SAVING FAITH
By George W. Sinquefield
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By George W. Sinquefield
Eph. 2:8 through Eph. 2:10 (KJV)
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Many people who think they are saved are lost. This is not just the way I feel but Jesus said it was so.
Matt. 25:31 through Matt. 25:46 (KJV)
Notice what Jesus said, "I never knew you." You never invited me into your heart. You never trusted me as your Lord and Savior.
Many in our churches are lost. They joined the church but never came to know Jesus as Savior. Dr. Parchall, pastor of the First Baptist church in Nashville, said sometime back that the greatest mission field among Southern Baptists is the church rolls of our churches. Carl Bates, pastor of First Baptist church, Charlotte, NC said, "When Jesus returns and raptures the saved from the earth, there will be enough unsaved church members left behind to carry on our program without disturbing it much."
Now we certainly hope that this is not true, but we fear that it may be. Some years ago, a preacher stood before a congregation of 200 people. He made it clear that baptism, good works, church membership, being honest, being clean morally, could not save them. He made it clear that one could be saved only by trusting Jesus and Jesus alone. Then he asked, "How many of you believe you are saved and if you die soon will go to heaven?" He said that only seven out of two hundred raised their hands.
An evangelist was the speaker at a conference on evangelism where many preachers were attending. He had been assigned the subject, "Saving Faith." After the introduction he said, "I wonder if Bro. Sansing thought that perhaps some of you pastors might not be saved. No, of course he did not mean that at all. He wants me to help you to understand how we can make "Saving Faith" clear to those who come seeking salvation so that we will not have so many unsaved people uniting with our churches." He continued by saying, "It is tragically true that there are multitudes in our churches who do not really know the Lord as their Saviour. I fear that the reason for this is because we as evangelists and pastors have not made the plan of salvation as plain as we should have. We have assumed that they understand more than they do about how to be saved. But many of them just do not understand what we are talking about when we ask them if they are saved. I fear that we ministers do not speak enough on "Saving Faith."
I. What is Faith?
Since the Bible teaches that salvation is by faith in Jesus and that without that saving faith no man or woman can ever be saved, it is of the utmost importance that we know clearly the meaning of faith. If there is one thing that we should be sure of it is that we have true saving faith.
Now there are two kinds of faith. One is mental or head faith. It is a mental assent or acknowledgment of some fact or truth having the quality of conviction which will cause one to rest and risk his all upon it.
A head faith is a faith which never results in doing anything about it. A heart faith always results in action, a definite act of acceptance, and a confession of that faith. Let me illustrate. I once heard a man say, "Airplanes are great things, they certainly are making them comfortable and safe. I believe that travel in a plane is safer than by automobile, or even than walking on the highway. I believe they have good pilots and that the science of flying is one of the most highly developed ones. I believe airplanes are good, safe, and comfortable, but, he added, you will never get me to go in one of those things." He gave mental assent, but would not turn himself over in complete reliance to that in which he professed faith.
True faith -- the faith that saves, is a belief so firm, so thorough that one dares to stake his all, yes, his eternal destiny upon it.
Webster says of saving faith that it is; "The assent of the mind to the truth of divine revelation, on the authority of God's testimony, accompanied by a cordial assent of the will or approbation of the heart; and entire confidence or trust in God's character and declarations, and in the character and doctrines of Christ, with an unreserved surrender of the will to His guidance, and dependence on His merits for salvation; also called evangelical, justifying, or saving faith."
Heb. 11:6 (KJV)
One puts it this way -- "Faith is believing the testimony of another, without any other proof or evidence than the confidence we have in the one whom we believe. Faith transcends all reason and understanding, and God asks men and women to be saved by faith, by simply trusting His Word, on the record of His faithfulness, and for no other reason than that we have confidence in the Word of God, Who cannot lie. That is the very reason the natural man refuses to accept God's salvation. He wants to understand first, and reason things out, but God says, "No, just believe that which you cannot reason out, and that which you cannot understand." Man rebels against this humiliating demand, but unless he is willing to accept God's terms there is no salvation for him."
We live by faith every day and maybe this is why God chose to make faith the way whereby one could be saved. Here are a few examples of true faith.
One driving an automobile sixty miles per hour on a highway has faith in a person he has never seen who is traveling in the opposite direction over the same hill on the right side of the road.
We ascend staircases whose carpenters we do not know.
We live in buildings whose architects we have never seen.
We cross the country by plane through a long night trip and sometimes across the ocean, without ever viewing once the pilot of that plane.
By faith we enter an elevator, sit on a chair, ride a train, fly the sky, eat a meal prepared in a restaurant whose chef is utterly unknown to us.
We go to the doctor on faith. We take his medicine, let him give us shots, and even perform surgery on us, all because we have faith in him.
II. Saving Faith Must Be Faith In The Right Person.
Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "It is faith which makes life worth living." To be sure, man cannot live without faith but the object of his faith makes all the difference. To say we are saved by faith is not enough. That faith must be in Jesus, the only one who can save. Many have faith in the wrong person or thing and the awful truth is that they are not saved.
Faith in man will not save. You may have implicit faith in a crook, being ignorant of the crook's record. Your faith may be real and sincere but it will only lead to disillusionment and sorrow.
D. L. Moody says, "How often we hear a man say 'There is a member of the church who cheated me out of five dollars, and I am not going to have anything more to do with people who call themselves Christians.' But if the man had had his faith in Jesus Christ you do not suppose he would have had his faith shattered because someone cheated him out of five dollars, do you? What we want is to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If a man has that, he has something he can anchor to, and the anchor will hold. If we are only converted to man, and our faith is in man, we will certainly be disappointed."
III. Faith in Baptism Will Not Save.
Rom. 6:4 (KJV)
God uses in reference to baptism the word "burial" and the word "planted." I am going to ask you this question, and every child could answer it, Do you bury a person in order to kill him? Any sane and honest person knows that that is not true. Why do we bury people? Because they have already died, and that is the only reason. This is the reference to baptism; you do not baptize a person to put him to death spiritually, you only baptize a person who has died spiritually and been saved. Doesn't that make sense? You do not bury people to kill them -- you bury them because they have already died.
Dr. Daniels -- "You know that I believe in baptism, but my friends, if you good Baptist brethern of mine are depending on baptism to save souls, you will go to hell. Salvation is not in the creek: it is in Christ."
Someone has a clever way of saying that, "One can be baptized so often in the creek until the tadpoles can read the social security number in his pocket, and still go to hell if he is depending on baptism to save his soul." It is true.
IV. Faith In Good Works Will Not Save.
Eph. 2:8 through Eph. 2:10 (KJV)
Christ went about doing good and when we follow Him, we, too, will do the same. If we profess to be saved and do no good works, then our faith is a dead faith and a dead faith won't save one.
James 2:17 through James 2:18 (KJV)
The only way we prove our faith to be real saving faith is by our works. Real heart faith produces works.
This is very clearly taught in Matthew chapter 25. Jesus will welcome the sheep (the saved) on His right hand because they fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick and imprisoned. He will put the goats (lost) on His left hand. "Depart from me --" because you never performed the good deeds the saved did. Now, Jesus is not teaching salvation by works. He was saying that the sheep have true saving faith and it is shown by the services they rendered to the needy. He is not saying we are saved by good works.
Spurgeon once said that one might better try to sail the Atlantic in a paper boat, than to try to get to heaven on good works.
31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. 18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.
The lost cannot please God by doing good works.
Rom. 8:7 through Rom. 8:8 (KJV)
Notice again the truths found in Ephesians 2:8-10. We are saved by faith and not of our works. This excludes all boasting on man's part. Salvation is God's gift to man and he must accept it by faith.
Salvation by faith makes it possible for anyone to be saved. Any other way would have eliminated some people. You may say that salvation by faith is too simple -- that it is not enough. You say man must do something other than believe in order to be saved. The rich young ruler asked Jesus, "What must I do" and man has been asking that question ever since. "What must I do?" What must be done in order for man to be saved was done by Jesus on the cross. We are told that when Betty Crocker first marketed cake mixes that required adding only water they were a colossal failure. The company officials could not understand why the mix would not sell. After all, the mix only required adding water to achieve a creamy batter and a fine cake. They commissioned their research department to do a study to find out the answers to their dilemma. The result -- it was found that the public felt uneasy about a mix that only required water. It was too easy! Consumers felt they had to do something to the cake mix. So the company changed the formula and required the housewife to add an egg. Immediately the mix was a great success!
Man wants to add something to faith in order to be saved. The very moment we do so we have departed from the Word of God.
Gal. 3:26 (KJV)
"Faith" and "believe" mean the same thing. One is a noun and the other is a verb. To believe in Jesus is to have faith in Him. To "believe" means to have real trust. It means total dependence, total trust, total commitment.
John 3:16 (KJV)
John 1:12 (KJV)
Acts 16:29 through Acts 16:31 (KJV)
"Saving Faith" is illustrated by a father who used the following way of showing his little daughter how to be saved. They had a basement with only artificial lights. It had a ladder instead of permanent stairs. The father and his little girl often played together in the basement. One day he went into that basement, removed the ladder, left off the lights, but made a lot of noise so that the little girl heard him. She came to the opening and called out: "Daddy, are you down there?" "Yes, darling," he said. "Well, daddy I want to come down there and be with you." "O.K. honey, but the ladder is not there, so if you will jump into the basement I'll catch you." "But daddy, I am afraid." "Do you believe that I am down here honey and that I can and will keep my promise to catch you?" he asked. "But daddy, I don't see you and am afraid." "Honey, I am the one who is going to do the catching. You don't need to see me. I see you and will catch you if you will jump. If you have faith in your father, just jump and I'll catch you." "I'm coming daddy," she said, as she jumped into the darkness and was caught by her father. He sat down and explained to her how this illustrated saving faith. He said: "Now, honey this is just what it is to put saving faith in Jesus. You have never seen Him, but you believe He died for you, arose and is alive to save you. He promises to save you if you'll only trust Him. Turn from everything and everybody and rely upon Him to save you.
An illustration that comes to my mind is that of mailing a letter. Suppose you have a loved one in some foreign country. You have knowledge that the postal department will deliver your letter if you will put the postage on it and drop it in the mail box. Do you mail it, and then stay around the post office to see if they get on the plane or train to see if it carried out of your city. And then go to the foreign land to see if the local postal authorities there deliver it? No, you drop the letter into the mail and await an answer. You have knowledge that the post office will deliver the letter. You have faith to believe they will deliver it. You put your letter in on faith, and do not try to mix your own efforts into the delivery of the letter. Even so you put your trust in Christ, and depend on Him completely to deliver your soul safe into heaven one day.
V. Faith In The Bible Won't Save.
One may believe the Bible from cover to cover but unless he does what it teaches he thereby proves that his faith is mere mental assent and not real faith (heart faith -- saving faith) at all.
Let me illustrate it this way. Here is a man in the third story of a burning house. The only means of escape is cut off and he stands at the window. A ladder is lifted and a net is placed below. He says he believes the ladder is safe and if he climbs down it he'll be saved. He believes the net would save him if he jumped into it, but he does not make a move. In spite of his professed faith, he will burn to death.
Here is a man who is desperately ill with a large dose of poison, accidentally or willfully swallowed. The doctor comes diagnoses the case, prescribes the right remedy, and says, "You are poisoned and will die unless you immediately take this medicine." Now that man may know he is poisoned, he may believe the doctor is perfectly right in his diagnosis, that he has prescribed the right remedy, and that if he takes it he will recover, and if he refuses to take it he will die. He may believe all that and perish. That kind of faith cannot save him. He needs to do one more thing, he must reach out his hand and take the medicine. In fact he must prove his faith.
VI. Saving Faith Is Faith In Christ Plus Nothing.
John 14:5 through John 14:6 (KJV)
John 3:17 through John 3:18 (KJV)
John 3:36 (KJV)
Saving faith is not a matter of trying to save yourself but is a matter of ceasing and letting Jesus do every bit of it. The following story is one of my favorites because it makes this truth so plain. A little boy and his mother were walking out beside a certain creek, almost a river. There had been a heavy rain and the water was raging pretty madly. The little fellow said, "Mama, I want to go swimming." She said, "Johnny, you can't go swimming. The water is too rough today and it's dangerous." But you know how little boys are; they want to have their own way no matter what mother says. As they went on there way, little Johnny lagged behind, further and further until his mama got out of sight and he pulled his clothes off and jumped in and began to swim. But he didn't swim very long because the water was too rough and he began to call for mama and she hears him and came back and looked out and saw him as he was fighting, grabbing at everything he could as the mad water raged round about him, as he tried to save himself from what he knew would lead him on down and down until he couldn't get back at all. The mother couldn't swim; she couldn't jump in and do anything about it. She began to scream at the top of her voice for somebody to come and help. And all the time the little fellow was fighting madly out there, grabbing at pieces of branches and twigs and other things that happened by. Finally a farmer across the field heard him cry, and he cam over to see what was wrong and saw the situation there. And he stood right on the bank and never made one move to jump out and do anything about it. That mother pled with him; she argued with him to hurry and do something about it, but still he stayed there on the bank and never made one move to jump out and to save the boy there. She pleaded, she begged, she almost agonized before him there; but nevertheless he remained steadfast, not doing one thing about it. He saw the little fellow go down under the water, and he saw him come back up again, but still fighting madly to save himself. And then he went down again and came back up again. Finally the little fellow's arms went limp, his little legs relaxed and that man instantly jumped into the water and swam out to the boy and brought him back to the shore. And as he was leaning down over the little boy, pushing the water out of the little boy's lungs there, that mother said, "Why did you not save him sooner? He might have died while you waited; he might have drowned while you stood there idly by doing nothing for him." That farmer straightened up, and he said, "Lady, I wanted to save that boy as badly as I could; I wanted to hurry and get him up here as quickly as I could; but I knew that as long as he was struggling to save himself and fighting to save himself, I could not do anything for him. If I had tried to save him while he was fighting like he was he and I would have both gone down and both of us would have drowned there. I had to wait until he quit his struggling and quit his fighting before I could save him at all."
That is exactly the way it is with God. As long as you are struggling and fighting to save yourself and attempting by your own methods to save yourself, it's a hands off proposition as far as God is concerned. But when you realize that all your efforts to save yourself are in vain and you quit trying and cast yourself upon God's mercy, He'll save you then and there. My friends, that is saving faith and it is the one and only way one can be saved. We are God's child by faith in Jesus. If you haven't done so please trust Him today. Cast your all upon Him. We are His children by faith in Christ Jesus. Are you one of His children? You can be. It is up to you. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
