Category Archives: Last Weeks's Teaching
Salvation is through faith.
Prepositions can e crucial, and they are in discussing salvation. It is by grace, through faith. Faith is only the link; grace provides the power. So—what is faith? The first thing to establish is that it is not a matter of feeling. Martin Luther once said, ‘I do not feel that my sins are forgiven, but I know they are because God has said so in his Word.’ Faith is not feeling, although wonderful feelings may follow faith in Christ. In a sense, when the Holy Spirit takes hold of a person he releases his feelings in a new way, freeing him from inhibitions that have been bottled up before, and prevented him from experiencing love, joy and peace. But it is not the feeling that is the faith; the faith creates the feeling.
Nor is faith primarily a matter of thought. Thought is involved of course. There is a certain minimum intellectual content necessary for faith: the deity of Jesus for instance, his death and his resurrection. But if you recite the Creed and say ‘believe all of that with my mind’ you are ‘believing’ no more than the demons…and they do a bit more, the Bible tells us: the thought of it makes them ‘tremble.’
So, what is faith? Faith is to take those truths and apply them personally: to say, ‘Jesus died for me—rose for me—and is coming back for me.’ The devils cannot share that belief, that kind of faith.
Faith is, in a sense, an act of trust in which the believer takes his life and puts it into the hands of Christ. It is a daily thing—committing myself into the hands of another. In ordinary life we do it all the time—every time we board an airplane or a bus, every time we put ourselves into the hands of a surgeon. Faith is just that putting my ruined life into the hands of Jesus and giving him responsibility from that point on.
Faith (Necessary for Salvation)
Genesis 22:3
And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
Psalms 6:8
Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping.
Psalms 7:10
My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart.
Psalms 27:1
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Matthew 8:10
When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
Matthew 9:22
But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.
Luke 5:20
And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.
Luke 7:50
And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.
Acts 6:8
And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
Salvation is by grace.
A man once said, ‘It took me forty-three years to discover three things. Firs, that I could do nothing to save myself. Second, that God did not require me to do anything. Third, that Christ had done it all,’
By nature human beings are suspicious of anything that is offered free of charge. I read a story of a very wealthy man who stood in front of his house trying to give away hundred dollar bills. He found hardly any takers. Most people avoided him, or moved away. They could not believe that there was no trick in it.
It may be that we are to proud to accept ‘charity’, or afraid of hidden ‘strings’, but this suspicion and distrust is a terrible barrier. Old people refuse to seek financial help from the social services. Others in all kinds of need are reluctant to ask for what is freely offered, often because of pride: ‘I’ve always stood on my own feet, and I’m not going begging now.’
That is one reason why it is so hard for people to accept God’s grace, for grace means two simple things: bad deeds are no hindrance, and good deeds are no help when you come to God for salvation.
It does not matter what dreadful things you may have done in the past. They cannot put you beyond redemption. And it does not matter what good deeds you may have done in the past either. They cannot save you. Indeed, they may be a hindrance, if you come to God not empty-handed (as he requires) but with one hand full of your own goodness. It takes both hands empty to receive grace. As one song put it:
Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to thy cross I cling.
Salvation is ‘by grace’. It may take us a whole lifetime of struggling before we realize that there is no salvation that way, and learn that there is nothing a man can do to save himself. God requires nothing of us; Christ has done it all.
Biblical Accounts of God’s Grace!
Psalms 84:11
For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.
Proverbs 3:34
He mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble.
Joel 2:13
Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
Luke 2:40
And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.
Luke 7:42
Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
John 1:16
From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.
Grace (Necessary for Salvation)
Acts 15:11
No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
Romans 3:24
and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 5:15
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!
Ephesians 2:5
made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved.
2 Timothy 1:9
who has saved us and called us to a holy life–not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,
Hebrews 13:9
Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.
Salvation is after repentance
What is ‘repentance’? We covered this in depth last week (see last week’s teaching), but I want to expound on it. Does it mean sorry —desperately sorry, perhaps —for what we have done? That is remorse, and it is a commendable feeling, but it is not repentance. Most of us are sorry about consequences of our sin: the punishment, the damaged relationships, the recriminations and the scandal. Repentance, as a schoolboy once said, is being sorry enough to stop. Martin Luther put it slightly more theologically: ‘the truest repentance is to do it no more’. A well-known evangelist used to make his appeal at the end of a meeting in these terms: ‘Don’t come out to the front to accept the Savior unless you’re prepared to leave your sins on your seat.
That is what repentance is all about: being willing to let our sins go. It shows we really want to be saved. What is quite impossible is to have our sins and have salvation. The two are mutually exclusive.
Take a moment to meditate on these verses and see it God speaks to you.
Biblical Accounts of Sin!
Matthew 18
21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? 22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. Have you forgiven or do you need forgiving?
John 1
29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Have you allowed Jesus to remove your sin?
John 5
14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. Are things getting worse? You still sinning? Yes you!
John 5
7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Are you still pointing the finger, instead of dealing with you own sin?
John 8
34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. Who is really your master?
John 9
2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? It’s not even about you! Are you stopping God’s work from manifesting because you won’t deal with the sin?
www.kennypittman.org
Salvation is from sin
We have all got troubles. Indeed, sometimes one begins to think there is nothing but trouble in this world. Over the years I have become more aware of people and their problems and troubles. Loneliness, fear, boredom, ignorance, poverty, egos, pride, selfness, hypocrisy —troubles abound; but what are the problems and troubles?
What is the cause of it all? SIN! That is God’s explanation of all our troubles. If you are coming to God to get all the others troubles sorted out, but do not bring him this one, you are unlikely to find a real solution. We present our problems, but God’s diagnosis is that the root problem, the heart of the disease, sin. Sin numbs our ‘spiritual nerves’ so that we do not feel acutely the evil of sin, nor the presence of God all around. We become spiritual insensitive.
When we come to God with our day-to-day troubles and problems, I believe he wants to deal first with the root of all our troubles, sin. That is the deadly disease, of which all our other problems are merely the symptoms.
That is why sin is such a deadly disease. It is not just a question of wrong things we do—the breaking of God’s laws. It goes much deeper. It is what we are, inherited from out parents and their parents before them … a congenital disease. And it is a progressive disease, too, steadily eroding our God-given facilities, blinding us to truth and goodness, until finally we are spiritually dead, no longer able to relate or respond to God at all, or even to goodness. It is from that fate, which Jesus describes as ‘hell’, that we need saving from experiencing love, joy and peace. But it is not the feeling that is the faith; the faith creates the feeling.
Nor is faith primarily a matter of thought. Thought is involved of course. There is a certain minimum intellectual content necessary for faith: the deity of Jesus for instance, his death and resurrection. But if you recite the Creed and say ‘I believe all of that with my mind’ you are ‘believing’ no more than the demons…and they do a bit more, the Bible tells us: the thought of it makes them ‘tremble’.
So, what is faith? Faith is to take those truths and apply them personally: to say, ‘Jesus died for me — rose for me — and is coming back for me.’ The devil cannot share that belief, that kind of faith.
Faith is, in a sense, an act of trust in which the believer takes his life and puts it into the hands of Christ. It is a daily thing—committing myself into the hands of another. In ordinary life we do this all the time—every time we board an airplane or bus, every time we put ourselves into the hands of a surgeon. Faith is just that: putting my ruined life into the hands of Jesus and giving him responsibility from that point on.
According to the definition of most Christians and religious institution the ‘devil’ is a ‘Christian’. People are told just to believe in God and everything will be alright. The bibles say, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe–and tremble”! James 2:19 What are you doing more than the ‘devil’?
If you are saved from your sin why are you still walking in it? You may not be gay, but you are a liar! You may not be a murderer, but you are a gossiper! You may not be an adulator, but you are vindictive!!!…etc!!!!
Salvation is from sin! Not a reason to continue sin!
www.kennypittman.org
