Dale Partridge - April 01, 2020


Real Christianity #91: What is biblical faith and do you have it?


Episode Stats


Length

29 minutes

Words per minute

161.16803

Word count

4,719

Sentence count

278

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.240 Hello and welcome. Today we're going to be discussing the idea of faith. Do you have
00:00:06.700 a biblical faith? Do you have a biblical understanding of faith? And with this coronavirus
00:00:12.980 pandemic that is around the globe right now, we have a unique opportunity that the awareness
00:00:19.020 of our mortality is being amplified and the gospel has fertile ground right now. And I
00:00:29.060 it's an important discussion that we have today about faith if you can't understand faith you
00:00:35.380 definitely can't communicate faith jc ryle once said health is a good thing but sickness is far
00:00:43.940 better if it leads us to god again we have this really unique platform it's almost as if christians
00:00:51.540 are standing on a stage with a crowd of people filled with worry and anxiety and depression
00:00:57.700 and confusions. And Christians have the only answer for hope and peace and calmness and joy
00:01:05.980 in the midst of these trials. So we have a unique opportunity before us. And that hope and that
00:01:11.100 peace only comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ. We know that. But sadly, again, I don't expect
00:01:19.160 that everybody can communicate the gospel as clear as they might think. And so today, I think we
00:01:24.540 really should look at the mechanics of the gospel and the mechanics of faith so that we can
00:01:30.680 communicate them more effectively to those that are listening to us. I want to start with the idea
00:01:37.820 of definitions. I really do believe that definitions matter. In fact, sloppy definitions
00:01:44.600 lead to sloppy theology and sloppy theology leads to really poor life application. And so when you
00:01:52.160 don't have something right from the beginning, it might not seem that off here, but as you go
00:01:58.100 forward, it can really put us a way off our mark as you go down the road. And so I'll give you a
00:02:05.960 few examples. As you know, if we define love as an intense feeling of affection, then telling your
00:02:12.880 alcoholic sister that she can't come to your house until she quits drinking isn't going to seem
00:02:18.720 loving to her, and her response back to you might actually cause you to retract your rule because 0.97
00:02:26.980 it doesn't align with that definition of love. So definitions are critical. If sin is defined as
00:02:35.340 wrongdoing, then someone might say that you sinned for preaching the gospel in a place that it's
00:02:41.120 illegal to do so. Someone might say that you sinned by teaching your child that there are only
00:02:46.120 two genders. Or someone might say that you sinned because you are teaching people that abortion 0.71
00:02:52.340 isn't health care, but it's murder, right? So these are ideas that we have to really bring
00:02:57.640 clear definitions to. Definitions do matter. And the very concept of a false teacher,
00:03:04.540 when you think about the idea of a false teacher, the very concept of a false teacher is
00:03:08.340 built upon the concept of teaching ideas that are inaccurate to their definitions.
00:03:14.580 That's what a false teacher is.
00:03:16.480 So having biblical definitions is really critical.
00:03:21.200 We, as Christians, need to have certain words and terms clearly defined.
00:03:27.000 And that's, you know, words like love and hate and sin and peace and joy and conversion
00:03:33.540 and evangelism, atonement, baptism, truth, good.
00:03:37.480 All these things need to be determined by the Word of God.
00:03:41.020 And that's a really important process for the educated Christian.
00:03:45.780 And we know that it says the first commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
00:03:54.280 And sometimes we neglect that last piece too much.
00:03:57.560 And we need to spend the time educating ourselves on the definitions, the intellectual understanding of what these words mean and how they are to be applied to our life.
00:04:10.640 This is why church history is filled with councils, right?
00:04:13.460 There's the, and creeds, right?
00:04:14.900 There's the Nicene Creed.
00:04:16.480 There's the Council of Chalcedon.
00:04:18.400 There's the 1689 Baptist Statement of Faith.
00:04:21.960 There's the Westminster Confession.
00:04:23.260 These are all times where theologians, pastors get together to bring clear definitions to certain words.
00:04:32.200 So definitions do matter.
00:04:34.400 Now, if there's one word that we need to have defined more than any other word, I'm going to
00:04:41.600 say that that word is faith. Hebrews 11, 6 says, and without faith, it is impossible to please him
00:04:49.400 for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who
00:04:54.940 seek him. We can't even please God without faith. And so faith is critical to have a core definition.
00:05:03.660 Paul says in Ephesians 2.8, for by grace you have been saved through faith.
00:05:10.440 So faith, again, is central to having a clear definition of what does he mean by faith.
00:05:17.260 J. Gresham Macon, I might be actually Macon, he's a brilliant pastor from the 1900s, early 1900s.
00:05:24.720 I think that he said this in a sermon, probably in the 1930s, I believe.
00:05:29.860 He says, the center of the Bible and the center of Christianity is found in the grace of God
00:05:36.340 and the necessary corollary of the grace of God is salvation through faith alone.
00:05:43.780 We know also that the reformers have created these incredible statements, these solas, right?
00:05:50.460 Saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
00:05:54.540 And so faith finds itself as a really vital word to be defined.
00:06:00.700 I would say that defining faith might be the most important work that you do.
00:06:07.000 Because without a correct understanding of faith, you can never know if you're actually saved.
00:06:13.240 What is faith?
00:06:15.120 And again, we think that just because we're Christian, we have this understanding of what faith really is, the saving faith.
00:06:22.800 And so we want to make sure and be clear that we are speaking in biblical terms when we talk about the idea of faith.
00:06:30.580 So, what is faith?
00:06:33.700 What does the Bible say about faith?
00:06:35.880 Well, a lot of you guys are probably already thinking of this verse.
00:06:38.920 It's verse 1 in chapters 11 for the book of Hebrews.
00:06:44.240 And it's commonly referenced when I ask the question, what is faith?
00:06:47.600 Well, this is what people typically respond with.
00:06:50.040 It says, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
00:06:57.200 Before we jump on, as this being the carte blanche, for sure, full definition of faith,
00:07:03.360 I want to bring some context.
00:07:04.880 So this verse, the first verse of chapter 11, is actually carrying on a concept from
00:07:11.960 the last few verses of chapter 10, where the author of Hebrews is talking about Habakkuk
00:07:19.440 and how our faith will continue to give us patience in these matters.
00:07:25.200 It's actually a really bad spot to split the chapter.
00:07:30.120 I was doing some study and Calvin actually says,
00:07:33.080 whoever made this the beginning of the 11th chapter has unwisely disjointed the context.
00:07:38.900 We know that the word of God is inerrant.
00:07:41.380 We know that the word of God has authority over our lives,
00:07:45.140 but the Spirit did not inspire which verse would be which verse and verse numbers and
00:07:52.080 chapter structures and all that kind of stuff. So we know that there's been some splitting
00:07:56.280 of chapters that, man, should be split in different sections. And I think that's what
00:08:00.440 happened in Hebrews chapter 11, because it broke up the context there. And Habakkuk is talking
00:08:06.720 about this, and the author of Hebrews is talking about this, that the ability to be patient comes
00:08:10.780 from supernatural faith. And if you read those two chapters, you'll see this, which is why he says,
00:08:16.960 now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
00:08:20.940 He goes on to show how faith is actually carried people by patience, driven by hope,
00:08:27.300 through all types of crazy trials, and it took them to the finish line time after time.
00:08:33.860 Faith has the ability to do so. But the definition of faith that we read here in Hebrews chapter
00:08:40.680 11, I'm going to say is a partial definition of faith. I think faith is a multidimensional and a
00:08:46.860 robust word, especially in biblical context. We need to have a multidimensional, almost think of
00:08:54.900 a diamond as different dimensions of the diamond so that we can have a full understanding and
00:09:00.040 definition of faith. And so in Hebrews, it's speaking of the type of faith that we receive
00:09:04.340 as a divine fruit of the spirit. We have this supernatural ability to believe in the things
00:09:09.820 that we can't see. We're driven by this faith that we already have as believers, as followers
00:09:16.960 of God. And we can sustain and hope by this faith given to us by the Holy Spirit. And that's what
00:09:23.060 the author of Hebrews is saying, is that we can do this. If you read the last couple of verses
00:09:27.360 of chapter 10, we can do this. We can sustain because we have the hope. We have the faith
00:09:32.520 and we can believe in those things and we can be sustained by that. But today I want to talk
00:09:38.480 about saving faith, which is a slightly different understanding than this idea of just believing in
00:09:45.400 things that are unseen. I want to talk about the faith that Jesus and Paul and John and James
00:09:53.240 are preaching to men that are hearing the gospel. I want to talk about that type of faith,
00:10:01.040 the saving faith, the faith that men exercise to initiate the salvation process.
00:10:10.340 I want to talk about the faith that Paul writes about when he says,
00:10:14.760 for by grace you have been saved through faith.
00:10:16.920 We need to have an understanding of that dimension of the word faith.
00:10:22.220 And it's obvious that Jesus and the apostles are not calling people in the crowds
00:10:27.900 as they're in their evangelism moments.
00:10:29.540 And, you know, imagine, you know, 40, 50, 200 people there.
00:10:33.040 They're not saying, have the assurance of things hoped for, the things, you know, unseen, right?
00:10:38.520 The conviction of things unseen.
00:10:39.700 That's not what they're doing.
00:10:41.040 That's not the dimension of faith they're talking about as a saving faith.
00:10:45.380 That's the back end of faith.
00:10:47.200 That's the result of faith in Hebrews.
00:10:49.600 I want to talk about the front end of faith, the other side of faith, the beginning of faith,
00:10:54.100 the saving faith that gets us to that back end that will allow us to have that patience and that
00:11:00.080 hope that's talked about in Hebrews. Remember, Hebrews is a letter written to Christians. It's
00:11:06.200 a letter written to people who've already made this decision. It's not necessarily like John,
00:11:11.040 which is a gospel evangelistic in nature, trying to convince people that Jesus is the Christ.
00:11:16.580 And so again, I want to talk about the front end of faith, not the back end of faith. I want to
00:11:21.760 talk about the beginning, not the result of faith, which is seen in Hebrews. So what does this mean
00:11:28.020 to put your faith in Christ? This idea that Paul and James and Peter and Jesus are talking about
00:11:35.240 putting your faith in Christ. What does that mean? What are we actually talking about?
00:11:41.800 You know, I think synonyms could probably be very helpful in this conversation because
00:11:49.460 we're looking at a word faith. It's got some many dimensions. We have some preconceived notions
00:11:54.980 and ideas about what faith is. I want to look at some synonyms that I think might be helpful here
00:11:59.880 because the word of faith, again, the word faith is robust and it's got those dimensions. So I want
00:12:07.780 to look at what Paul says here again in Ephesians 2.8. He says, for by grace you have been saved
00:12:13.180 through faith. I think he's basically saying this. For by grace you have been saved through trusting
00:12:18.920 in Christ. And I think better yet, a better way to say that is by grace you have been saved
00:12:24.800 by relying on Christ. So let's just use the word reliance and trust as synonyms for faith, right?
00:12:34.020 So you've been saved by relying on Christ or by trusting on Christ. But again, what are we
00:12:42.120 actually relying on him or trusting on him to do? And if you don't know the answer to this
00:12:50.800 question, you're basically revealing that you're not capable of preaching the gospel.
00:12:58.280 Because if you can't answer this question, you can't explain the full gospel. It's a basic
00:13:05.980 question. Why have faith? Why do I need faith in Jesus Christ? What am I trusting on Him to do?
00:13:14.300 What am I relying on Him to do that I can't do myself? You know, when you read the Bible,
00:13:21.940 you quickly learn that the most important moment or need, I should say, of every single person
00:13:31.600 is to be found righteous before God. That's the most important need is to be found righteous
00:13:38.020 before God. That's the pinnacle of the human need right there. And because you've been created,
00:13:46.120 you and I, we've been created. We didn't create ourselves. We're not autonomous. We're not
00:13:51.540 self-accountable beings because we didn't create ourselves. The creator of us has a right to
00:13:59.320 exercise judgment upon us and has a right to exercise judgment upon our destiny based off of
00:14:05.820 his moral law. And the Bible also teaches that we're sinners, right? You and I, we're sinners.
00:14:13.040 And it's not just an act of sin that makes us a sinner. We're actually in a condition of sin.
00:14:18.720 We're born in sin. I want to say that again. Sin isn't necessarily an act. It's more of a condition.
00:14:24.080 And we know this because sin entered by the way of Adam, as it says.
00:14:29.420 Sin entered through Adam, and the disease of sin stained the entire human race.
00:14:35.120 We're actually born into sin.
00:14:37.300 We don't need to learn how to sin.
00:14:39.820 It's something that's a part of who we are.
00:14:42.940 In other words, you know, people, all people, all humans, we're actually hellbound, and we're actually deserving of it.
00:14:50.900 And that's the bad news, okay?
00:14:52.280 That's the bad news.
00:14:53.480 the proper 2020 vision perspective, correct perspective of what our need is and where we are
00:15:02.820 is that we're broken, we're sinners, we're standing outside of God's holiness, we are under God's
00:15:09.540 wrath, judgment, we deserve hell, and we're dead in our trespasses and sins. And this is a moment
00:15:15.700 here. This is bad news. And again, the only reason the gospel is good news is because there's bad
00:15:21.260 news. If the bad news wasn't there, it wouldn't be good news. And so this is an important part
00:15:25.840 of the building blocks of sharing the gospel, right? So again, you're going to this idea of
00:15:31.320 explaining why we need faith. What are we relying on Jesus or trusting on Jesus to actually do?
00:15:38.560 And we know the bad news. We know our current state. We have a perspective of where we are
00:15:43.580 and all men are prior to meeting Christ. And we need to now determine the good news. The good 0.66
00:15:50.240 news is that we have the gospel. We have the gospel of Jesus Christ. And this is that the
00:15:55.360 God-man, Jesus, right? He came and he made a way to escape the judgment of the Father by living a
00:16:02.400 sinless life. We know that that happened. He's bearing the consequences of our sin on the cross.
00:16:07.300 That's another important part of this building block of discussing the gospel. But not only that
00:16:13.720 is that he actually appeased the wrath of God on Calvary. This word you might have heard in
00:16:19.720 your Bibles as you're reading through is propitiation. That word propitiation means
00:16:23.880 to appease the wrath of God through blood sacrifice. This is another work that the cross 1.00
00:16:30.840 has accomplished for us. We got to remember that the cross isn't just a place to die.
00:16:36.200 The cross is actually a place where God's wrath fell upon Jesus that makes us clean. He paid the
00:16:44.100 price of our sins there. Many people have been crucified and can handle crucifixion. The only
00:16:50.700 people or the only person that can handle God's wrath is Jesus himself. So there's a difference
00:16:56.800 there. But not only that, he rose from the grave and he conquered death. And the biggest thing is
00:17:01.920 that he imputed his righteousness, his sinless life, all these things that we just talked about.
00:17:07.060 He imputed his righteousness to us by belief, by faith, right?
00:17:14.380 And so he imputed this righteousness, this right standing before God by faith.
00:17:21.300 And so we got to understand what is faith and why are we relying on this?
00:17:26.660 So again, asking that question, what exactly are we trusting him to do for us
00:17:32.520 by placing our trust and relying on Christ?
00:17:35.440 Well, the answer is this. The answer to the entire sermon is that you're trusting that Jesus will secure for you a righteous verdict before God the Father.
00:17:46.680 Remember I talked about earlier that the number one need of all humans is to be found righteous before God.
00:17:52.260 And you are trusting and relying upon Christ to secure you a righteous verdict before God.
00:18:01.200 That is why you have faith.
00:18:07.360 Now, again, faith is not this ethereal light thing that you go,
00:18:11.300 oh, you know, believing in the things that are unseen.
00:18:14.020 That's not what we're talking about.
00:18:15.100 That's back-end faith that will drive you because you can believe in things that are unseen.
00:18:20.900 The front end is that you actually have to look at Christ and rely on Him
00:18:26.980 and not on yourself because you have a sober, clear, accurate definition and perspective
00:18:33.400 on your current status outside of Christ, which is dead under God's wrath.
00:18:40.760 And so you're trusting that you're guilty and that you're not sufficient
00:18:45.360 and that Christ is righteous and he's worthy and he's your only hope for salvation.
00:18:51.040 That's what you're telling people when you tell people to have faith.
00:18:55.960 You need to be able to explain to them that you need to rely on Christ
00:19:00.560 because you will not be able to secure a righteous verdict
00:19:04.020 standing before God the Father on your own.
00:19:06.820 Have faith in Christ. Believe on Him. Trust on Him.
00:19:11.840 Those terms there that we hear so often, this is the meaning behind that.
00:19:16.580 Without Christ, you're helpless and hellbound, and you need to have that perspective.
00:19:21.760 This is what it means to have a saving faith in Christ.
00:19:25.560 Again, it's not believing in things unseen.
00:19:27.760 It's a reliance upon him to be your righteousness.
00:19:31.660 He is your righteousness.
00:19:33.460 There's no pride in your own works or your own ability.
00:19:35.560 That's all gone.
00:19:36.560 You got to get that away.
00:19:38.460 You're not merely believing in his existence just because you can't see him, right?
00:19:43.160 You're trusting upon his work on the cross for your redemption.
00:19:46.340 You know that it's satisfactory.
00:19:47.320 you believe that God raised him from the dead, which is by saying that you believe that God
00:19:52.420 validated Christ's atoning work on the cross, and it was sufficient, and it was worthy. He was
00:19:58.520 actually the worthy lamb that would take away the sins of the whole world, that if you believe on
00:20:02.580 him, you will be saved. You're believing in those things. Through him, you're saved. Anyone who
00:20:07.700 exercises this reliance and this type of trust is going to be saved. That's the core of faith
00:20:15.360 in the biblical definition.
00:20:19.020 Now, how do we have this kind of faith, right?
00:20:20.480 This is the next important question
00:20:24.360 is how do we have this faith?
00:20:28.060 Well, Paul says in the scriptures
00:20:31.680 that faith is a gift of God
00:20:33.920 that's delivered by the word of God.
00:20:35.280 I'm gonna say that again.
00:20:36.340 Paul says that the ability to have faith in God
00:20:40.380 is a gift of God
00:20:41.740 that is delivered by the word of God.
00:20:45.360 And we're going to pull out Romans 10, 17.
00:20:47.480 It says, so faith comes from hearing
00:20:50.060 and hearing through the word of Christ.
00:20:53.380 The word of Christ has power, okay?
00:20:56.340 Faith comes by hearing and hearing
00:20:57.580 through the word of Christ.
00:20:58.720 And this is why we preach the word of Christ.
00:21:00.880 This is why we preach Christ crucified.
00:21:02.920 This is why we don't need to sit here
00:21:04.460 and be persuasive in our sermons
00:21:07.140 because we know that faith comes by hearing
00:21:10.500 and hearing by the word of Christ.
00:21:11.520 And the word of Christ is the gospel message,
00:21:14.020 the true gospel message.
00:21:15.360 And when we preach that gospel message, we know that the sheep will hear his voice.
00:21:21.400 Because when you're preaching that gospel out of your mouth, the sheep are going to hear his voice and they're going to come to him and they're going to follow him.
00:21:30.360 So not only does the word have power, it also has logic and it has beauty and it's wrapped in complete truth.
00:21:41.280 But it also has the power to convert.
00:21:43.140 and has the power to convert dead men into live, living, loving, trusting, and relying upon
00:21:51.840 Jesus people, right? Who could exercise this type of faith. They can actually have eyes to see and
00:21:59.660 ears to hear. We remember those words that Jesus would often say. And as again, they can start to
00:22:04.060 see their deep need. They can start seeing their own brokenness, right? Their inability to be found
00:22:08.600 righteous is impossible before the Lord. You know, they can see their impending doom. This is what
00:22:15.740 causes that guilt, that shame, the conviction, the need for repentance. It's the birthing process,
00:22:23.480 right, of salvation. They're coming to repentance and they need to trust and rely upon Christ to
00:22:29.120 obtain salvation for them and how Christ will, again, impute that righteousness that he has
00:22:35.400 to us through belief, through faith. Charles Spurgeon once said, he said,
00:22:43.200 genuine faith that saves the soul has for its main element trust, absolute rest of the whole soul
00:22:53.020 on the Lord Jesus Christ. To be kept in faith, actually, is to keep this perspective, right?
00:23:00.160 As Christians, we're not. The gospel isn't just for day one Christianity. The gospel is for every
00:23:05.080 everyday Christianity. We need to remember that Jesus is keeping us, right? He promises that he'll 0.91
00:23:10.780 do this for us, that we will never perish and that nobody will snatch us out of his hand.
00:23:16.820 A saved person is going to continue to rely and trust and cling to Christ because they've been
00:23:23.220 made aware of their own depravity, their own need for Christ, that they cannot stand before the
00:23:29.820 throne and be found righteous outside of Christ. They are going to need to exercise that faith,
00:23:35.120 which is to rely upon and to trust upon Jesus Christ for securing a righteous verdict when
00:23:43.080 they stand before the Lord. This is the gospel, and you need to understand this in order to
00:23:49.080 communicate it correctly. I'll close this with this story. I guess it's more of a quote. It's
00:23:57.120 from a 19th century pastor and theologian. He was born, I think, actually in 1800. It's Robert
00:24:03.320 Akin. In a sermon, he said these words, and I thought it was a really good fitting piece of
00:24:09.480 content for the end of this message here. He says, I believe in a physician when I put my case
00:24:15.140 into that physician's hand, and I trust him to cure me. I believe in a lawyer when I leave my
00:24:21.740 case in his hands and trust him to plead for me i believe in a banker when i put my money into his
00:24:28.140 hands and allow him to keep it on my behalf i believe in my savior when i take him to be my
00:24:34.300 savior when i put my helpless case into his hands and trust him to do what i cannot do for myself
00:24:42.060 save me from my sin have you done so you believe he continues on here you believe
00:24:48.700 there is such a person as Jesus and that he is the sinner's savior. You do well, but that is only a
00:24:56.200 partial and incomplete faith, as we talked about. To believe that a certain doctor exists and has a
00:25:02.840 large practice is not to believe personally in that doctor. True faith contains a moral as well
00:25:09.240 as an intellectual element. You are a sinner. He represents himself as your savior. You are a lost 0.61
00:25:16.320 one. He has died to find you. You are dead. He presents himself as the resurrection and the life. 0.59
00:25:23.500 The point is, do you take him by faith to be what he reveals himself to be? That is, believing and
00:25:29.980 trusting on him. If you can say in your heart, yes, I believe in him and trust in him, then at the
00:25:37.260 judgment day, you can no longer be convicted of your sin. All your sins were laid upon the Lamb
00:25:42.080 of God, who bore the sin of the world. There is no longer a case against you. The charges have
00:25:47.680 been dismissed. There is no condemnation. You are pronounced, acquitted, and accepted in the beloved.
00:25:56.240 What an amazing passage from that sermon. Time and time again, when we see suffering
00:26:03.840 enter into the world in mass. We see that the gospel advances forward intensely. We have a
00:26:12.380 moment now in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. There is a fear, a blanket of fear and
00:26:19.180 worry that is laid upon so many people. There is also death that is all around us because of this
00:26:26.640 virus. And our mortality is knocking at the door of many people's hearts. And what a fertile
00:26:33.380 ground to preach the gospel and to help people have this hope and to remove the fear of not
00:26:42.660 knowing what's going to happen after death. The reality of death right now, because it's no longer
00:26:50.300 foreign, people are thinking about it. You know, we have to remember that some people are going to
00:26:55.540 meet our maker today. Some people are going to meet our maker this week. Some people are going
00:27:00.380 to meet their maker this year. This might be any one of us. And what are we telling people
00:27:06.340 to rely on? What are you relying on? What are you trusting on? Are you trusting on your social
00:27:12.760 justice work? Are you trusting on your humanitarian efforts? Are you trusting on your moralism?
00:27:18.440 Are you trusting on your biblical knowledge? Is that what's going to save you? Is that what's
00:27:22.200 going to put you there? Are you trusting that you believe that Jesus exists and you understand the
00:27:26.920 Christian philosophy? Or do you have a deep heart, you know, just this core central part of you that
00:27:35.340 understands that you're insufficient, that you need Christ, and that the only way that you can stand
00:27:40.960 before God the Father and escape his wrath is by relying on Christ. It is nothing that you do.
00:27:47.000 It is only him. Are you there? Are you there? The only thing that's going to stand in the last day
00:27:54.140 of judgment is that reliance and that trust. Everything else you've done, everything else that
00:28:00.140 you claim to have done, everything else that you think might be good, it's all going to burn.
00:28:04.720 The only thing that's going to stand is your faith, a biblically defined faith in Christ.
00:28:12.400 Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, that you have made it clear in your word that you have not
00:28:20.940 left us lost and confused father that we cannot study and understand who you are and what you
00:28:28.020 require of us father that you would continue to illuminate the scriptures to us father that you
00:28:35.600 would draw people to you through dependence through reliance through a complete trusting
00:28:42.200 father that you would bring conviction lord if there's any of us that are listening to this
00:28:46.300 that are relying on our good works to keep us saved, to make us saved, whatever it is, Father,
00:28:51.580 that you would eliminate that out of the heart. Lord, that it was only Christ, that there's nothing
00:28:56.460 that we can do except faith in your son that'll make us righteous before the throne, Father.
00:29:02.560 Bring clarity to this biblical doctrine for us, Father. Help us understand this so that we can
00:29:07.940 communicate it to others, Father, that we can preach the gospel faithfully and accurately,
00:29:12.920 Father. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.