Sermon Tone Analysis

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Emotion
Anger
Disgust
Fear
Joy
Sadness
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Analytical
Confident
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Social Tendencies
Openness
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Anger
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*"Faith Alone"*
/ /
sermon outline – lots of jumping around again.
 
/prayer/
Heavenly Father,
today we come before you and consider what it means to have /faith/ in you.
Thankyou for the clarity of your Word.
We pray for help as we examine the nature of faith because we want to be faithful people in your sight.
Amen.
/the challenge of faith/
This morning we get straight down to business.
Faith has been a controversial subject ever since the church begun.
In the first century the Apostle Paul argued that the difference between Christianity and Judaism is that Christianity says that salvation is by faith alone – justification by faith alone.
Works does not make a person right before God.
Paul says that a "man is justified by faith /apart/ from the works of the law" (Rom 3:28).
Paul wrote Romans and Galatians to defend this position.
Fifteen centuries later, Martin Luther is arguing with the Roman Church and he quotes that same verse from Paul, "man is justified by faith /apart/ from the works of the law".
Interestingly the Catholic church distinguishes between belief in something understood and unconditional acceptance that whatever the Church teaches is true.
"Explicit" and 'implicit" faith.
Faith, according to Rome, is essentially trusting the church as the teacher.
There are other more common ideas about faith.
You're having a bad day and someone says, "You've got to have faith" – what they're meaning is "keep your chin held high and carry on".
The word "faith" is code for "keeping a stiff upper lip".
Some people even say to me, "I wish I had your faith" as though acquiring faith is a deep mystery that somehow I've solved.
Others think that you an either have faith or reason, but not both.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported this story on 2 March 07, "A faithful dog stopped paramedics from treating its critically injured owner after she was struck by a car in Sydney's north-west early today.
The 41-year-old woman pedestrian was hit by a BMW sedan while walking her dog on an access road in Doonside about 5.20am.
The driver stopped to help the woman.
Police said the growling dog stood guard over the woman, delaying treatment by paramedics until officers arrived and secured the animal".
Modern people seem to find it hard to make what they say is "the leap of faith" required to be a Christian.
Like the faithful dog, they think religious faith is usually well intended, but often misdirected.
The challenge of faith.
/ /
And yet faith is so common place and ordinary.
We speak of belief in a remedy, trust in a doctor, confidence in a bank (maybe in the old days), reliance on a friend, dependence on a family member, assurance about a promise, persuasion that something is going to happen.
All these expressions contain the idea of faith.
Faith is such an ordinary thing that we hardly notice it.
/the nature of faith/
In the Bible the word "faith" is not  a dissimilar idea.
But rather than trusting in a remedy, a doctor, a bank or a friend – faith in the Bible is squarely directed toward God as in 1 Pet 1:21, "Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God".
The Bible speaks of faith in Christ as in Rom 3:22, "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe".
There is also faith in the reality of the resurrection (Rom 10:9), faith in the gospel (Mk 1:15) and the testimony of the apostles (2 Thess 1:10).
In all these things the nature of faith is always the same.
It is responsive to God and his saving truth – a recognition of God's answer to our otherwise helpless need – a realization that the gospel is a personal address from God – a posture of trust and confidence toward the living God and his living Son.
Such is the Christian concept of faith.
J.C. Ryle says:
 
"Saving faith is the hand of the soul.
The sinner is like a drowning man at the point of sinking. he sees the Lord Jesus Christ holding out to help him.
He grasps it and is saved.
This is faith.
(Heb 6:18).
Saving faith is the mouth of the soul.
The sinner is starving for want of food, and sick of a sore disease.
The Lord Jesus is set before him as the bread of life, and the universal medicine.
He receives it, and is made well and strong.
This is faith (John 6:35).
Saving faith is the foot of the soul.
The sinner is pursued by a deadly enemy, and is in fear of being overtaken.
The Lord Jesus Christ is put before him as a strong tower, a hiding place, a refuge.
He runs into it and is safe.
This is faith (Prov 18:10).
Some helpful words from J.C. Ryle.
Now he's a handy little acrostic that captures the essence of faith (*slide 1*).
/the source of faith/
Now moving into the source of faith on your outline.
The Bible treats faith's convictions as certainties.
The convictions of faith produce knowledge about God and the world.
And so the voice of faith is, "WE KNOW .....God has spoken and it is true".
The certainty of faith is not grounded in fancy argument, nor on scientific experiment.
We are in no position to do an independent check on God because there's no higher authority to appeal.
Faith's certainty is not founded upon the infallible teaching of a church.
Nor is the certainty of our faith based upon mystical experience or private dreams and visions.
The certainty of our faith relies upon the word of God revealed to us through the prophets of old and through the testimony of Jesus and the apostles.
Says Heb 1:1, "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways (OT), but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son".
And again from 2 Pet 1:21, "For prophecy never has its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Paul tells Titus that his ministry is about "knowledge of the truth" for God does not lie (Tit 1:1-2).
God's words are found in Holy Scripture, the written witness of prophets and apostles to the Father and the Son.
As 2 Tim 3:16 reminds us, all scripture is "God-breathed" – the words of Christ and the words of those who wrote the Bible are the very words of God himself.
To believe these words is to certify that God is truthful (Jn 3:33).
To reject the words of scripture is to make God a liar. 1 John 5:10 brings it together, "Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart.
Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar".
This is where faith starts: when the apostolic gospel is heard or read and the realization dawns that this is the very truth of God.
The problem is that sin and Satan have so blinded fallen men and women that they do not recognize the truth.
Indeed this recognition only comes when the Holy Spirit enlightens and renews a heart.
Paul says in 2 Cor 4:4, "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ".
Saving faith is therefore a gift from God.
If we have such a faith it is only because God in his mercy has opened our eyes.
And if we desire this for others then we need to pray that God will open their eyes also, for otherwise they will never know the kingdom of God.
 
/faith and salvation/
Faith is coming to Christ.
Faith means letting oneself fall into his open arms.
Faith links a person to Christ, so that he becomes a person in Christ.
And in Christ – through Christ – because of all Christ has done and will do – we have a perfect salvation.
/fruits of faith/
In Rom 8 Paul reviews some of the fruits of faith in Christ.
Let's take some time to look at Romans 8:
 
Verse 1 is a good start.
Fruits of faith in Christ, "there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus".
We are free from the law of sin and death.
Then verse 11, that same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead shall also raise us.
We have the sure hope of resurrection and renewed life.
Death cannot hold us down.
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