Mar 19
17
Faith and Works
There are many who call themselves Christians who would say a man is not
saved by works. They then turn around and make a work out of believing
or look to their works as evidence of their salvation. If by grace, then
is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace Rom. 11:6a.
Grace and works cannot be mixed for our salvation. So, what sayeth the
scriptures about good works? First, those who are trusting Christ don’t
look to their works as the cause or evidence of their salvation. (Matt.
25:37-39.) Grace is the only cause of our salvation and faith is the
only evidence. (Eph. 2:8-9; Heb. 11:1). Second, good works are ordained
of God that we should walk in them Eph. 2:10. Third, it is God that
works in them causing them to will and to do of His good pleasure Phil.
2:13. And fourth, believers are zealous for good works Titus 2:4. They
are careful to maintain good works, knowing that these things are good
and profitable unto men Titus 3:8. At the end of the day, they believe
themselves to be but, unprofitable servants Luke 17:10.
May it be said of us what the Lord said to the woman who broke open the
alabaster box of precious ointment. She hath wrought a good work on me,
for she hath done what she could Mk. 14:3-8. ~Greg
Let Us Labor to Rest
“Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest” (Heb. 4:11).
Seems to be a contradiction in terms, labor to rest; but in reality, it
is not. Let us eagerly strive and earnestly pursue to count all our
works as “dung and filthy rags” and to “cease from our own works,” cease
from trusting ourselves, cease from going about to establish our own
righteousness (Rom 10:3-4) and to rest, relax and trust the Lord Jesus
Christ, who accomplished all righteousness and all salvation for us
(Rom. 8:32; Col. 2:9-10; Phil. 3:7-9).
This is impossible for any sinner to do apart from Almighty grace!
However, when the Lord is pleased to reveal Himself unto us, it is the
delight of faith (Heb. 12:2), the joy of hope (II Thess. 2:16) and the
burning desire of love to come to Christ and rest in Him (I John 4:19).
He said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am
meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my
yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Oh Lord, give us grace to rest in
thee!
~Tom Harding
A Pure Faith
Todd Nibert
When I was on chemo-therapy, I took the liberty to change some
medications that I was on without notifying my doctor. The change in
medicines had an adverse effect. I was plunged into depression and
despair. All I could see was blackness and darkness. Everything seemed
hopeless. I was even questioning the existence of God. If He did exist I
had no assurance that I knew Him.
During that time I knew that the only way I could be saved was if Christ
did everything in my salvation. I could not even come up with the faith.
Perhaps that is the purest my faith has ever been.
‘With the heart man believeth’
Read Jeremiah 17:5-14
‘If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus; and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved.’ This is the one thing that is essential: you must believe in
thine heart’. I urge you to ‘examine yourselves, whether ye be in the
faith’. I would do nothing to rob any true believer of the joy of
confident assurance. But I must warn all men to guard against religious
presumption. It is Satan’s cheap counterfeit.
False faith can be very deceptive. False faith produces good works. It
excites the emotions. It reforms the outward life. It performs deeds of
religion. It causes sorrow for sin. It speaks well of Christ. It does
works of charity. It trembles under the preaching of the gospel. False
faith gains high offices in the church. It secures peace of mind. It
walks in the company of great preachers. False faith even holds out to
the Day of Judgment (Matt. 7;22-23). My friend, beware of false faith!
Remember Lot’s wife, Judas, Simon, Demas and Diotrephes. Be not numbered
among them.
True faith is the heart knowledge of, trust in and submission to the
Lord Jesus Christ. God has revealed Christ to us in the gospel, by which
we know our desperate need and his saving power and fairness. Trusting
Christ alone as our all-sufficient Savior, we commit ourselves, body and
soul, to him. And where there is true faith, there is the submission of
heart to Christ as our sovereign Lord and King. This faith comes not by
heredity, nor by the logic and persuasiveness of the preacher. It is the
gift of God. Christ is reveled in the heart by the Holy Spirit.
This heart faith can be known by those who possess it. Have we believed?
If so, we have firmly cordially and voluntarily received Christ in all
his offices. To them that believe, Christ is precious. Heart faith
purifies the heart and weans it from the world. Heart faith works by
love, lives in hope and rests in Christ. This is true faith. This is
heart faith. Forsaking all I take Him.
Don Fortner.
RIGHTEOUSNESS RECEIVED
God’s righteousness is received by trusting in His Son. It is not a
righteousness which we earn but a righteousness which we receive as a
gift. The means of receiving it is faith, which is a gift of God.
(Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God:”) God imputes that righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ to every person who trusts in His Son. Therefore,
as far as God is concerned, that person who believes in His Son is
perfect in that He has imputed to him the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus. This is what salvation really is. It is not just escaping hell’s
heat and going to heaven. It is being made perfect in the eyes and
presence of God through faith in His Son, Who lived a perfect life and
died a substitutionary death. He alone bore the penalty of our sins;
therefore, we will not bear it. Scott Richardson
“The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Ephesians 6:17
There is only one weapon whereby we can fight Satan to any purpose, and
that is the word of God. But observe, that it must not be merely the
letter of the word. It must be the “sword of the Spirit,” and therefore
a spiritual sword, which can only be taken in hand when the word of God
is applied with a divine power to your heart, and you have a living
faith in it as made “life and spirit” to your soul. It is of no use my
bringing forward a text to resist a temptation of Satan, unless I can
make that text my own; in other words, unless I can handle that sword as
one who knows how to wield it. To take up a text and not know the
sweetness and power of it, would be like a child taking up a warrior’s
sword without having the warrior’s hand. He might play with the sword,
but what is the sword of a giant in the hand of a child? The sword of
Scander-Beg, a famous Albanian warrior against the Turks, used to be
shewn at Vienna. A man who once looked at and handled it said, “Is this
the sword which won so many victories? I see nothing in it; it is but a
common sword.” The answer was, “You should have seen the hand that
wielded it.” So it is not merely taking a text, adopting scripture
language, and quoting passages, which will beat back the fiery assaults
of Satan. This is having Scander-Beg’s sword without having
Scander-Beg’s arm. But it is having the word of truth brought into our
heart by the power of God, faith raised up to believe that God himself
speaks it to our heart, being thus enabled to wield it in the strength
of the Spirit and by the power of faith in living exercise, to resist
every hellish thrust. In this battle we must not give way. To flee is to
be conquered, for, as Bunyan well says, there is no armour for the back.
Thus even if in this conflict you should slip and fall, lie not still as
a conquered captive, but get up again and fight. “Resist Satan, and he
will flee from you.” He is a conquered enemy; he cannot destroy you if
you are the Lord’s. The word of truth, therefore, is full of most
gracious promises, and sweet encouragements “to endure hardness as good
soldiers of Jesus Christ,” and never in heart or hand submit to be
conquered by sin or Satan. JC Philpot
The Heart and The Mouth
Romans 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
The faith itself is not righteousness, but it is UNTO righteousness
because it connects us to Christ, Who is our righteousness. Salvation is
an eternal act of God’s will in its origin and it is a powerful work of
God on the heart of a sinner, in its application. With the heart man
believeth. Not with the heart of flesh, for the flesh profiteth nothing
(John 6:63). But that new heart that God promised He would give His
people. The new man is the one who believes, not the old. The one
created in Christ Jesus unto good works.
And then, what happens in the heart is expressed by the mouth. The
Psalmist exhorted in Psalm 107:2, Let the redeemed of the LORD say [so].
And we do and shall. The Lord instructed the man, out of whom He had
cast the legion of devils, “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how
great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on
thee.” And we do and shall.
Confession includes everything that is believed. It is owning our sin as
Job did when he said, “behold, I am vile!” It is acknowledging our
helplessness as Peter did, when he cried, “Lord, save me!” It is
declaring His sufficiency as the leper did who begged, “Lord, if you
will, you can make me clean.” It is proclaiming the power of His blood,
like the publican who prayed, “God, be propitious to me, the sinner.” It
is bowing to His sovereignty as the thief who said, “Lord, remember me,
when you come into your kingdom.”
Chris Cunningham