Real Christianity #91： What is biblical faith and do you have it？
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Summary
In this episode, we discuss the importance of having a biblical understanding of faith, definitions, and how to communicate the gospel to others. Do you have a clear understanding of what it means to be a Christian? Do you know the difference between a Christian and a "False Teacher"?
Transcript
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Hello and welcome. Today we're going to be discussing the idea of faith. Do you have
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a biblical faith? Do you have a biblical understanding of faith? And with this coronavirus
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pandemic that is around the globe right now, we have a unique opportunity that the awareness
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of our mortality is being amplified and the gospel has fertile ground right now. And I
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it's an important discussion that we have today about faith if you can't understand faith you
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definitely can't communicate faith jc ryle once said health is a good thing but sickness is far
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better if it leads us to god again we have this really unique platform it's almost as if christians
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are standing on a stage with a crowd of people filled with worry and anxiety and depression
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and confusions. And Christians have the only answer for hope and peace and calmness and joy
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in the midst of these trials. So we have a unique opportunity before us. And that hope and that
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peace only comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ. We know that. But sadly, again, I don't expect
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that everybody can communicate the gospel as clear as they might think. And so today, I think we
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really should look at the mechanics of the gospel and the mechanics of faith so that we can
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communicate them more effectively to those that are listening to us. I want to start with the idea
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of definitions. I really do believe that definitions matter. In fact, sloppy definitions
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lead to sloppy theology and sloppy theology leads to really poor life application. And so when you
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don't have something right from the beginning, it might not seem that off here, but as you go
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forward, it can really put us a way off our mark as you go down the road. And so I'll give you a
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few examples. As you know, if we define love as an intense feeling of affection, then telling your
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alcoholic sister that she can't come to your house until she quits drinking isn't going to seem
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loving to her, and her response back to you might actually cause you to retract your rule because
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it doesn't align with that definition of love. So definitions are critical. If sin is defined as
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wrongdoing, then someone might say that you sinned for preaching the gospel in a place that it's
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illegal to do so. Someone might say that you sinned by teaching your child that there are only
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two genders. Or someone might say that you sinned because you are teaching people that abortion
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isn't health care, but it's murder, right? So these are ideas that we have to really bring
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clear definitions to. Definitions do matter. And the very concept of a false teacher,
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when you think about the idea of a false teacher, the very concept of a false teacher is
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built upon the concept of teaching ideas that are inaccurate to their definitions.
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So having biblical definitions is really critical.
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We, as Christians, need to have certain words and terms clearly defined.
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And that's, you know, words like love and hate and sin and peace and joy and conversion
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and evangelism, atonement, baptism, truth, good.
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All these things need to be determined by the Word of God.
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And that's a really important process for the educated Christian.
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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.
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And sometimes we neglect that last piece too much.
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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.
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This is why church history is filled with councils, right?
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These are all times where theologians, pastors get together to bring clear definitions to certain words.
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Now, if there's one word that we need to have defined more than any other word, I'm going to
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say that that word is faith. Hebrews 11, 6 says, and without faith, it is impossible to please him
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for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who
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seek him. We can't even please God without faith. And so faith is critical to have a core definition.
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Paul says in Ephesians 2.8, for by grace you have been saved through faith.
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So faith, again, is central to having a clear definition of what does he mean by faith.
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J. Gresham Macon, I might be actually Macon, he's a brilliant pastor from the 1900s, early 1900s.
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I think that he said this in a sermon, probably in the 1930s, I believe.
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He says, the center of the Bible and the center of Christianity is found in the grace of God
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and the necessary corollary of the grace of God is salvation through faith alone.
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We know also that the reformers have created these incredible statements, these solas, right?
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Saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
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And so faith finds itself as a really vital word to be defined.
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I would say that defining faith might be the most important work that you do.
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Because without a correct understanding of faith, you can never know if you're actually saved.
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And again, we think that just because we're Christian, we have this understanding of what faith really is, the saving faith.
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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.
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Well, a lot of you guys are probably already thinking of this verse.
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It's verse 1 in chapters 11 for the book of Hebrews.
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And it's commonly referenced when I ask the question, what is faith?
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Well, this is what people typically respond with.
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It says, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
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Before we jump on, as this being the carte blanche, for sure, full definition of faith,
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So this verse, the first verse of chapter 11, is actually carrying on a concept from
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the last few verses of chapter 10, where the author of Hebrews is talking about Habakkuk
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and how our faith will continue to give us patience in these matters.
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It's actually a really bad spot to split the chapter.
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I was doing some study and Calvin actually says,
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whoever made this the beginning of the 11th chapter has unwisely disjointed the context.
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We know that the word of God has authority over our lives,
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but the Spirit did not inspire which verse would be which verse and verse numbers and
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chapter structures and all that kind of stuff. So we know that there's been some splitting
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of chapters that, man, should be split in different sections. And I think that's what
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happened in Hebrews chapter 11, because it broke up the context there. And Habakkuk is talking
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about this, and the author of Hebrews is talking about this, that the ability to be patient comes
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from supernatural faith. And if you read those two chapters, you'll see this, which is why he says,
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now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
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He goes on to show how faith is actually carried people by patience, driven by hope,
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through all types of crazy trials, and it took them to the finish line time after time.
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Faith has the ability to do so. But the definition of faith that we read here in Hebrews chapter
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11, I'm going to say is a partial definition of faith. I think faith is a multidimensional and a
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robust word, especially in biblical context. We need to have a multidimensional, almost think of
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a diamond as different dimensions of the diamond so that we can have a full understanding and
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definition of faith. And so in Hebrews, it's speaking of the type of faith that we receive
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as a divine fruit of the spirit. We have this supernatural ability to believe in the things
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that we can't see. We're driven by this faith that we already have as believers, as followers
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of God. And we can sustain and hope by this faith given to us by the Holy Spirit. And that's what
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the author of Hebrews is saying, is that we can do this. If you read the last couple of verses
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of chapter 10, we can do this. We can sustain because we have the hope. We have the faith
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and we can believe in those things and we can be sustained by that. But today I want to talk
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about saving faith, which is a slightly different understanding than this idea of just believing in
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things that are unseen. I want to talk about the faith that Jesus and Paul and John and James
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are preaching to men that are hearing the gospel. I want to talk about that type of faith,
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the saving faith, the faith that men exercise to initiate the salvation process.
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I want to talk about the faith that Paul writes about when he says,
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for by grace you have been saved through faith.
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We need to have an understanding of that dimension of the word faith.
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And it's obvious that Jesus and the apostles are not calling people in the crowds
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And, you know, imagine, you know, 40, 50, 200 people there.
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They're not saying, have the assurance of things hoped for, the things, you know, unseen, right?
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That's not the dimension of faith they're talking about as a saving faith.
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I want to talk about the front end of faith, the other side of faith, the beginning of faith,
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the saving faith that gets us to that back end that will allow us to have that patience and that
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hope that's talked about in Hebrews. Remember, Hebrews is a letter written to Christians. It's
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a letter written to people who've already made this decision. It's not necessarily like John,
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which is a gospel evangelistic in nature, trying to convince people that Jesus is the Christ.
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And so again, I want to talk about the front end of faith, not the back end of faith. I want to
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talk about the beginning, not the result of faith, which is seen in Hebrews. So what does this mean
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to put your faith in Christ? This idea that Paul and James and Peter and Jesus are talking about
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putting your faith in Christ. What does that mean? What are we actually talking about?
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You know, I think synonyms could probably be very helpful in this conversation because
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we're looking at a word faith. It's got some many dimensions. We have some preconceived notions
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and ideas about what faith is. I want to look at some synonyms that I think might be helpful here
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because the word of faith, again, the word faith is robust and it's got those dimensions. So I want
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to look at what Paul says here again in Ephesians 2.8. He says, for by grace you have been saved
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through faith. I think he's basically saying this. For by grace you have been saved through trusting
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in Christ. And I think better yet, a better way to say that is by grace you have been saved
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by relying on Christ. So let's just use the word reliance and trust as synonyms for faith, right?
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So you've been saved by relying on Christ or by trusting on Christ. But again, what are we
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actually relying on him or trusting on him to do? And if you don't know the answer to this
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question, you're basically revealing that you're not capable of preaching the gospel.
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Because if you can't answer this question, you can't explain the full gospel. It's a basic
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question. Why have faith? Why do I need faith in Jesus Christ? What am I trusting on Him to do?
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What am I relying on Him to do that I can't do myself? You know, when you read the Bible,
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you quickly learn that the most important moment or need, I should say, of every single person
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is to be found righteous before God. That's the most important need is to be found righteous
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before God. That's the pinnacle of the human need right there. And because you've been created,
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you and I, we've been created. We didn't create ourselves. We're not autonomous. We're not
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self-accountable beings because we didn't create ourselves. The creator of us has a right to
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exercise judgment upon us and has a right to exercise judgment upon our destiny based off of
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his moral law. And the Bible also teaches that we're sinners, right? You and I, we're sinners.
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And it's not just an act of sin that makes us a sinner. We're actually in a condition of sin.
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We're born in sin. I want to say that again. Sin isn't necessarily an act. It's more of a condition.
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And we know this because sin entered by the way of Adam, as it says.
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Sin entered through Adam, and the disease of sin stained the entire human race.
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In other words, you know, people, all people, all humans, we're actually hellbound, and we're actually deserving of it.
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the proper 2020 vision perspective, correct perspective of what our need is and where we are
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is that we're broken, we're sinners, we're standing outside of God's holiness, we are under God's
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wrath, judgment, we deserve hell, and we're dead in our trespasses and sins. And this is a moment
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here. This is bad news. And again, the only reason the gospel is good news is because there's bad
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news. If the bad news wasn't there, it wouldn't be good news. And so this is an important part
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of the building blocks of sharing the gospel, right? So again, you're going to this idea of
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explaining why we need faith. What are we relying on Jesus or trusting on Jesus to actually do?
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And we know the bad news. We know our current state. We have a perspective of where we are
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and all men are prior to meeting Christ. And we need to now determine the good news. The good
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news is that we have the gospel. We have the gospel of Jesus Christ. And this is that the
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God-man, Jesus, right? He came and he made a way to escape the judgment of the Father by living a
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sinless life. We know that that happened. He's bearing the consequences of our sin on the cross.
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That's another important part of this building block of discussing the gospel. But not only that
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is that he actually appeased the wrath of God on Calvary. This word you might have heard in
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your Bibles as you're reading through is propitiation. That word propitiation means
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to appease the wrath of God through blood sacrifice. This is another work that the cross
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has accomplished for us. We got to remember that the cross isn't just a place to die.
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The cross is actually a place where God's wrath fell upon Jesus that makes us clean. He paid the
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price of our sins there. Many people have been crucified and can handle crucifixion. The only
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people or the only person that can handle God's wrath is Jesus himself. So there's a difference
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there. But not only that, he rose from the grave and he conquered death. And the biggest thing is
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that he imputed his righteousness, his sinless life, all these things that we just talked about.
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He imputed his righteousness to us by belief, by faith, right?
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And so he imputed this righteousness, this right standing before God by faith.
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And so we got to understand what is faith and why are we relying on this?
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So again, asking that question, what exactly are we trusting him to do for us
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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.
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Remember I talked about earlier that the number one need of all humans is to be found righteous before God.
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And you are trusting and relying upon Christ to secure you a righteous verdict before God.
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Now, again, faith is not this ethereal light thing that you go,
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oh, you know, believing in the things that are unseen.
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That's back-end faith that will drive you because you can believe in things that are unseen.
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The front end is that you actually have to look at Christ and rely on Him
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and not on yourself because you have a sober, clear, accurate definition and perspective
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on your current status outside of Christ, which is dead under God's wrath.
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And so you're trusting that you're guilty and that you're not sufficient
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and that Christ is righteous and he's worthy and he's your only hope for salvation.
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That's what you're telling people when you tell people to have faith.
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You need to be able to explain to them that you need to rely on Christ
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because you will not be able to secure a righteous verdict
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Have faith in Christ. Believe on Him. Trust on Him.
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Those terms there that we hear so often, this is the meaning behind that.
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Without Christ, you're helpless and hellbound, and you need to have that perspective.
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This is what it means to have a saving faith in Christ.
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It's a reliance upon him to be your righteousness.
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There's no pride in your own works or your own ability.
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You're not merely believing in his existence just because you can't see him, right?
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You're trusting upon his work on the cross for your redemption.
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you believe that God raised him from the dead, which is by saying that you believe that God
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validated Christ's atoning work on the cross, and it was sufficient, and it was worthy. He was
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actually the worthy lamb that would take away the sins of the whole world, that if you believe on
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him, you will be saved. You're believing in those things. Through him, you're saved. Anyone who
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exercises this reliance and this type of trust is going to be saved. That's the core of faith
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Paul says that the ability to have faith in God
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And when we preach that gospel message, we know that the sheep will hear his voice.
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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.
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So not only does the word have power, it also has logic and it has beauty and it's wrapped in complete truth.
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and has the power to convert dead men into live, living, loving, trusting, and relying upon
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Jesus people, right? Who could exercise this type of faith. They can actually have eyes to see and
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ears to hear. We remember those words that Jesus would often say. And as again, they can start to
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see their deep need. They can start seeing their own brokenness, right? Their inability to be found
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righteous is impossible before the Lord. You know, they can see their impending doom. This is what
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causes that guilt, that shame, the conviction, the need for repentance. It's the birthing process,
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right, of salvation. They're coming to repentance and they need to trust and rely upon Christ to
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obtain salvation for them and how Christ will, again, impute that righteousness that he has
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to us through belief, through faith. Charles Spurgeon once said, he said,
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genuine faith that saves the soul has for its main element trust, absolute rest of the whole soul
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on the Lord Jesus Christ. To be kept in faith, actually, is to keep this perspective, right?
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As Christians, we're not. The gospel isn't just for day one Christianity. The gospel is for every
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everyday Christianity. We need to remember that Jesus is keeping us, right? He promises that he'll
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do this for us, that we will never perish and that nobody will snatch us out of his hand.
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A saved person is going to continue to rely and trust and cling to Christ because they've been
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made aware of their own depravity, their own need for Christ, that they cannot stand before the
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throne and be found righteous outside of Christ. They are going to need to exercise that faith,
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which is to rely upon and to trust upon Jesus Christ for securing a righteous verdict when
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they stand before the Lord. This is the gospel, and you need to understand this in order to
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communicate it correctly. I'll close this with this story. I guess it's more of a quote. It's
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from a 19th century pastor and theologian. He was born, I think, actually in 1800. It's Robert
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Akin. In a sermon, he said these words, and I thought it was a really good fitting piece of
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content for the end of this message here. He says, I believe in a physician when I put my case
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into that physician's hand, and I trust him to cure me. I believe in a lawyer when I leave my
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case in his hands and trust him to plead for me i believe in a banker when i put my money into his
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hands and allow him to keep it on my behalf i believe in my savior when i take him to be my
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savior when i put my helpless case into his hands and trust him to do what i cannot do for myself
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save me from my sin have you done so you believe he continues on here you believe
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there is such a person as Jesus and that he is the sinner's savior. You do well, but that is only a
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partial and incomplete faith, as we talked about. To believe that a certain doctor exists and has a
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large practice is not to believe personally in that doctor. True faith contains a moral as well
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as an intellectual element. You are a sinner. He represents himself as your savior. You are a lost
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one. He has died to find you. You are dead. He presents himself as the resurrection and the life.
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The point is, do you take him by faith to be what he reveals himself to be? That is, believing and
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trusting on him. If you can say in your heart, yes, I believe in him and trust in him, then at the
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judgment day, you can no longer be convicted of your sin. All your sins were laid upon the Lamb
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of God, who bore the sin of the world. There is no longer a case against you. The charges have
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been dismissed. There is no condemnation. You are pronounced, acquitted, and accepted in the beloved.
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What an amazing passage from that sermon. Time and time again, when we see suffering
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enter into the world in mass. We see that the gospel advances forward intensely. We have a
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moment now in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. There is a fear, a blanket of fear and
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worry that is laid upon so many people. There is also death that is all around us because of this
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virus. And our mortality is knocking at the door of many people's hearts. And what a fertile
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ground to preach the gospel and to help people have this hope and to remove the fear of not
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knowing what's going to happen after death. The reality of death right now, because it's no longer
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foreign, people are thinking about it. You know, we have to remember that some people are going to
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meet our maker today. Some people are going to meet our maker this week. Some people are going
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to meet their maker this year. This might be any one of us. And what are we telling people
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to rely on? What are you relying on? What are you trusting on? Are you trusting on your social
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justice work? Are you trusting on your humanitarian efforts? Are you trusting on your moralism?
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Are you trusting on your biblical knowledge? Is that what's going to save you? Is that what's
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going to put you there? Are you trusting that you believe that Jesus exists and you understand the
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Christian philosophy? Or do you have a deep heart, you know, just this core central part of you that
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understands that you're insufficient, that you need Christ, and that the only way that you can stand
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before God the Father and escape his wrath is by relying on Christ. It is nothing that you do.
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It is only him. Are you there? Are you there? The only thing that's going to stand in the last day
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of judgment is that reliance and that trust. Everything else you've done, everything else that
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you claim to have done, everything else that you think might be good, it's all going to burn.
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The only thing that's going to stand is your faith, a biblically defined faith in Christ.
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Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, that you have made it clear in your word that you have not
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left us lost and confused father that we cannot study and understand who you are and what you
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require of us father that you would continue to illuminate the scriptures to us father that you
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would draw people to you through dependence through reliance through a complete trusting
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father that you would bring conviction lord if there's any of us that are listening to this
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that are relying on our good works to keep us saved, to make us saved, whatever it is, Father,
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that you would eliminate that out of the heart. Lord, that it was only Christ, that there's nothing
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that we can do except faith in your son that'll make us righteous before the throne, Father.
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Bring clarity to this biblical doctrine for us, Father. Help us understand this so that we can
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communicate it to others, Father, that we can preach the gospel faithfully and accurately,
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Father. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.