Amen. All right, so we only printed off about 60 copies of the outline. If you didn't get one, it is on the Facebook group, Grace Bible Church Facebook group. Should be probably the last post. You can just click on that link there and it'll take you to the Word document. So if you want to look at the notes and you didn't get a copy, you can look at it on the Facebook group, Grace Bible Church. We're on chapter 14. of our confession, the London Baptist Confession of Faith, and we're gonna be looking at all three paragraphs of chapter 14, and the title of this chapter is Of Saving Faith. Over the last several weeks, having discussed effectual calling, justification, adoption, and sanctification, we'll travel back, if you will, to what is the instrumental means of salvation. How is salvation appropriated to the sinner? Through what channel does it flow? Is it measured out by priests or ministers through religious activity such as baptism and penance? Or does salvation flow to the sinner through means of faith alone? It is faith, what our confession calls saving faith, that appropriates the work of Christ to the sinner. Christ's work of atonement is the meritorious cause of our salvation, but it is faith which is the instrument through which we receive that merit unto ourselves. Christ is the meritorious cause, but we receive that merit through the means of faith. When we say that we are saved by faith alone, we are talking about the instrumental cause and not the meritorious cause of our salvation. Faith does not merit salvation. Only Christ has done that. Faith merely receives Christ unto oneself. When we say we are saved by faith alone, we are talking about how we receive the benefits that Christ obtained by his works. This is why we can say that we are saved by faith alone and say in the same breath that we are saved by Christ alone. It's because we're speaking about two distinct things. but one is the instrument through which we receive. The other is the merit that we need. So the topic for today's lesson is saving faith. The reason it's called saving faith is because there is a type of faith, a bare and temporary faith, or even an historical faith, which does not save, or in other words, does not connect us to the one who saves. outline for a lesson today found in his exposition on the 1689 Confession. His outline summarizes the three paragraphs in this chapter as the source of saving faith, that's point one, the acts of saving faith, and the distinctiveness of saving faith. But before we dive into the outline, we need to understand what faith is in a biblical sense. We need to define faith. The reformers identified three elements in saving faith, which they laid out as knowledge, assent, and trust. Knowledge, assent, and trust. Let's look at these a little closer. The preaching of the gospel is, first of all, bearing witness to the truth. It is the declaration concerning the good news of Jesus Christ. The good news must be comprehended by the hearer. This means that it must be expressed, expounded, made known. Faith cannot exist where there is no knowledge. This is the first task of the preacher. It is to declare the content of the gospel so that it can be believed. Romans 10, 14, and 17 clearly teaches the necessity of knowledge for saving faith. It says, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Knowledge is the content, or knowledge of the content, of the gospel is necessary, but it is not enough to simply know what the gospel is. Many people know what the Bible says that Jesus did, but this does not make them Christians. King Agrippa knew what Jesus did and understood its meaning because Paul explained it to him, yet he was not a Christian. He had knowledge, but he didn't have saving faith. This brings us to the second element of saving faith, besides knowledge, which is assent. We not only need to know the facts or the content of the gospel, we must acknowledge its truth. Peter told the rulers of the Jews concerning Christ, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. There are many people who will give assent to this truth of the gospel. They believe that it is true, that Christ is the way of salvation, and this is necessary. We have to assent to the truth of the gospel. Even so far as people will identify with this truth and call themselves Christians, many young people are in this group. They have not, they've been brought up by Christian parents. They do not disbelieve the truths that they have been taught. But the reality is that they love their sins more than they love Christ. They hold back from total commitment to Christ. They somehow think that they can love the world and Christ. They believe Christ, but they do not believe in Christ, and there's a difference. This brings us to the third element of saving faith. Besides knowledge and assent, knowing what the gospel is and assenting that it is true, this third element is trust. A person may believe intellectually that a parachute will save him from death if he were to jump out of an airplane, yet he has moved beyond mere intellectual knowledge and into the realm of trust. when he actually relies on his parachute by jumping out of the plane. At this point, he has committed himself to the parachute. His conviction that it will save him led him to commit his life to it. The proof of this is that he actually relies upon it by jumping out of the airplane. You know a person has faith in their parachute when they jump. We see these two aspects of faith in scripture. That is conviction and commitment. Differentiated by the phrases believe that and believe in. Martha said of Jesus in John 11, 27, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. We see here her conviction of the truth. She believes something about Jesus to be true. The other phrase, believe in or believe on, denotes something slightly different than intellectual conviction and carries with it the idea of personal commitment. We see this in John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. We might miss the idea of committing ourselves to Him if it just said, whosoever believes Him. We could believe Christ without entrusting ourselves to Him. But believing in Him involves an act of the will and of the whole person. It actually commits their lives into His hands. This is what believing in Christ is. We believe Christ, that is necessary. and we believe in Christ, we've committed ourselves to him. These are conviction and commitment, which are both necessary aspects of saving faith. Tim Waldron quotes John Murray, which helps encapsulate the truth here that we're trying to express. He said, Murray said, faith must rise to trust, and a trust that consists in entrustment to him. In faith, there is the engagement of person to person in the inner movement of the whole man to receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation. It means the abandonment of confidence in our own or any human resource in a totality act of self-commitment to Christ. It's easy to remember what saving faith is if we just remember its elements, which consist of knowledge, assent, and trust. Knowledge and assent comprise conviction, and trust is commitment. It's an easy way to remember it. So let's look at the source of saving faith as we read paragraph one. It says, the grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the word, By which also, and by the administration of baptism in the Lord's Supper, prayer, and other means appointed of God, it is increased and strengthened." Now this paragraph briefly touches on some of the doctrines we've already talked about. in the confession, namely election, regeneration, and effectual calling. It is important that we realize that the faith we have for the saving of our souls does not originate in ourselves, but rather it is a gift of the grace and the kindness of God. It is God who chose to save us from eternity past. It is God who regenerated our hearts that we might turn unto him. It is God who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. Ephesians 2.8 says, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. God has chosen the preaching of the Word being brought by and with the Spirit of God as the typical means of engendering saving faith. Romans 10.17 declares, So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. One thing that is apparent in this paragraph of the Confession is that saving faith is not a temporary faith. That is, saving faith is a faith that remains. It has longevity. It perseveres. It begins in our hearts through the ministry of the Word and Spirit, but it grows and is strengthened by the ordinances, prayer, and the other means of grace. This is why church attendance and availing ourselves to the means of grace are so important in our lives as Christians. As we come together in worship, as we sit under the priest's word, as we partake of our spiritual food through the body and the blood of Christ, as we witness baptism, as we pray, as we fellowship, even as we correct one another, our faith is being strengthened. We're being built up in our most holy faith. We are being established upon a sure foundation. We are being fed and nourished. Our faith is ever increasing. Glory be to God for the church. So the source of saving faith is God himself, who gives it to us through the word and spirit, or through the word as the spirit germinates it in us. Peter said that we are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. In John chapter three, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born of the Spirit if he is to enter the kingdom of heaven. The new birth is truly a work of the Holy Spirit, by means of the Word of God, as the Spirit quickens us on a new life. So the Word of the Spirit, that's the source of saving faith. Let's go now to the Acts of Saving Faith, paragraph two. It says this, by this faith a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the word for the authority of God himself, and also apprehendeth an excellency therein above all other writings and all things in the world as it bears forth the glory of God and his attributes, the excellency of Christ and his nature and offices, and the power and fullness of the Holy Spirit in his workings and operations, and so is enabled to cast his soul upon the truth thus believed, and also acteth differently upon that which each particular passage thereof containeth, yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of God for this life and that which is to come. But the principal acts of saving faith have immediate relation to Christ, accepting, receiving, and resting upon him alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of the covenant of grace." That's a mouthful, isn't it? Big sentence. So in the first paragraph, we learn that the source of saving faith is the Holy Spirit working through the Word. as he changes our disposition toward God and makes us willing and able to believe in Christ and the saving of our soul. Paragraph two describes how this new faith responds to the word of God as it comes to him through the reading and hearing of the word. Saving faith believes God, period. Think about that. Saving faith simply believes God. It sees God as the highest authority and as having commanding authority in our lives. We see this attitude when the apostles called themselves servants, slaves, or bond servants to Christ. When Saul was being converted, he asked the risen Christ, Lord, what will you have me to do? The implication is, I will do whatever you command. And he did. To the person who has saving faith, the word of God becomes authoritative. He submits himself under it. He believes it to be true and the principal authority in his life. In John 14, 23, Jesus said, if a man loved me, he will keep my words. and my father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. This is a description of the true believer. The one who loves God keeps his words, as Jesus said. This is the description of true faith. This is how saving faith responds to the word. It keeps it, loves it, obeys it, trembles at it, glories in it. takes refuge in it. As we consider the Word of God and its foundational role to our faith, I want to draw your attention to a phenomenon, unfortunately, that plagues many Bibles today. Sometimes you'll see a section of Scripture bracketed, or even double-bracketed, along with a footnote saying something like, the earliest manuscripts do not include these verses, or something like that. I'm not going to go into a long discussion of this, but it's worth mentioning in this chapter on saving faith that the so-called science that leads scholars to say things like this is flawed. I'd be happy to have a discussion with any of you who are troubled by this, but this troubles me greatly. But there are many places in scripture that to the modern scholar have become uncertain as to whether they are the word of God or not. And they come to these uncertainties through the method, the quote, scientific method that they're using. I'll just say for now that we should receive the Bible that has been handed down to us by the believing church and not doubt these passages that many modern scholars reject. To be uncertain as to the content of scripture, both the books that it contains and the words of those books is destructive. I'll say it again, it's destructive. Faith. There are many scholars like the atheist Bart Ehrman who have destroyed the faith of thousands of young people as they go through his classes, his or other scholars that believe like him, or read their books because their method is to undermine the trustworthiness of the very words of God. We need to be attuned to these things. One of the largest sections that they reject are the last 12 verses of the book of Mark. But if we accept their skepticism about this enormous passage, 12 whole verses, it raises the question as to where else is scripture untrustworthy. Doubt arises in the minds of many concerning the very idea that God has preserved his word to our day intact and uncorrupted. In the end, this becomes an attack upon the trustworthiness of God himself and doesn't leave a firm foundation for our faith. Scripture says in Psalm 113, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Scripture is that firm foundation upon which our faith rests. flee from any thought that God hasn't preserved his word. I'll quote it again. He describes the word upon which our new birth rests as incorruptible. Think about that word, incorruptible and abiding forever. He said, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Don't give way to men who undermine this truth. The Bible hasn't been corrupted. If it has, God is a liar. Think about it. It's incorruptible. If we say that it is corruptible, God is a liar. Modern textual criticism presupposes the corruption of Scripture. This is at odds with what Scripture says, and it will erode your faith. So implicitly believing all that God has said is the disposition of saving faith, but it is believing God concerning Christ and the gospel that is the particular act of saving faith. We must believe all that God has said. We must have a humble disposition toward God, believing all that he has said, but the particular, excuse me, The particular act of saving faith is what the Bible says concerning Christ in the gospel. When Philip preached the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch, the eunuch responded to it by asking this. He said, see, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still. And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. The confession of the eunuch is the heart of saving faith. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. This is a statement of acceptance and trust as to who Christ is and the atonement he has accomplished for us. Remember, the passage that Philip was teaching him from was Isaiah 53, talking about the substitutionary atonement of the Messiah. He believed that Jesus Christ was the one who made atonement. He believed what Philip told him about Jesus. He had saving faith. He was baptized. The last part of paragraph 2 in this passage of our- in this chapter of our confession bears this out. It says, Let's go on now to paragraph 3. The, uh, distinctiveness of saving faith. This paragraph reads, this faith, although it be different in degrees and may be weak or strong, yet it is in the least degree of it, different in kind or nature of it, as is all other saving grace from the faith and common grace of temporary believers. I read that wrong. This faith, although it be different in degrees, and may be weak or strong, yet it is in the least degree of it, different in kind or nature of it, as is all other saving grace, from the faith and common grace of temporary believers. And therefore, though it may be many times assailed and weakened, yet it gets the victory, growing up in many to the attainment of a full assurance through Christ, who is both the author and finisher of our faith. In a nutshell, the distinctiveness of saving faith is that it is supernatural. This paragraph acknowledges that our faith may be weak or strong and go through times of trial and testing, yet saving faith is ultimately victorious. Scripture speaks of temporary believers who, in the end, perish. There are temporary believers who haven't believed in the saving of their soul. Scripture, but those who have saving faith persevere to the end in that conviction and commitment. Even though their faith may be weak at times, they persevere. They continue believing. In the final analysis, they are trusting in Jesus Christ alone as their only hope of salvation. This does not mean that all believers have full assurance Which is a great blessing to many. But a person can have saving faith without the assurance of that faith. I know some of you lack assurance of salvation. This does not mean that the one who lacks assurance is doubting God. It could mean that. But it doesn't necessarily mean that the person who lacks assurance is doubting God. Most often it means that the troubled soul is doubting themselves. Scripture commands us to examine ourselves as to whether we are in the faith. We are to make our calling and election sure. We are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. It is sometimes through this self-examination that we can be doubtful of our salvation. We have been made aware of our sins by the Holy Spirit. We have called out to Christ to save us, which he has promised to do for all who come to him in faith. But as we go in our Christian life, we still see the corruption of our old nature being manifested in us. We look upon the weakness of our faith and the seeming strength of our remaining sin, and we doubt, we doubt that God would continue to receive such a one as ourselves. Our confession is teaching us that we may have a weak faith and lack assurance, but the difference between the one who possesses saving faith and the one who has temporary faith is the fact that his faith perseveres. This is because it is God who is the author and finisher of our faith. There are many evidences that we may look to that bear witness to our faith. And we should see some of this fruit in our lives. A true believer will have fruit of faith. You'll be able to see it. You'll be able to tell. But our full assurance lies not in our own works, though they may be wrought in faith. No, our full assurance is not even the strength of our faith. It lies in the promise of God through Jesus Christ, who has pledged himself to receive all who flee unto him for salvation. Listen to Paul as he teaches us how we may have assurance of salvation in Hebrews 6, verses 11 and 20. He said, and we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end, that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises, perseverance. For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself, saying, Surely I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men barely swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope set before us." Let me read that part again. might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul. For we have hope in the immutable promise of God. That it is impossible for God to lie. And that if we have fled to him for refuge, if we have fled to him for salvation and faith, that he will receive us. It is his promise. and he cannot lie. He says it's both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered even Jesus, made in high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Jesus Christ is our high priest, pleading for us before the throne of God. Our assurance lies in the immutable promise of God that he will surely save the one who has fled to him for refuge. Christ is our high priest who is continually making intercession for us before the very throne of God, the throne in which Christ himself sits at the right hand of the Father. He has pled our case and pledged his own life for ours. As long as he lives, we will live by and through him. Christ isn't going anywhere. As long as he lives, we live in him. I close with this from Romans 8, 33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies it. So if you're wavering in your assurance, let your assurance rest in this truth. that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, flee to him, rest in him. He is the author and finisher of our faith. Amen.