Saving Faith

i want to read one very familiar verse as a text for this message and one you've quote wouldn't even have to turn there i don't suppose but hebrews 11 and verse 6. read it many times we've talked about it many times says very simply this but without faith it is impossible to please him and i feel faith in the house i think there's some people that believe in god today that believe in what he has done for he that comes to god must not should not ought to but must believe that he is and then you can't stop there but you have to believe that he is going to reward those that diligently seek him that diligently seek him and i want to preach a very simple title today and that is very simply saving faith saving faith let's ask for god to help us today lord we're so thankful for your presence that is in this house and what we feel and what we know is here i mean even if we don't feel we know what's here because your word gives us that and we stand on that in faith today in jesus

name now lord i pray that your word would be anointed that it will touch hearts that it will move in lives that will stir our faith amen and will help us god in jesus name hallelujah hallelujah and you may be seated god's church is a church of faith if we don't have faith we might as well just close the doors and go home right now right if we don't we don't believe in what this is faith is an interesting word it's only used in the old testament twice if you do a search and one of those times it's specifically used in the terms of faithfulness not necessarily believing but to be faithful over things but when you get to the new testament we see the word faith over 200 times word believe in the old testament is only used 17 times but in the new testament 100 times we see the word believe and so the old testament clearly was a message of works here's the law you obey it and while the new testament is squarely based on faith man believing trusting god in faith and jesus stressed the importance of faith and of

believing throughout his ministry you know it's no wonder as we heard last week that when whenever we got through the the sermon on the mount that the people marveled at the teachings of jesus they said well this isn't like the scribes and pharisees who got up as and read us a book of rules and book of laws they said there is power in what is going on because there is always power when faith is involved and jesus intended his church to be a church of faith six times the gospel according to john records jesus words he that believeth on me in 635 jesus said i am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger he that believeth on me shall never thirst in 647 verily verily i say unto you he that believeth on me hath everlasting life in 738 he said he that believeth on me as the scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water in john 12 44 jesus cried and said he that believeth on me believeth not on me but him that sent me in 1246 he said i am come

in a light into the world whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness and in 14 12 he said verily verily i say unto you he that believeth on me the works that i shall do he shall do that i do he shall do also and greater works than thee shall he do because i go to my father jesus said you got to believe amen in all those scriptures if you look back through there there was a promise if you believe there's living water if you believe you won't walk in darkness if you believe you're going to do great works and great exploits amen what if there is faith the apostles continued in faith they're preaching they're teaching it was centered in faith fact paul went to great lengths and ephesians to explain salvation in terms of faith he said be by grace you're saved what through faith and that not of yourselves even that faith is a gift that comes from god that we believe in him no wonder jude was so adamant that we hold on to this idea of faith in jude 3 he said beloved i gave the all diligence

when i did that to write unto you about this salvation it was need for me to write unto you and exhort you that you earnestly contend for faith that was once delivered unto the saints even as early as jude's writing he was seeing the church begin to fall away from the idea of faith they were no longer walking after the spirit and following after faith and he said so i am contending i'm fighting and encouraging you and telling you diligently to write unto you and exhort you to contend fight for faith i don't want to ever come to a church where there's no faith i don't ever want to be a part of something where faith goes out the door and we say well we'll just go through ritual no doubt faith was being replaced as other things filled it in you see here's why it's always easier to obey rules than it is to walk by faith it's always easier to say well just tell me what i need to do and i'll do it then to say you know what i'm just gonna trust god and i'm gonna follow after the spirit and

so the church that we read in the book of acts that was empowered by faith was quickly reduced within a hundred years of a church that just relied on works and the spirit that was there on the day of pentecost and and was active throughout the apostles ministries became more and more confined to just what considered itself the church until finally the church decided well we can handle the spirit and we can tell you whether you've got it or not you do this and you've got the spirit whether you had it or not the reformation succeeded in lifting a little bit of that darkness from the word of god and it shifted this focus away from just a sacrament that said well if you're baptized you automatically got the spirit if the church tells you do you've got it and they begin to talk a little bit more about faith but the faith of the rest of reformation was essentially just an affirmation of the word of god and that's as far as it went in other words the word said it i'm going to believe what the word says that's a start and today

most protestants even today believe that if i believe the word that's all i have to do they believe that as long as i say yes i believe that i'm saved and they consider anyone who requires what they deem to be works such as repentance or baptism or receiving the holy ghost to be a legalist well you're trying to earn your salvation you see what happens their view fails to grasp faith their doctrine consists in the idea that if you believe in the truth of the bible and you confess your sins that's all you got to do and now you are saved the problem is they don't understand what saving faith is all about and i hope by the time we're done today that we understand true faith that brings salvation first of all you have to understand and i want to make this perfectly clear and i hope i will faith always requires action not just saying you believe something but action you can believe many things but if you never act on that belief it accomplishes zero i can believe that by turning on the light switches this room lights up but if i

don't get flip the switch i'm still living in darkness and i can believe it well there's lights up there that i believe it i believe i can see when the lights are on and but if i don't do something nothing happens if i don't put some action with my belief i will remain in darkness you see faith always demands a response i think that's why james took the time to said you believe there is one god and you do well the devils also believe and you know what they do they tremble but wilt thou what wilt thou know o vain man that faith without works is dead notice the context here we like to pull that verse out when we're talking about oneness right we say see the bible says even the devils believe there's one god well that really wasn't the point james was trying to make even though it is there but what he was trying to say was you know what even the devils believe but they don't have faith there's a difference there's a distinction they know there's one god doesn't bother them all to know it does bother them but

they know they tremble because of it but they don't choose to let that one god direct and lead their lives they don't choose to follow after them if believing were enough the devils would be saved simple as that they believe so for those who say well all you got to do is believe well so do the devils now i'm not minimizing belief because it starts there but true faith understands there is one sovereign god but then they say because you're sovereign i am going to submit my life to the sovereignty of that god he's my king he's my lord and i'm going to follow after him that's the difference between just believing and saying you know what i've got faith oh the word new faith in the i said mentioned earlier it's not used a lot in the old testament the writer of hebrews understood that much of went on in the old testament really was because of faith and we see that in hebrews chapter 11.

just just a quick look at this chapter shows you what faith really is by faith abel offered not abel believed he offered he could have believed all day long i know the right thing to do is to serve god and he's there's one god and so i'm just going to believe that but until he offered there was no faith by faith enoch was translated by faith noah got out of the hammer and he built an ark by faith abraham obeyed through faith also sarah delivered a child by faith abraham offered up isaac by faith isaac blessed jacob by faith moses was hid by faith moses refused to be the son of pharaoh's daughter by faith moses forsook egypt by faith he kept the passover by faith he sprinkled the blood that the god told him to do by faith they passed through the red sea and by faith the walls of jericho fell every one of those things took some action not just believing but action faith belief that produced action you know i don't want to hear just tell me all you got to do is believe and you're saved it's time for the

church to stand up with james and said show me your faith without your works and i'll tell you what i'll do i'll show you my faith because i'm going to do the works i'm going to do what the word of god has to say that's what faith is all about i've repented of my sins why because i have faith in god i mean repent means to turn around it means to change your mind it means go the other way why because i believe what the word of god has to say and so i'm turning my life around i've been baptized i've been immersed in water in the name of jesus why because i want to work my way to salvation no because i have faith when i go down in that water in jesus name his blood washes away all my sins not just i believe he's done it but because he said to go down in water i believe that i've received the holy ghost with the evidence of speaking in the tongues why because there's a faith that says you promised this gift and you're going to give it to me i'm living

a life of holiness without which no man shall see god why because i have faith not because i'm trying to earn salvation or say well if i can do this good enough because my faith says i want to please god now you can call that works if you want but i call it faith the bible calls it faith the new testament although the old testament we see in hebrews where it talks about the new testament continues with this same pattern it was faith that caused the servants to take the water and pour it out and it became wine they could have said all day i believe what's in there is wine but until they put some action to it till they did it faith called the fr caused the friends of the man with palsy to tear up the roof and lower the man down before jesus faith caused the woman with the issue of blood not just say i know i can be healed but to reach out and to touch the hem of jesus garment it was faith that caused peter to jump out of a boat and to walk on water not

well jesus is doing i suppose i could too i believe that well go try it then it was only peter that had faith enough to say well i'm going to and jumps out of the boat faith caused the disciples to take the seven loaves and two fishes and begin to distribute it we're wasting our time here jesus now do what i said okay and they did it faith caused that to happen faith caused the blind man to go ahead and wash in the pool of siloam he could have stood there and said after jesus spit in the mud dirt made mud and put it on his eyes and said go wash he could have said you know what i believe you can heal my eyes but you sure didn't do it this time instead he said well i guess there's something i got to do that's faith it was faith that caused the disciples to say you know what let's go ahead and throw the bar nets over on the other side of the boat faith easy believism may acknowledge god is able to answer but faith acts on that belief settle that in your

hearts faith will always require action second thing faith must be based on the word of god there's no other way you do have to believe in the right things amen you've got to believe in what is true and what is right john calvin wrote the word is the basis whereby faith is supported and sustained if it turns away from the word it fails faith in anything else but this is not faith he said therefore take away the word and no faith remains you've got to have the word but to be more specific paul goes on and he said faith rests not just on the word and this is what i want to drive home for this part of the message faith depends according to paul on the preached or the spoken word of god let me prove it to you romans chapter 10 beginning at first 13 paul writing to the romans says this for whosoever shall call on the name of the lord shall be saved okay that's step one but then he asks begins to ask some questions how are you going to call on him in whom you haven't believed is god

able to say well i've heard he can maybe whatever but there's really no faith there how shall they believe in him in whom they have not heard and then he goes on to say and how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent then he goes on in verse 17 and he said so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god faith comes through preaching of the word of god not because of the preacher but because of what god has set forth in his word you see saving faith comes by the hearing of the word of god it's very interesting when you study this passage how paul presents it he's very consistent with the words that he uses here he twice emphasizes this idea of hearing he said how shall they hear not how shall they read it how shall they understand it how shall they conquer he said how do you hear and then he says faith comes by hearing and that word translated there in both of those places specifically says that which is heard with your ears the word not just

any word but word that you hear with your ears not that you see with your eyes not that you get any other way he's not talking about some good thought you had as you were studying scripture or maybe some scripture you read he is talking there very specifically something you heard and then he follows that thought with this statement that hearing comes by the word of god again the usage is very specific word here is not logos like we often talk like in the beginning was the word and the word was with god that's not the same greek word but is the rhema which means that which is or has been uttered by a living voice if we put all that together conflate the scripture with the definitions here's how you could read it faith comes by hearing that which is heard with the ears comes by the word of god that's been uttered by a living voice he's saying it takes both it takes a voice it takes a preacher it takes someone to present the word of god to you and it takes you receiving it with your ears because you see hearing

and faith go hand in hand you ever notice you can hear yet not listen you laugh so you're listening of course you hear you hear noise you hear a voice you hear things going on you hear hear people respond but you can hear and not comprehend you can hear things you get in a crowd you hear all kinds of voices but are you picking every one of them out and understanding no or sometimes someone's talking directly to you and you hear but you don't understand i've heard preachers i don't think i usually use this term but every once in a while they'll stop and say are you hearing me let me say that again are you hearing me of course you're hearing them what they really want no are you listening are you paying attention are you because hearing and faith go hand in hand both jeremiah and ezekiel prophesied which have eyes to see and they see not and they have ears to hear and they hear not and for that reason there are 16 times in the new testament where jesus is quoted as saying he that have ears let him hear why

because faith comes by hearing and jesus is wanting to build a church on faith it's all together possible to hear the words i'm speaking yet fail to grasp what the spirit is trying to do the writer of hebrews remind us in hebrews 4 2 he said for unto us was the gospel preached as well as to them in other words we heard it they heard it he said but the word preached did not profit them and here's why it wasn't mixed with faith in them that heard it you got to hear it and you got to believe it and you've got to act on it receive in faith the words that you hear there's a real interesting story that john records in his gospel and it came in in john chapter 12 jesus was approaching the time of his crucifixion there were people his disciples in particular that didn't understand his purpose there were others that didn't know who he was or couldn't grasp or didn't want to grasp that he was a messiah and and perhaps to help them understand the bible says he sighed in his spirit and he calls out in verse

12 father glorify thy name and the bible says there came a voice from heaven and said i have glorified it and i will glorify it again a voice directly from heaven and here's what john records happened the people therefore that stood by and heard it said do you hear thunder i think it just thundered somebody else said no i think i heard an angel talking the point was they heard a direct voice from god and they didn't comprehend what was going on you can hear and miss the point you can hear and not comprehend god spoke from heaven and all somebody heard was a rumble others heard the source and thought it was an angel can i ask what are your ears hearing this morning is this just another sermon or is it just a bunch of noise or is it a word of faith that says you know what something is beginning to stir in my heart i i pray it's the second one i pray somebody's saying you know what if i can just believe the word of god is going forth and i'm going to accept it and i'm going to act

on act on it carrying that thought one step further paul asks the question very point-blank how are you going to hear unless somebody preaches it to you now i'm not saying that because i'm up here preaching but you see when a preacher preaches god's word is quickened or made alive by the spirit or the anointing of god and then it becomes the spoken word of god preaching and prophesying is as much proclaiming what god has to say the word that we must respond to in faith we're not here today just to hear another sermon we're not here just to check it off and say i went to church today it does a little good even to take the word home and say well i'm just going to think about that for a while when god's timing is to say you know what i gave my word respond to what i'm trying to say you see i believe god creates us as a church to be an assembly of believers that come together in fellowship and to love and to lift up jesus christ as we've done earlier and to build and edify one another and

this only happens when we come together in services such as this that's why what we're doing here today is eternal what we're doing here can change a life what we're doing here can make you walk out different than when you came in that's why you can't experience everything god has for you just say well i'll just stay home and do it because we're all going the same place his plan is to work in and through his church and his plan is for the preaching of the word of god to go forth and you hear that living voice and you receive it with your ears i could even go one step further and say you know what if all we wanted to do this morning was just get you excited in a message that explains the word or present something you know what we'd be better off doing let's just get on youtube and pick out the best sermons we can find and we'll all just come and listen to them because there's some out there a lot better than this one i'm sure but here's the point that's not god's plan i said that's not

god's plan it doesn't matter who comes up here if they're preaching the word of god you better hear with your ear and you better let it impact your life and you better respond in faith and it's because god's people need to hear that personal that living voice as a witness to the power of god preaching is more than spoken words it is a dynamic force that will impact you if you will hear it will change your life if you will respond in faith amen paul makes it very plain in romans 1. he said it is the power of god said in romans he said so as much as is in me i am ready to preach the gospel i'm ready to proclaim it and here's why he said i'm not ashamed of the gospel of christ for it is the power of god unto salvation if you want to be saved you need to hear the preaching of the word of god you need to let it sink down into your soul you need to hear it with your ear and you need to respond in faith we do understand that preaching must be the

word of god i could come and preach and not get anywhere i can come and preach things that aren't in the word of god and it does you no good but as long as i'm in the book it quickens this word it makes it alive and it can change your life see you can believe in a lot of things you can believe in philosophy it won't save you you can believe in theology it won't get you there you can believe in education you can believe in a political party you can believe in yourself you can believe in a lie it doesn't matter you never can never say those things if because i believe those i have saving faith some people say well i'm working out my salvation my own way and i'll get there no you've got to be in the word of god so i think we've established faith requires action and faith requires hearing the word of god and i think the bible puts it all together and i want to remainder this sermon do that for us jesus said it this way in mark 16 this verse so unmisunderstood by so many

people he said this and he said unto them go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned people take that scripture and they say this is all you've got to do to be saved jesus said you believe you're baptized you're saved that goes back to what we talked about earlier when jude was cautioning against it people came up with the idea as long as i believe and i tell the church yes i believe and they baptize me i've got spirit and that's it the church says you're saved no it doesn't quite work that and i want to prove it to you from the word of god they simply feel that believing on the lord jesus christ as their personal savior is all i have to do some even to go so far i've heard people even deny the role of baptism they take that verse and i've had him do it to me it says he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall not be shall be

damned and they said well it didn't say anything about those that didn't get baptized so it must be okay boy we can twist any way we want can't we that's why scripture interprets scripture so let's look acts chapter 8. it's a little lengthy we'll go through it here the passage philip goes down to the city of samaria and he preaches christ unto them begins to proclaim the gospel of jesus christ and the people with one accord gave heed unto the things which philip spake hearing and seeing the miracles he did so they're watching what's going on they're seeing miracles they're seeing healing all this stuff and they gave heed or they begin to pay attention in other words they saw unclean spirits crying out with a wild voice came out of many that were possessed many that were taken with palsies that were lame that he saw they saw people healed and there was great joy in that city so they're taking heed to the words and there's great joy in their lives but there was a certain man called simon which before time in the same city preached christ and same city he didn't

preach christ he used sorcery and bewitched the people of samaria giving himself out that he was some great one to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest saying this man is the power of god so they were used to having simon around who they thought was the power of god and they gave heed unto him and now philip comes and they see more miracles and they're giving heed unto him isn't it interesting that people gave heed to philip's preaching just as they had given heed to simon in other words yeah they believed from what they saw on what they heard but yet obviously they were not yet saved there was also great joy because of what they heard and what they saw and they experienced joy in the works of god but were not yet saved can i say just some because somebody's excited about the things of god does not mean you have salvation let's go on and to him to simon they had great regard because for a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries but when they believed philip preaching the things of the kingdom of god

and the name of jesus christ they were baptized both men and women so now they're believing and they are baptized mark 16 16 we just read right believe and be baptized okay now look at this next verse then simon himself believed also now it didn't say he just thought he'd follow the crowd it said he believed and when he was baptized he continued with philip and wondering beholding miracles and signs which were done so that all the people are believing and baptized and simon is believing in baptism they must all be saved right that's what mark said the people believed they met the conditions of mark 16 16 simon believed met the conditions in mark 16 16.

but the apostles which in jerusalem had heard they received the word of god they sent unto them peter and john why because when they came down they prayed for them that they might receive the holy ghost well wait a minute i thought when you're baptized that was all said and done wait a minute for as yet he was not fallen on he was fallen upon none of them they had only been baptized the bible says in the name of the lord jesus then laid they their hands on them and they received the holy ghost you see the apostles were not satisfied that the samaritans had believed they wanted to see a faith that brought the spirit and that's why i say that it's not enough to say well i believed and i got baptized you got to keep moving in faith goes on to say and when simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles hand with the holy ghost was given he said you know what that's a great trick here let me get out my wall can you give me that i'll pay you i want to be able to do

that too give me this power on whoever i lay hands they receive the holy ghost now here's where it comes home simon believed simon was baptized and peter turns to him and say your money perished with you you have thought the gift of god could be purchased you have no part you have no lot in this matter your heart is not right in the sight of god repent therefore and pray to god perhaps the thought of that heart might be forgiven for i perceive you're in the gall of bitterness and you're in the bond of iniquity what was he saying simon you're still in sin you're not saved whoa i believe and i was baptized you can't tell me that i won't do that to you today but peter had no problem here's why it was apparent simon you're not saved your heart is not right you know it's been said you can go down in baptism as a dry center and you can come up with a wet one what's the difference you're not acting in faith you haven't turned around if you will and decided i'm going to walk the right way you

haven't decided to submit your life completely to god and i submit to you the difference is faith not just believing with your head but with your heart and your mind and soul and strength you see you're either all in this or you're not in this that's what faith is all about we need a faith that is unto salvation one more example in acts chapter 19 paul is traveling along apollos was at corinth paul's passing through the upper coast he comes to ephesus there are certain disciples there and he begins to talk to them and he asked them this question okay you believe you're followers you've you've been baptized into john's baptism these things but he asks in point blank have you received the holy ghost since you believed i'm talking about saving faith today more than just the fact that you've been baptized more than the fact that you believe the doctrine and that you're following those that have you received the holy ghost saving faith is always accompanied by the spirit of god a mental ascent to god's word may be a start but it is not salvation you've got to act on that

belief and let jesus be the lord of your life it's time that we move from a realm of belief to a realm of faith the realm of just saying i believe what they're saying my dad all my life he he was i'll just say he was old when i was born he was 40 the time that i was born and so by the time i'm growing up he's in his 50s and you know by the time i'm in high school he's almost 60 years old that's okay but he he went to church all his life and i heard him stand and tell people you ought to go to that pentecostal church that what they have is true and he did not have the holy ghost he had not been baptized but he believed it he wasn't saved it wasn't until many years later that i got a call dad wants to get baptized tonight i drove up to illinois i i was able to baptize him in water in jesus name and he got filled with the holy ghost and well into his seventies you see he finally understood it isn't just believing this message

i've got to act in faith musicians if you will come and what i want to tell you today is this salvation is for whosoever will i've heard people say well i can't it's not for me it can't be for me i've done too much or they say you know what i'm just there's too many things in my past or there's too many things in my life or it's just i've tried and it's not there and i can't get there the scripture goes on to say romans 12 and 3. paul tells us god hath tilt to every man not a measure the measure of faith he's put it in your heart it's there here's the thing you gotta hear and believe not just listen you gotta hear with your mind with your heart with your spirit and say yes i know this is for me and i'm gonna accept it and i'm gonna believe in it salvation isn't just for a few it's not for the privileged or those who think they're good enough it's not those that are trying to earn their way through it god has given everyone the measure of faith the point

is faith is only real when it takes action let's stand today and i'll ask again what are you hearing today have you just heard another typical pentecostal sermon or has something your ear caught today doing something in your heart is there something to stir in there that say you know what i want to believe this i hear it in the word of god and i know this is for me i believe faith today is stirring in someone's heart i believe someone is looking at this and say you know what god is able to answer my situation someone is saying i know that i believe god can do all things and i can believe he can save me or maybe it's a different situation i believe god can heal me or whatever it is but it's time that i'm going to act on that faith it's time i'm going to take it for more than just believing it can happen to say you know what i'm going to walk in faith and i'm going to open these altars right now why don't you come if there's anything you're hearing that says you know what this is

for me today if anything in your spirit is saying you know what i believe god is speaking to our hearts i believe god wants to work i believe god has something for me why don't you just begin to come if you need the holy ghost today why don't you come if you've never experienced the power of god in your life why don't you come if you're contemplating baptism and thinking maybe i should get baptized in jesus name why don't you come and begin to talk to god about it and then you can talk to some others around you amen and we'll make that arrangement if if you've got a need in your life in a situation that you you'd be looking at you say you know i've had this for a long time and i just don't see an answer why don't in faith today you stop out and say i'm gonna believe this word of god that i've heard that there's nothing impossible with him that he is able to do exceeding abundantly above everything i'm asking or thinking that he's able to reach down and to change my life he's able to change

my situation amen as you come why don't you just come and lift hands in faith amen and call out to god he said if you call on him you shall be saved it's the believing and then the action is call out lord i believe your word lord i accept what you want to do that's it some of you come in around these and pray with them if you will amen right now in jesus name hallelujah let your hearts be stirred with faith today that's it seek him call upon him but if you call on me i'm not far from any one of you i'm right here i'm standing at the door i'm knocking if you'll just open up open up and say lord come into my situation lord come into my knees come into my heart today jesus that's it call on him hallelujah