INTRODUCTION
Today I want to start a series on entitled “Christianity 101”. This series of sermons will deal with some of the very basic teaching of the Bible. We are going to answer some of the basic questions of Christianity over the next 10 weeks. We are going to answer questions such as:
Who is Jesus?
Who is the Holy Spirit?
Who is God?
What is the Gospel?
What is the Lord’s Supper?
What does it mean to walk with Jesus?
What is baptism?
What is confession?
What is repentance?
What is faith?
What MUST I do to be saved?
Today we are going to answer the question, “What is faith?” As we answer this question we will see how faith fits in with God’s plan of salvation.
What must I do to be saved? That has been a question that has been asked since Jesus walked the earth. Is salvation something that we earn? Is it something we can buy? Is it something that we can even know if we have it?
The question of “What must I do to be saved” is one of the most important things that we can answer for a person. This is a question that we must have a correct biblical answer because it will affect the eternal destiny of other people.
If you look to the church for the answer to that question, you will receive many answers to that question ranging from, “nothing” to a correct biblical answer. It is so important that as people of God, we give people answers from God’s Word, not the answers of other people.
Why doesn’t the church have the same answer to the question of receiving salvation? Sometimes it is because we pull passages out of context; sometimes we do not look at all of the other passages on a subject. Other times we go to the scriptures with our minds made up and then we try to explain away passages that do not fit our way of thinking.
How does faith fit into God’s way of saving man? Is faith all we need? Can we just “claim” to have faith and be in good standing with God?
In The Christian Churches we teach the 5-finger plan of salvation. We believe that the bible teaches that in order for one to be saved, one must hear the word of God. Then they must act on that hearing by placing there faith in Jesus, that new placed faith will cause us to confess Jesus with our mouth. That will lead us to repent of our sins. Then we will submit ourselves to be immersed into Jesus.
Today as we look at the basics of faith, it is my prayer that we will see how faith fits into God’s way of saving man. It is my prayer that when we talk about faith, we will know what it is and what it is not. I hope that after the next four weeks you will see why we teach God’s plan of salvation the way that we do.
Today we will answer the questions:
1. What is faith?
2. What is the basis for our faith?
3. What are the results of faith
SERMON
I. WHAT IS FAITH?
A. What is faith? This is an important question because how we answer it will determine what we will do and will not do for Jesus.
1. If we misunderstand what faith is, then we will misunderstand what God expects from us.
2. For many people, when we think of the word faith, they will think of the word believe. When we think of believing something, many people think that in order to believe in something, all you have to do is acknowledge it.
3. In other words, if I intellectually know something is true, then I believe it. When we think of the word “faith”, we think that “faith” is a deeper than just believing.
4. In the bible, the words “faith” and “believe” come from the same root word and mean basically the same thing. Is there more to having faith than acknowledging that something is true?
5. Many times people will go to Hebrews 11:1 for a definition of faith, but in reality Hebrews 11:1 which says “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” is really the RESULTS of faith. We will look at that later.
B. A working definition of faith is this:
Faith is whole-souled trust in God’s Word because of the sufficiency of the evidence, which leads to doing what God says.
1. People think that God wants us to take a blind leap of faith to follow Him. That could be the furthest thing from the truth. When Thomas doubted Jesus’ return, Jesus allowed him and the others to examine Him.
2. Faith is a “trust” built upon sufficient evidence.
3. We see enough evidence for God that we put our trust in Him. USE PARACHUTE ILLUSTRATION. Seen it work, acknowledge that it will work, but will we use it? If the plane is going down and you know that the parachute is there, will just acknowledging that it will work save you or do you have to do something with your knowledge?
C. Faith involves action! We can really use the word FAITHFUL instead of faith. Faithful catches the meaning best because it implies action instead of just acknowledgement
1. In the working definition of faith, you will see that part of the definition deals with doing what God says.
2. In order for the parachute to work, you have to take it, put it on, and then use it properly.
3. Many people leave out the “doing what God tells us to do” out of our definition of faith.
4. James tells us the following in James 2:19: You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. EXPLAIN.
5. Let’s look at James 2:17-20. READ JAMES 2:17-20, 26
6. JOHN 15:10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.
7. JOHN 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
8. When we look at the Hebrews hall of Faith in chapter 11 we see that the faith that pleased God was an active faith.
9. JOHN 3:36 "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
10. EPH 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
11. HEBREWS 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
12. REV 2:10 …. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
II. WHAT IS THE BASIS OF OUR FAITH? ROMANS 10:13-14,17
A. Where does our faith come from? What is the source from which we can base our faith on?
1. Today it is popular to say that we cannot believe in something unless we can see it. Thomas struggled with this in the Bible. Let’s look at John 20:27-29, “Then He said to Thomas, "Reach here your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing." Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."
2. Most of the things in life that we believe are things that we do not see. USE EXAMPLES. Wind, George Washington, Europe.
3. Let’s look at Romans 10:13-13,17 to see what God’s word tells us what we can base our faith on. READ ROMANS 10:13-14, 17
4. Notice that Romans tells us that faith comes from hearing the word of Christ.
B. The problem that people run into is that they want to build their faith on other things.
1. Miracles
2. Prosperity
3. Feelings
C. God gives us something that is objective that we can put our hands on, something that we can go to that is an objective standard. God has laid out His case before us in the Word.
1. One of the things that impressed me and still impresses me is the accuracy found in the Bible.
2. God has preserved the text over the centuries and it does not contradict itself.
3. The Bible does not speak in terms of “once upon a time in a land far, far away”, it speaks of actual places and actual people that can be verified through history. The Bible names 100’s of cities that can be verified through archeology.
4. The Bible contains 66 books that were written over a 1,500 year span, over 40 generations by over 40 authors from every walk of life from peasants to kings, yet it still all fits together
D. Our faith should be based on the evidence of the Bible and can be strengthened by the testimony of others.
JOHN 20:30-31 Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.
ACTS 15:7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
If you are waiting for something spectacular to base your faith on, it will not come because God gave us His word.
RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. EXPLAIN THE STORY AND READ LUKE 16:27-31
III. WHAT ARE THE RESULTS OF FAITH? HEBREWS 10:35-11:1
A. We have the deed to all that God has promised to Christians.
Hebrews 11:1says that faithfulness is the assurance of things hoped for.
The word “assurance” can be used to speak of a title deed. Faithfulness results in us holding the “title deed” to heaven. This word can also mean that “faithfulness” is the substructure that all of the Christian life involves. If a person misses the supreme importance of the subject of “faithfulness” he has missed the heart of the Christian life-style.
When we live for Jesus, when we are faithful until death, we will receive the crown of life! James 1:12, Revelation 2:10
B. We will have an inner conviction that what God promises He will deliver.
When we look at our lives in the light of God’s revelation in the Word and in Christ, and when we see the changes that God is making in our lives, we are more convinced about the things in His word that we cannot lay our eyes on.
When you look at the rest of Hebrews 11, you will see that all of the people mentioned, did what God told them, they had some track record with God that allowed them to look back and be convinced that God was not going to let them down.
C. Our faith will lead to obedience.
We already talked about this so I am not going to rehash this, but suffice to say, if we love God and if we have a real faith in Jesus, we will live for Him.
Jesus said that if you want to follow Jesus, you have to take up your cross and follow Him daily!
CONCLUSION
What is faith that saves? It is faithfulness. A true faith will lead to action from us.
Our faith in Jesus is based in the Word of God.
Our faith is not a blind faith, but is based on sufficient evidence.
If we have faith in Jesus, we are saying that we accept the truth about Jesus to the point that it motivates us to do what He says.
Is faith all you need, does the bible tell us that faith alone saves us? EPH 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. The Bible tells us in Romans 10:9, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.
Apparently not only do we need faith, but we need to confess with our mouth.
Is there a contradiction? What is it, faith or confession? Maybe it is both?
Faith is the basis for all that we do. Remember, without faithfulness, it is impossible to please God.
Next week I want us to look at confession and how it fits in God’s plan of salvation.
