that
00:03:15.920 In verse 14, it says,
00:03:18.680 for if those who are of the law are heirs,
00:03:21.260 faith is made void and the promise is nullified.
00:03:23.320 For the law brings about wrath,
00:03:25.400 but where there is no law, there is also no violation.
00:03:28.720 So in other words, if obedience to the law
00:03:30.320 is the means to obtain the substance
00:03:33.900 of the promise to Abraham,
00:03:36.060 then faith is worthless because,
00:03:39.900 and I would even say the promise would be repealed
00:03:41.980 because the promise, as we clearly see,
00:03:45.320 in Genesis rests on faith and not on works.
00:03:48.760 And that's the point that Paul is trying to make.
00:03:50.180 Essentially, Paul is showing that the faulty,
00:03:51.980 there's faulty logic here.
00:03:53.060 It doesn't function according to the testimony
00:03:55.600 of the Old Testament.
00:03:56.840 And I believe that Paul also is guarding against the idea
00:04:01.600 of blending faith and works together.
00:04:05.080 And I think this is important to talk about. 0.88
00:04:07.100 He wants to demonstrate how they are mutually exclusive paths
00:04:11.280 to the promise or to inheriting the substance
00:04:14.280 of the promise.
00:04:15.420 And so the law, what does the law do?
00:04:17.600 It tells us about our sin and it brings about God's wrath.
00:04:21.600 It's the means of exposing and condemning our sins.
00:04:24.140 That's what the law does.
00:04:26.160 Faith on the other side brings about grace
00:04:30.960 because it's the means by which we receive the substance
00:04:33.900 of the promise of the covenant.
00:04:35.880 And so there are two mutually exclusive paths
00:04:39.100 that are happening here.
00:04:39.940 Paul is teaching that the promises of God
00:04:42.080 are strictly by faith.
00:04:43.720 It's not a blend of faith and works.
00:04:45.900 You don't keep yourself saved
00:04:47.240 by maintaining your obedience to the law.
00:04:50.020 And a lot of people operate that way even today.
00:04:54.140 No, it's inherited strictly by faith.
00:04:57.200 If the first can only deliver condemnation towards sinners,
00:05:01.040 which all are sinners,
00:05:02.980 then the second is the only valid option.
00:05:05.580 For example, imagine you just traveled
00:05:07.520 to a foreign country, you wanted to get dinner,
00:05:10.760 and you're about to pay for the check,
00:05:12.320 and you attempt to pay for your meal with the wrong currency.
00:05:16.680 No matter how much money you have, it's not the correct currency
00:05:19.780 and you're not going to be able to satisfy the bill.
00:05:22.780 If it's, you know, 10 euros and you got $5 and you got five euros,
00:05:27.300 it's not going to be sufficient to cover the expense.
00:05:31.260 You can't pay that way.
00:05:32.820 You strictly need euros.
00:05:35.020 You don't need dollars and euros.
00:05:37.320 You need euros.
00:05:38.560 And Paul's making the same point.
00:05:40.080 In order to receive the blessings of God,
00:05:41.360 you don't need work and faith. You strictly need faith. And again, that doesn't mean that we don't
00:05:46.940 work as Christians. We do. It simply means that our works are not the means of procuring the promise
00:05:51.620 of God in this covenant. And it was R.C. Sproul who famously said, quote, we are saved by faith
00:05:58.480 alone, but the faith that saves is never alone, end quote. Ultimately, Christians have blurred 0.98
00:06:05.500 the lines in many cases between works and faith. And they don't understand the distinction. And as 1.00
00:06:13.220 a result, they have a distorted relationship with God. They start working to try to earn God's favor
00:06:18.700 or to make them maybe more secure in their salvation. They don't understand that they're
00:06:23.140 resting. They need to be resting solely on faith. And that is the thing that means by
00:06:29.760 making someone righteous. It's the channel by which the righteousness of Christ is given to
00:06:35.480 us. And it's important to constantly remind people about these distinctions between these
00:06:42.140 two works and faith. Faith is a gracious gift of God. It's how we receive the promises and
00:06:47.720 blessings of God. Works are the fruit of faith, but they don't secure justification or the
00:06:54.040 substance of the promises, okay? Our faith establishes our relationship with God. It's
00:06:59.700 the means that reconciles us to God, because through that faith, we receive the righteousness
00:07:05.640 of Christ, making us righteous before God, being able to be reconciled to him. But our works
00:07:13.560 demonstrate the vitality of that faith or the vitality of that relationship. Vitality, I mean,
00:07:20.480 is it alive? Do you have living faith? Do you have the true faith that's a gift of God? If you've 0.89
00:07:26.180 been born again. You've been given the gift of faith. You will never fall away because it's not
00:07:30.200 you that sustains that faith. It's God that sustains that faith. He who began a good work
00:07:34.840 in you will finish it. Jesus is the author and finisher of your faith. So if our faith is real,
00:07:40.240 the works will be abundant. If our faith is false, the works will be flat. Ultimately,
00:07:46.080 by keeping faith and works in their proper place, what you do is you get a beautiful reality here.
00:07:52.060 You avoid both the dangers of legalism on one side, and you also avoid the antinomianism on the other side. So the legalism is that you earn your justification by works, and antinomianism is separating obedience from faith.
00:08:08.880 And so we need both. We don't want to have faith and no obedience and righteous living
00:08:13.540 because that would be no fruit. And we don't want to have legalism, which says that you do certain
00:08:19.500 things and those things are the things that make you justified before God. And so the distinction
00:08:23.660 between faith and works is absolutely essential. In the end, Paul points out that faith 0.90
00:08:31.160 is the means to the promise. This is how God's people will receive the substance of those
00:08:39.340 promises. And if faith is the way, don't put your hope in works. Have works, rest in faith,
00:08:51.640 work from faith. But whatever you do, don't turn from faith, right? Faith is something that,
00:08:57.420 Again, God gives you, but you rest in that is what I'm talking about. Rest in that faith.
00:09:03.120 Don't turn from the rest that can be found only in faith. Don't think that God is essentially
00:09:11.320 condemning you based off of if you've sinned. No, that sin was already paid for. And you can rest
00:09:18.180 in the righteousness of Christ. And yes, you should have works. These works are designed
00:09:24.280 to please God. So we can please God when we're saved. Now, if you're not saved, your good works
00:09:31.540 are like filthy rags to God. They don't even matter. You're all condemned because you're in
00:09:36.520 sin. You have no righteousness through faith. And so when you're sitting there as a Christian,
00:09:42.040 you go, why have good works? Well, your motive needs to be to please God. It's not to justify
00:09:48.360 yourself or to keep yourself saved. It's so that God might be pleased with you. And he's not pleased
00:09:53.580 necessarily with your good works because you did them.
00:09:58.400 All the good works that you do is Christ in you,
00:10:02.360 the Holy Spirit's conviction on your heart,
00:10:04.440 producing good works through you.
00:10:06.040 So you can't even boast in your own good works
00:10:08.020 because the only reason you're doing these good things
00:10:10.340 is by the Holy Spirit.
00:10:11.680 And so this is why we can say,
00:10:12.800 for from him and through him and to him
00:10:15.040 are all things for him be the glory forever and ever.
00:10:18.620 Amen.
00:10:23.580 We'll be right back.