By Faith Alone

Mitchell Leach

Five Solas • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

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Notes

Transcript

Introduction

Story of Abraham

Tension

Big Question

What does it mean to have faith? Quantifiable?

Can you have more or less? Qualitative?

Are there better kinds than others? Luke 17:5 2 Peter 1:5 Romans 14:1

Truth

First we ought to define faith?

Faith is believing What is belief?

Trust is accompanied by action.

Professing Jesus was who he said he is - Vs 13-14

Belief is something that incorporates head knowledge. Also saying it out loud Romans 10:9

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Confessing w/ your mouth meant losing something Church History // persecutions

Drug behind horses until death Dipped in oil and lit on fire Today we beg you to trust Jesus in your heart and confess with your lips,

“What’s in it for me?” Church father’s come to christ moment

"Come and believe and leave everything you have.”

Repenting of your sins vs 10 -11

10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” 11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”

What doesn’t save you, that seems like it should?

The law! Legalism // adding to scripture The question we must ask is

Do we actually believe that Jesus saves us, or is it something else? Who is in control of our salvation? Example from Galatians 4:21-5:1

God promised Abraham offspring They were old and losing hope Child with Hagar - Ishmael

Taking it into their own hands Child with Sarah - Isaac

Faith that God would do what he promised. Paul is telling the Galatian church that is slavery. Martin Luther

Paul reasons here that there’s nothing that gains justification and life before God, but the person who believes, who gains righteousness and everlasting life without the law, and without charity, by faith alone. The reason is, because the law is not faith, nor is anything belonging to faith, for it [the law] cannot believe…therefore faith is a thing much different from the law. For the promise is not gained by working, but by believing.

When you say I will

Pull me up by my bootstraps Work hard and get the good grades I will make enough money I will have enough sex I will win enough games I will have enough friends I will be obedient You’re saying I will obey the law enough to make God let me into heaven. You’re saying you will justify yourself. You’re saying you’re the only one you can trust/have faith in. Hanging on a cliff

Instead of grabbing the hand of someone there to save you, you try to grab the rope out of your backpack.

Bearing the fruit of the gospel vs 12

12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.”

What doesn’t save you, that seems like it should?

Sinners’ prayer at camp Baptism // being born into a Christian family What Paul is getting at — in the negative — is that real faith bears real fruit. Matthew 12:33-37

33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

When you believe it transforms you. Faith is not a vehicle John Piper

To become a Christian—to be justified and finally saved—is to “embrace Christ.” Embrace! Not take between the fingers as one gets a boarding pass, shows it twice, and then, after the flight, throws it away. Faith does not “embrace” Christ briefly with mere fingers. To believe savingly is to embrace Christ with the soul as the “supreme good offered, and the inestimable treasure.”

When you believe that you were truly saved from your sins and transferred into the kingdom of God, you have no other choice but to respond with elation. ???Am I satisfied in this world by what it has to offer or am I satisfied in Jesus with who he is and what he has done for me?

Bottom Line

Faith is hating the sin we once loved and loving the God we once hated

Faith incorporates three things

Knowing Jesus took your place. Assent or expression of approval of this knowledge. And trust that this knowledge justifies you. John Calvin

By faith we not only acknowledge that Christ suffered and rose from the dead on our account, but, accepting the offers which he makes of himself, we possess and enjoy him as our Savior. . . . In a word, faith is not a distant view, but a warm embrace of Christ, by which he dwells in us, and we are filled with the Divine Spirit

The reason Christianity's core belief is faith is that it is based on a historical event, not an empty philosophy.

You don’t need faith for a philosophy

You just need to do what the philosophy tells you to do. You need faith to believe in a historical event.

Landing

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