Genuine saving faith, rooted in the heart and the regenerate life, is a conviction wrought by the Holy Spirit, involving intellectual knowledge, emotional assent, and volitional trust in Christ. The sermon contrasts this with historical, miraculous, and temporal faith, which do not lead to salvation, using examples from Acts and John. True faith requires accepting God's testimony about sin and redemption, experiencing the joy of a cleared conscience, and personally surrendering to Christ as Lord and Savior. Ultimately, salvation is not earned but is a gift received through trusting Jesus, who holds the keys to eternal life.
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it is the gift of God, not a works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. Now may the Lord bless the reading of his word. Let's pray together. Our Father, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we bow before you to thank you for the gift of faith. the privilege of being able to believe on our Lord Jesus Christ, to the saving of the soul, to be able to know that we're justified, really by that grace which is in Christ Jesus.
And we thank you, our Father, that to him give all the prophets witness, that through faith in his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. And we thank you tonight for the privilege of believing. And now as we open thy precious word and multiply words upon the sacred text, we pray that the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart will be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. To study tonight, examines what we call the faith that's saved.
In the book of Acts, which we're studying on Lord's Day mornings, we got to chapter eight, and the opening verses of chapter eight deal with the burial of Stephen. But then they take up the explosion of the gospel as it goes into Samaria and eventually to the uttermost part of the earth, as you follow through in the book of Acts. We find that there are three great circles. Jerusalem and Judea, then Samaria, and then to the other most parts of the earth. Now, in Acts chapter eight, which we are about to study, we find, first of all, a faith that does not save. And last Lord's Day night, we examine the faith that does not save.
The man in Acts chapter eight, he believed he was baptized, but he was lost. It is possible to go through religious exercises and still be lost. But then also in Acts chapter eight, you have the faith that does save, as the Ethiopian eunuch is brought to faith through the opening of the scriptures in Isaiah chapter fifty-three. Now, having said that, this paper tonight is in contrast to last week. Last week we took up three kinds of faith in the Word of God that it speaks of in the Word of God where people believed that they were not saved.
And we used biblical examples. And the first was historic faith. And in other words, it's simply an intellectual knowledge of fact. And that's about it. And there are a lot of people today who, because they know certain facts about the Bible, They're looked upon as being born of God, but they have never had a true saving experience. It is possible to know about somebody without really knowing them. And then we looked at what we call miraculous faith. People believe that something is going to happen to them miraculous, or they're going to be the means of this.
And we pointed especially to John chapter six. where in John six our Lord performed that great miracle of the healing of the five thousand men beside women and children. And the result was that our Lord sent his disciples away across the sea or across the lake Galilee to Capernaum. And the reason he sent them away, I'm convinced, is because the common people were coming to make Christ the king. And you know how anxious the disciples were to be in the kingdom and to be part of the kingdom. They argued with each other who was going to be the greatest in the kingdom and who was going to sit in the right hand and who was going to sit in the left hand of the Lord Jesus.
And he sent them away. And then he dealt with a multitude the next morning. And when he dealt with them, he told them, you didn't want to make me a king because you really believed in me. You don't believe who I am. You don't believe that God is my Father and that I am the Son of God. I am the bread which came down from heaven. They did not believe. And in John six, at the close of John six, the very people who partook of the meal, the feeding of the five thousand departed from the Lord. And our Lord said to his own disciples, will you also go away?
And Peter then made that memorable confession, To whom can we go? You alone have the words of eternal life. And then, finally, last week, there was a third that we used as what we call temporal faith. In the parable of the saw, in Matthew thirteen, the seed that fell among the worms, it sprang up. It appeared to have life. But the Word of God said it had no root. in a cell. There was no root there. And in time of tribulation, it withered and died. And then we went on to John chapter eight and we looked at the multitude or the Pharisees to whom our Lord spoke in John eight as he was teaching in the temple.
And it says they believed in him. And he said, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And immediately they began to argue with the Lord and lie to the Lord. He said, well, we've never been in bondage to any man. What are you talking about being made free? And we find as you examine it, at that very time they were in bondage to Rome. Israel as a nation began in bondage in Egypt. What about the Babylonian captivity and what about the numerous captivities during the days of the judges? Or how man can distort his own thinking when he comes to eternal truth to try to make himself look big and good before God when in reality there is nothing to really show for it.
And our Lord showed them that they were not children of God. but they were really children of the devil. He said, they claim to be Abraham's seed. He said, if you're Abraham's seed, you do the works of Abraham. Abraham rejoiced to see my dad. He saw it and was glad. But you see, they kept back going. They kept on going back. They kept back going. That sounds French-Ovenia Dutch, doesn't it? Sounds like Holland. They kept going back. to our Lord's earthly life. They said, you're not even fifty years old yet. And you talk about having seen Abraham? He had told him, I'm equal with a father.
I'm coextensive with a father. I'm the eternal son of God. But you see, they didn't believe. So knowing that there's such a thing as a faith that does not save, it is imperative, friends, that we know the faith that does save, and that we have the faith that does save. Is my faith genuine? It is nothing wrong with asking ourselves the question and examining ourselves under the open word of God. Now the Bible is very clear. The Bible is very clear that all who believe And when we use the word believe tonight, we're talking about belief in the genuine sense of the term, in the term of genuine saving faith.
Now you'll notice on your paper the second sentence, true saving faith, this is in the introduction, true saving faith that has its seat in the heart and is rooted in the regenerate life. In other words, that person has been born of God and he therefore believes. And it's imperative that we believe. It's quite evident that God doesn't have to believe. It is the sinner who has to believe. Now, notice, this faith is not, first of all, an activity of man, but a potentiality wrought by God in the heart of the sinner.
This is a result of the effectual call, not the cause of the effectual call of God. That effectual call results in faith. That's why John five, twenty-four says, Verily, verily I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me half everlasting life. And to be able to hear means that the hearing ear has been given to the child of God. Now notice the definition of saving faith. Last week I gave you a definition of faith from Berkov. I gave you a second. And it is a definition in the area of saving faith I really like.
He says, a certain conviction wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit as to the truth of the gospel and a hearty reliance or trust on the promises of God In Christ. Now we want to work out from that tonight. And see what that hearty trust. And that certain conviction. How it works. In the light. Now notice. Two. There are three parts of saving faith. Now on your paper. Those three parts. Are on number four. In parenthesis. Five. And six. The intellectual element. The emotional element.
And the volitional element. Now, but before that, look at one, two, three. One, we must keep in mind that faith is an activity of man as a whole, and not any part of man. It is the whole man that believes unto righteousness. This is why the Word of God says, with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Spurgeon had a statement. that he made and he says man has a subtle way of believing something with the upper part of his mind and leaves his body totally unaffected to obey what he's read or what he believes and this is not saving faith of course Purgeon knew that but that's the way he worded it and there are many people who have a way of believing with the upper part of their mind but their body does not agree with it but when it comes to saving faith It's the whole man that is involved in believing unto salvation.
Number two, faith is an exercise of the soul which is in common with all similar exercises. Therefore, it appears simple. And we often speak of simple faith, don't we? We often speak of simple faith, and yet on closer scrutiny, it is found to be complex and intricate. Nothing hard about believing on the person of Christ, but the more that we know about believing on Christ, the more intricate we see it to be. And then third, it is for this reason that we examine the various elements that comprise genuine saving faith.
For when I study a passage like John chapter eight, And when I study a passage like John chapter six, where we see a sifting of, quote, believers, those who claim to be believers, and we find there are many who believe but are really not saved. I want to be sure that I have the faith that saves. Not simple belief that leaves me without any responsibility toward God at all. And I have a certain book at home.
It's in a quarterly. An article in a theological journal, really. That was written by a theologian. And he claims that the people of John A. were saved. And which is hard for me to take. And he makes such a big play on the word believe. But you have to put that word in its context. And in the context of John, we find what did they believe? And we find that what they believed was in total error to what was being taught by the Son of God.
It's like that verse that is often used by so-called charismatic in Matthew, not Matthew, Acts, have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? If a verse was quoted to me in the form of a question, a number of times in my lifetime it has been that one. Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? And I always retort very quickly since I believed what? You see, if you believe, you have to believe something. What do you believe? And usually I come up with sorrow. You see, well, what did the people in Acts chapter nineteen believe?
And you have the key to the interpretation of the passage. Well, let us look at the three parts of saving faith. First of all, you have the intellectual element. Noticia. This is a Latin word, and it's a word for knowledge. The knowledge of faith consists in a positive recognition of truth. And in this positive recognition of truth, a man accepts as true whatsoever God says in his word, especially what he says about man's deep depravity, man's lossness. and redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
The Son of Man, friends, is come to seek and to save that which was lost. And John R. Rice wrote that paper that sounds so strange, but it was a good gospel message, why all good people will be lost. He wrote that a number of years ago, and I had a Mennonite friend up north who trusted the Lord and became very active, and he loved to give that paper out. Why all good people will be lost. And in it, it deals with man's lostness, and that all his good deeds cannot merit the approval of God, that God's approval is on the basis of grace and grace alone.
For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God. So when it comes to this word knowledge, you see, it consists of a positive recognition of truth. First, concerning man's lostness, his depravity, the fact that he cannot do anything good on the vertical way toward God. Now he could do a lot of good things on the horizontal. He can bake a cake for his neighbors. He can bail a neighbor out of jail, do a lot of good things on the horizontal, but he can never do anything on the vertical.
For God, that's the vertical that's important. My relationship to God. This is what is important. And by the way, that's what John R. Wright stressed in that paper. Now notice, the certainty of this knowledge. You see, Hebrews eleven is the great faith chapter of the Bible. And the first verse says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now I'm quoting King James translation. But in the revised it says, Faith is the substance of things hoped for, a conviction, an assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.
In other words, we notice there's a certainty here. It is a conviction of things not seen. So when we read about the various people of faith in Hebrews eleven, like when you get down to verse thirteen, it says, These all died in faith, having not seen. You see, having not seen. But they died in faith. What? They believed. They had a knowledge of things not seen as yet. Now, B, this knowledge is accepted by us as certain, and it is reliable on the veracity of God.
I think this is brought out so vividly in Revelation chapter one, where God is speaking to John on the Isle of Patna. And John says, I was a... in the spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a voice as of a trumpet. And as he looked, turned to see the voice speaking to him. He beheld the risen Lord in all his glory. And he fell down to worship him. And the Lord puts his right hand on John. And he said, and he raises him up. And he said to him, Fear not. I am the first and the last.
In other words, since he is the first, what he's really saying to John, you heard about Joshua, you've heard about Moses, you've heard about Abraham, you've read about Jacob, you've gone through about Daniel, all these great men, I am the first and the last. What I say is true, as I was with them. I am with you. I am the first and the last. Fear not. You don't need to fear living. A lot of people are afraid to live. We don't need to fear living because as our blessed Lord was with Joshua, he's with us.
As our Lord was with Abraham, he's with us. And we don't need to fear dying. He says, I am he that liveth and was dead. And we don't need to fear the future. He said, Behold, I'm alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of hell. In other words, my best friend has the keys to eternity. We don't need to be afraid. That's what we mean by the veracity of God. God keeps his word. You see, notice C in your paper. The certainty of this knowledge has its warrant in God himself. There is nothing that can be more certain.
The word of God, friends, is more certain than tomorrow's sunrise. It is. For God has magnified His word above all His name we read in the Psalms. Now notice, see, and this is very important. And here's where the argument often is. But let's be honest today, the measure of this knowledge, how much knowledge is required for faith to be genuine? How much knowledge is really required for faith to be genuine?
Now, you see, true saving faith must contain at least a minimum of knowledge. A minimum. Well, how much? Well, let's notice these. The more knowledge one has, the richer his faith will be. That's true. For faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. But how much is necessary for it to be genuine? I think the answer is found in C, really. Although A and B are very important. C, one who accepts Christ by faith will also be ready and willing to accept God's testimony as a whole.
You see, if a man claims to be saved, he's going to accept the testimony concerning the virgin birth. For he'll realize, how can the Lord be my Savior if he's not telling me the truth concerning his birth? How much did Lydia believe in order to be saved in Acts XVI? We're not told always. It just says she attended unto the things spoken by Paul. That's all that we read. But she obeyed what she knew.
What did the Philippian jailer believe? How much did he know? He heard Paul and Salas sing. And then he said, what must I do to be saved? And Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house. And we have to be so careful. lest we don't make a big mountain out of things that people need to believe in order to be saved. A lot of the things that we learned after, after, after we were saved, I want to tell you, what do we believe when we're saved? I believe I'm a sinner and that Christ died for sinners. And through his redempty work on the cross, Through the shedding of his blood, he ransomed sinners from eternal death, and we believe it, and we enter in to the joy of salvation.
That's knowledge. We have to know about the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. How much? We just know that we're lost, and that Christ died for people that are lost. The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. That brings us to the second part of the saving faith, the emotional element. There is an emotional element in saving faith, and it's a sense or accent. You see, knowledge and assent are very similar.
In fact, it's quite difficult many times to divide them. But since it's very, we want to try to be clear here, it's probably wise to regard knowledge and essence as two aspects of the same element in faith. Knowledge may then be regarded as a more passive and receptive side. In other words, we believe. There's a path, we believe the word of God. And then essence. is the more active in the transitive side, in the emotional joy that attends the burden of guilt being removed from our backs.
Oh, what a joy it was. And you see this if you've read Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Oh, to me, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, that is a tremendous... book, and if you've not read it, shame on you. But anyway, as Pilgrim approached the cross, and he looked at the cross, the burden fell off his back, and it rolled into the supplicant. He saw it no more, and he went away singing. That's what takes place when a person truly stays. There is an emotional element in salvation.
I think it's expressed well in the hymn, Loved with Everlasting Love, Led by Grace, this love to know, especially in the second stanza, where it says, Heaven above is softer blue. Earth around is sweeter green. Something lives in every hue Christless eyes have never seen. When the eyes of an unbeliever are open to the glories of the grace of God, Green is greener and blue is bluer, and you walk with an unfaltering step. There's something about being saved. Now, look at the volitional element. And by volitional, we seduce you.
We're talking about trust. This is a crowning element of faith, what we call trust. Faith is not merely a matter of the intellect. nor of the intellect and the emotions combined. There must be this matter of trust. It's a matter of the will which determines the direction of the soul. This volitional element. You notice, see, this third element consists in a personal trust in Christ as Lord and Savior. including a surrender of the soul as guilty and defiled to Christ, and a reception and appropriation of Christ as a source of pardon and spiritual life.
There is a time when we trust Christ. And we trust Christ as a matter of the will. The whole man is involved. Notice G. When we take all three elements, it is evident that the seed of faith cannot be placed in the intellect, nor in the feeling, nor in the will exclusively, but only in the heart. Now when we're talking about the heart, we're not talking about that pump. We're not talking about that pump that pumps the blood.
We're talking about the seed of man, the inner man, that directs the outer man, and it involves the whole man. And it is referred to as the heart. With a heart, man believeth unto righteousness. In other words, the central organ of man's spiritual being. Now you see, when this takes place in the life, There is a certainty connected with us. There is a certainty connected with it. And it tends to awaken in us a sense of security and a feeling of assurance in the soul.
So that when a person trusts Christ, they can say, without anybody putting words in their mouth, God save me. Now I'd like to put this in the form of an illustration. Two men on a ship. Suppose it was just you and me and we're crossing the... Now you've all heard me say this before, but I'm going to say it again. Two people crossing the Atlantic on pleasure cruise. Or maybe they're going to Europe. And as they're crossing the Atlantic, there's an awful bump.
Tremendous bump, and the ship rocks. And after a while, the captain summons everyone to the top deck. The captain says to them, we've hit an iceberg. And the ship is taking on water more rapidly than the pumps can get it up. This ship is going to sink. But you see all along the sides of the ship are the lifeboats. And there's a sailor who is a given is in charge of each lifeboat. If you will, they're lowering the lifeboats, if you will get into the lifeboat, you'll be saved.
Because about twenty miles beyond the horizon there's an island. and they will get you safely to the island. Now what do we have? We have knowledge. The captain has given us a certain knowledge. Number one, we hit an iceberg. Number two, the ship is going down. Number three, the lifeboats are being roared. And if we get on, we'll make it to an island. I look at you, there are just two of us. I look at you and you look at me. And we say to one another, the captain's a nice guy, isn't it?
I believe every word he says. We have knowledge and we have a sense. We have sense that the knowledge that we have is good. We have the active side and we have the passive side. You see, receiving that knowledge was very passive. It really works on our innards. The ship is going down. But with ascent comes the emotional thing. There's a way of escape. And that's what the gospel is. And therefore the word of God cries out to man, Why will you die?
Sayeth the Lord. Now having knowledge and having ascent is a wonderful thing. But where are your feet? As we stand there and talk, they're on a sinking ship. They're on a sinking ship. And I look at you and I say, listen, I do believe what you say about the captain. And I do believe the ship is going down, but I'm getting on the lifeboat. Goodbye. That's the volitional part of it. And we get on the lifeboat, as our captain says. And you see, when it comes to the gospel, beloved, The Word of God declares unto us knowledge, and the person who reads the Word of God, who hears the Word of God, has a certain intellectual knowledge concerning the person of Christ.
There are multitudes of people have that. And there are some people who go a step further. They believe that that knowledge that they have is right, but they do nothing about it. They do not trust their souls to the person of Jesus Christ. Friends, trust is so important. All you might be here tonight, you have knowledge, you have a sense, but your feet are on a sinking ship because you have never trusted yourself.
to Jesus Christ. Why not tonight? There isn't any other Savior. And he gives a promise to as many as received him. To them gave he the right to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. I have one more illustration that you've heard before. I was playing tennis a pallet life a number of years ago. with a fellow who played big league baseball at one time for the Kansas City Royals. And he was a good tennis player. And he worked for Pallet Life.
No. And of course, he went to one of the big churches in Greensboro. And he said to me, he said, the Bible is such a complex book. It takes an intellectual man to interpret it. And I want someone that has a number of degrees that can interpret the Bible. When I go to church, I want to hear a man who is well educated and has the degrees to tell me what the Bible says. Well, I said to him, have you ever read an insurance policy?
He said, yes. I said, do you understand it? Oh, he said, I have to. It's my work. I said, may I quote a verse from the Bible to you? I said, I'm going to quote First John chapter five, verse twelve. It says, He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. All one syllable words. I said, are you going to stand before God someday and acknowledge that you could understand a complex insurance policy, but the simplicity of his word stumbled you.
You see that verse is in two parts. We either have the Son of God and have life, or we don't have the Son of God and we don't have life. We can have knowledge. We can have a sense what our feet are on a sinking ship. Oh, thank you unto God. Coming back to that first verse that we read tonight, the apostle said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there are in, in the gospel, in the message, is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.
As it is written, the just shall live by faith. So in the final analysis, your knowledge and assent is good, but there must be that committal to Jesus Christ. Have you committed yourself to him? Now let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you that salvation is of the Lord. We do not save ourselves. It is you who is the Savior. And you save us through the work of your dear son, the shedding of his blood, the payment of the price for sin.
And then because of that, you justify. You declare the believing sinner righteous. And oh, we thank you for the privilege of faith. And now we commend this company to thee and to the word of thy grace, which is able to build us up and give us an inheritance among all that are sanctified through Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.