Today's lesson is part 4 in our faith series. Last week, we instructed on what were the evidence of saving faith? Now, we look at what do we mean by the phrase, "Living Faith?" This is important as you don't want to be deceived about your faith. You want a faith that is alive and operational in your life. Thank God, we have His Word, and He will guide us. We can know the truth and that truth will set us free. Prayerfully read this lesson and ask yourself, "Do I have a living faith?
Introduction
The foundation of faith is the eternal, unbroken, verbally inspired Word of God, called the Bible, God's Holy Word. The object of our faith is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Living Word. You cannot separate the written Word from the Living Word. For example, if you deny the virgin birth of Christ, then you are denying the Word of God. Believe the Word and be saved. Disbelieve the Word and be damned. If you throw aside the Word of God, you have no God except the god of this world, Satan. Did you know that? This is one reason that many churches, denominations, and pastors discredit the Bible through intellectualism and "scholarship." If Satan can get you to doubt the Word, you will be like Eve in the Garden of Eden. Once you start thinking for yourself independent of the Word, you will fail miserably. We are living in an awful time that includes the questioning of the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ. Skepticism, materialism and worldliness are rampant. We see broken homes in the church, lives being ruined by sin, and the loss of a moral compass for people to live by. However, it doesn't have to be this way. You can have a LIVING FAITH. A faith that is alive and operational in your lives can be yours. Let us now now examine exactly what is a LIVING FAITH.
Section 1: The Just Shall Live By Faith
Romans 1: 17 states: "THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." Who are the just? Those who have been justified by the God of Heaven. Romans 5: 1 reads: "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Christ died for our sins and God counts the ones with faith as just. It is just as if he or she had never sinned. If you have a living faith, know that there is not one sin registered against you in heaven. That individual shall live by faith, he shall walk by faith, he shall work by faith. His life shall be a work of faith and a labor of love. That faith is still based upon the Word of God; the Word of God is the living foundation of his living faith, just as it is the foundation of his saving faith.
Galatians 2: 20 states: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live BY THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Where do you get the living faith? You get your faith in salvation. "Who loved me and gave himself for me." Paul said that the life he lived as a justified believer was "by the faith of the Son of God." It was not his faith: it was the faith that was wrought in his heart by the Holy Spirit through the Word that God gave him to lay hold of Christ as his salvation and his Lord and Savior. That same faith, Paul said, "I LIVE BY." The faith of the Son of God.
The lost person has not faith in a Savior. The Holy Spirit when He is ready to save someone does the following:
1. He opens the sinner's heart and shows him his depravity and sinfulness.
2. He uses the Word of God to show him his lost condition until the sinner sees himself and acknowledges his condition.
3. The Holy Spirit will work on the individual until he takes responsibility for his condition.
4. Usually the last thing the Holy Spirit does is that He reveals to that sinner that he has no righteousness whatsoever, and that he possesses a heart of unbelief that does not believe God, does not and will not believe the Word, and cannot believe the Word.
The sinner has no faith to lay hold of the Word of God and no faith to trust Christ as his Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit does this to turn the sinner to repentance, to take responsibility, and to lay hold of the Word of God and bring the sinner to the feet of our LORD. He resigns himself to the justice of God. The justice of God means he is condemned to Hell, and he knows that he deserves hell. WHEN HE COMES TO THAT PLACE, HE SEES HIS ONLY HOPE IS THAT CHRIST DIED FOR SUCH A SINNER AS HE. The Holy Spirit works a work of faith in his heart by the Word; then the Holy Spirit taking the Word of God shows the sinner that Christ, the Son of God, who is God of very God, signed his bond, went to bail, and on the cross paid that bond in full and finished the work of redemption.
That results in a living faith that produces justification from God.
Section 2: Christ As Surety of Living Faith
Christ becomes the saved sinner's SURETY. In the first place, we read Hebrews 7: 22: "By so much was Jesus made a SURETY of a better testament (covenant)." This was a covenant between God the Father and God the Son. The covenant was ratified in Heaven on the basis that the Son would pay in full the bond that God held against every sinner. Every sinner was under arrest and headed to a devil's hell because of their sins. God took Him at His Word, and He justified every one of His elect back in eternity. Then the sinner can say, "Whom He called, them He also justified." (Romans 8: 30)
In the second place, and here is what the sinner sees, CHRIST JESUS BECAME HIS SURETY, taking his place and paying in full the bond that God held against him. The Holy Spirit shows the following:
1. By faith that all his sins have been forgiven and this faith is given to the sinner by Christ.
2. All his sins have been paid for by Christ.
3. He shows the sinner this through the Word.
4. The sinner believes the Word, and his assurance is the Word of God that his sin debt has been paid.
5. The blood of Christ secures pardon for the believing sinner.
6. He paid our debt on the cross; and His resurrection conquered death.
How do you know Christ died for you: the Word says so.
How do you know Christ was buried: the Word says so.
How do you know He rose from the dead: the Word says so.
How do you know He ascended into heaven: the Word says so.
How do we know He is making intercession for us at the right hand of God: The Word says so.
By faith the one seeking believes by faith. Then, he acts upon it, feeds upon it, meditates upon it, he rests upon it, and he comes to see by the illumination of the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit opens his understanding and opens the Word (Ephesians 1: 18).
Our faith is a living faith because the Lord Jesus Christ is the SURETY for our faith.
Section 3: The Word is the Foundation of Living Faith
The Word of God becomes the foundation of his living faith; his life is molded and shaped and transformed by the indwelling Holy Spirit through the Word. The Holy Spirit brings him to conform his life to the Word of God (Galatians 5: 16-18). The he lives and walks and works and labors by faith, traveling through this world as a stranger and a pilgrim, looking for a city which has foundations whose Builder and Maker is the LORD God (Hebrews 11: 9-14).
This individual does not rest his assurance upon answered prayer, or upon the emotions of the flesh, or upon a vision or a dream, or feelings of any type. Based upon the Word of God, he knows that his sins are all forgiven, that he has found grace in the eyes of God (Romans 4:3, 21-25). Why? The Word of God told him so. He hasn't seen Christ with his naked eye, but he has seen Christ revealed through the Word with his spiritual eye. Then Christ is his SURETY. Personally, I can testify that God gave me faith to believe His Word, and He showed me that Christ died according to the His Word and died for ME! And I know that Christ died for me because the Word of God says so, and the Word of God cannot be broken--God cannot lie (Titus 1: 2).
Section 4: The Role of the Holy Spirit in Living Faith
The sinner who has been brought to a place of knowing that Christ died for him, was brought to that point by the Holy Spirit. Man may preach to the mind, but only the Holy Spirit can touch the heart. From this point until he reaches heaven, the believer lives by faith and not by sight (II Corinthians 5: 7). The Holy Spirit, in bringing a sinner to the place of repentance, causes that sinner to give up in his heart all his friends and his loved ones, all his plans, everything that he ever had or ever hoped to have, and everything that he was or ever hoped to be by nature (Philippians 3: 7-9). In other words, God strips that sinner of everything, and he forsakes everything to get to Christ (Luke 14:33). God also separates that sinner from every living creature and brings him to give up faith in every creature. HE IS SHUT UP WITH ONE PERSON, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. When God saves someone, the sinner has nothing in the world but the Lord Jesus Christ! IS THIS YOUR EXPERIENCE? DO YOU TRULY KNOW THE LORD?
The Holy Spirit who convicted that sinner separated him and stripped him and brought him to Christ indwells him to lead him, guide him, to teach him, and to pour the oil of grace upon his heart, to supply him with faith to believe the Word and the Lord Jesus Christ. The new believer has been taken out of Satan's family (Colossians 1: 13); he has been delivered from this present evil world (Galatians 1: 14). He is a stranger and a pilgrim (Hebrews 11: 13); he is a sojourner, and he comes to find that "THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." The only thing left for him to do is to trust Christ who saved him, to believe the Lord who redeemed him, and to cling to the promises of God which tell him about the Lord. That is what Paul meant when he said, "I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." Everything in hi life is lived in direct relationship with the Lord. He finds the will of God in the Bible and the Word becomes an absolute guide to him. He lives moment by moment with the Holy Spirit guiding and directing him.
Section 5: Christ as Security for Living Faith
The believer finds that Christ is not only hid SURETY, but also his SECURITY, that he can trust Him. He has been separated from everybody to Christ. Christ becomes his Bread (John 6:48); he feeds upon Him. Christ becomes his Water of Life to quench his thirst (John 4: 14). Christ is his Foundation upon which he stands (1 Corinthians 3: 11). Christ is his Strength in whom he works and labors (Psalms 62: 7). Christ is the Surety of the Covenant that guarantees him a safe journey to Heaven (Hebrews 7: 22). Christ is the High Tower from which he views the other land (II Samuel 22: 3). Christ is his Rock, the foundation of his hope (Psalm 18: 2), and his Shadow in a weary land (Isaiah 32: 2). Christ is his Rest (Hebrews 4: 9). Christ is his Shield and Buckler (Psalm 91: 4). And all of this is real t that individual as he grows in grace.
He finds that he can do nothing without Christ (Philippians 2:13; John 3:27; John 15:5). He can trust Christ is sickness and in health, in calm and in storm, in success and in adversity. He can trust his family to Him; he can trust Him for every meal and all his provisions, and for every material need he has. Christ will lead him through life, both the abundant life and the challenging times. As the Holy Spirit hides the Word in his heart, his faith and confidence in Christ will grow. The more Word he gets inside him, the more he will trust his Surety.
This is a reason that the born-again believer has to stay separated from the world. If you feed your mind with the things of the world and neglect God's Word, you will not grow in grace. You will become miserable (1 Peter 2: 1-3). If you sow to the flesh, you will reap corruption; if we sow to the Spirit, of the Spirit you shall reap life everlasting (Galatians 6:8).
Hebrews 13: 5 states in part: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee...." We know this is true because the Word says so. His Word is eternally true, and we know that what God has said He will do, He will do. Faith appropriates the promises of God. Faith believes the promises of God. Faith rests in these promises. Romans 8: 31 says: "If God be for us (in substitution), who can be against us?" If Christ died for me--and He did--if Christ paid my sin debt--a debt paid in full-- and He did; if God for Christ's sake forgave me my sins--and He did; then God in substitution. Who can be against you? The answer is, "No one!" You may be in a challenging place. You can cry out with assurance, "He will never leave me nor forsake me." If Christ died for you when you were an enemy to Him, how much more will He be for you now that He has saved you! Christ is the believer's security, read Romans 8: 38,39: Nothing can separate you from the love of God, which is Christ Jesus our Lord.
Friend, if you have never done so, take a moment to ask the Lord to give you faith to believe His Word and to make it your own. Take the time! Let the world rush on to destruction, but you can be saved and preserved. Whether you are an awakened sinner seeking salvation or saint of the living God, will you go to Him and believe His Word and act in obedience to it? Will you, do it?
Section 6: What is Living Faith?
Hebrews 11:1 reads: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Faith is substantially the thing that you ask for, or that God has laid on your heart. Faith stands for the thing until it becomes a reality. Then the child of God makes the Bible his companion, and he is constantly reading it and meditating on it, wanting to know the will of God (John 7:17); and the Holy Spirit, who indwells him, knows the will of God (Romans 8: 26, 27) and makes the will of God known to the heart of that individual through the Word by faith, and he will live by faith. Faith will cause him to rest before Christ in the Word calmly, quietly, with a childlike faith in his Lord--"My Lord will work it out." He will rest his whole case in the hands of Christ in the same manner that he rested his soul one day when God saved him and the LORD God his Redeemer leads him through no matter the difficulties.
Conclusion:
Living faith is a faith that takes one through all of life, no matter what is occurring. A living faith is one that works on the inside in your heart, and outside with regard to circumstances. The Lord Jesus Christ has provided us our living faith. He is the surety and security for our living faith.
FRIEND, DO YOU HAVE THIS LIVING FAITH? IF YOU DON'T YOU CAN. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR SINS, TURN AWAY FROM THEM, GO TO THE FOOT OF THE CROSS, THE SAVIOR WILL MEET YOU THERE! Place your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and He will never turn you away. He will save you.
Next week: Walking By Faith.
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