The Faith of the Church

Good morning, everyone . If this is your first week, we're so glad you're here. My name is Chad. I get to be one of the pastors here and we hope you're welcomed in the warmth and the love and grace of Christ.

This morning we're jumping into week two of a seven week sermon series called God 's Household. In First Timothy, we see Paul call the church God 's Household (1 Timothy 4;15) and he's giving instructions to Timothy about how we should live together in God 's household and he calls it the church. Last week I spoke on week one on the nature of the church and just as a quick review. The nature of the church we defined as the global community of believers in Jesus who have the Holy Spirit and who gather locally to do God 's will. And last Sunday I told you that believing in Jesus implies believing in a triune God. It implies believing in Father, Son, and Spirit. Believing in Jesus in the true sense of belief is to believe in Jesus as the Spirit anointed Christ. It's to believe in him as the Son of God the Father. And so I sort of tease that out just a little bit last week. And so this week I want to speak about the faith of the church. I want to expand on our Trinitarian faith. What is the faith of the church once and for all delivered to the Saints? What is the historical Christian faith? What is the Orthodox teaching about God? The orthodox teaching about the gospel about Jesus Christ, his Son, our Savior. I believe at bare minimum there are three primary marks of a local church. Three primary marks of a true local church.

Number one is Orthodox teaching, true biblical teaching about God and his Son. Secondly, the ordinances baptism in the Lord 's Supper. Every true church practices baptism in the Lord's Supper . And then thirdly, every true church has qualified officers, pastors, elders. So Orthodox teaching, baptism and communion and qualified officers. That's what defines the primary marks, I believe historically of a true local church. So today we're going to dive into Orthodoxy, dive into the true God and the true Gospel. Now at home, my family, we read the Bible together each day with our kids. We pray with them, we encourage them to try to pray. We sing songs to God, hymns and other spiritual songs about God and Christ. But lately we've been teaching our kids the Apostles Creed. We've been reading it and then we have them quote it with us. We quote almost every day. I also want to teach them at some point, which we've quoted before, the Nicene Creed in the 4th century, the Athanasian Creed, which was probably written in the 5th century or the 7th century. I want to teach them one day the Chaledonian definition. You can go look that up. Chaledonian definition from 451 A.D. Which is about the person and the natures of Christ. How can God be God? How can Jesus be God and human?

Now for some of you that sounds totally normal and very Christian, but to some of you that sounds strange and maybe even off putting. Why would our preaching pastor teach his kids the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Chaledonian definition, the Athanasian Creed when he has the Bible? Simply because these are the best summaries and explanations of the Christian faith that we have. These are the best summaries of what the Bible teaches about God and salvation that the Church has handed down to us, Christian faith is subjective. It's my faith. It's your faith. It's why we believe in God. We believe in Jesus. We believe the message of salvation But Christian faith is more than subjective, it is objective. Christian faith is not my faith only, it is the faith. Christian faith has an object. It's not simply something in my heart that I create. Christian faith takes hold of the living God. Christian faith takes hold of the true message of salvation. Christian faith takes hold of real promises given by a real God to real sinners who need a real Savior Christian Faith for you and me is not simply something I feel in my heart or I do in my heart. Christian faith is something I take hold of, a God I take hold of, a Savior I take hold of outside of me. We worship God in spirit and truth, right? We don't simply worship God in our spirits. We worship God in spirit or in the power of the Holy Spirit according to what is true about God.

The Christian faith, the faith once and for all, given to us by the apostles through the Scriptures, is something that is defined and objective and clear. It's not something we create. The true faith, the true Christian faith that we hold to, that we confess, that we affirm, is not something we customize. It's not something we build. It's not something create. It is something that you and I receive from God. We are responding, in other words, to God 's self revelation in the Scriptures. We're responding to a God who has revealed himself and his mercy through Jesus Christ. We are responding to be saved through repentance and faith. The Christian Faith is the good news about the Trinitarian God, the Triune Godfather, Son and Spirit who has made us and when we sinned, how he has saved us.

Do we find this kind of language in the scriptures themselves? Yes, look with me at Jude. Jude. vs. 3 and 4. He says,”Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered, delivered to the Saints. (4) For certain people have crept in unnoticed too long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.”

He says in verse three, “I am writing to you to contend for the faith, the faith that was once for all delivered to the Saints.” Notice something, It's the faith, not just faith, it's the faith. There's a clearly defined message that we receive. He says it's been delivered once, once for all, not twice, not three times. There is a body of doctrine, a body of truth. For sinners like us, that has been delivered to us one time, that the church has received the self revelation of God, the teaching about Christ, and it has been delivered to us. And our job is not to recreate it. It's not to redefine it. It's not to customize it. It is simply to receive the truth by faith, to repent in our hearts of our sins, to look to Christ for hope, the faith once and for all delivered Not discovered, but delivered to us Ephesians chapter 3. You can just watch these on the screen for a minute. I'm going to flip through several verse four. When you read this, Paul says you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ . Which was not made known to the sons of men and other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.

The Christian message, the Christian gospel is something revealed to us. It's given to us, it's delivered to us. And Paul says it was revealed to me and now I'm revealing it to you. And so throughout the centuries, the church has been receiving this message and delivering it to new people, delivering it to the nations, delivering it to unbelievers. Delivering it to one another. We're a people of faith seeking understanding and seeking to worship God and trust him in spirit and truth. Galatians 1:6-9, Paul says, “I'm astonished that you're so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. (7)Not that there's another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. (8) But even if we or an Angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be cursed. (9) As we have said before. So now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”

The Gospel is something that has been declared by the apostles, written in the Scriptures for us, by the apostles and their coworkers, and it's something delivered to us. It's something we hold fast to, and it's something we continue to preach to other people so they can be saved. The gospel is clearly defined, clearly revealed, clearly delivered both by the apostles in their preaching and the apostles in their writing. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Romans, Acts, all the rest It's something that we receive, not something we create.

Galatians 1:11, “For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel.(12) No, for I did not receive it from any man, Paul says, nor was I taught it, but I received the gospel through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” In other words, Jesus came to Paul personally and says, “This is who I am. This is what I've done. This is the message. Now go into the all the world, especially to the Gentiles for Paul and preach the good news about me. Preach the message of this life. So that all who are called will repent of their sins and put their hope in me for salvation. That's the way to be saved. Repentance from sin and faith in the gospel that Jesus has revealed to us, First Timothy 6:20, “ Oh Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you.”Guard the deposit that the Christian faith, the gospel, is a deposit. It's been given to us. It's a deposit that the church has to guard and teach and love and proclaim.”

He goes on in First Corinthians 15, This is Paul. “I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, (2) by which you're being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached you, unless you believed in vain”. (3) For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: Christ died, was buried, was raised for our salvation.” In other words, what I'm trying to tell you is that the faith, the Christian faith, is not something we simply discover in our own personal Bible study. It's something that has been delivered to us from God. It is God coming to broken, rebellious sinners and rebels like us and, “Saying this is who I am and though I could crush you for your sin. I don't want to crush you. I want to save you. Here's my son. I'm going to crucify my son for you. I'm going to, I'm going to deliver Jesus to death for your sin, to pay the price to rise again from the dead. And I'm going to offer you guys repentance and forgiveness of sins through His name.”

Wow It's so easy to view the Christian faith as me and my Bible study, right? We approach it like this. I'm going to go to the Bible and in my prayer closet or my Bible said I'm going to discover what is true on my own. It's common to hear things like no creed, but the Bible. But that's impossible. Why? Why is it impossible to say no creed but the Bible? Because the Bible must always be interpreted and explained.

There's a story from Carl Truman in his book, “The Creedal Imperative.” He tells the story of one of his friends who visited a church and the pastor stood up and he held the Bible. And he said, “This is our only creed and confession. He held the Bible. Carl comments on this and he says ironically The pastor who raised this up in this tradition, ironically this church taught the five points of Calvinism, dispensationalism, and their church polity was rooted in the Plymouth Brethren Assembly. In other words, he says while it's only creed was the Bible, it actually connected in terms of the details of its life and teaching to almost no other congregation in the history of the church. Clearly the church had a creed, a summary, an explanation of what the Bible teaches. Nobody ever wrote it down, though, and nobody presented it publicly for evaluation. In other words, I could stand up here and say I have no creed but the Bible. But at the end of the day, we all have to interpret the Bible. We all have to explain the Bible. We all have to organize our thoughts about God and the Bible. We have to explain the Bible with words that are not in the Bible. So if I say we're saved by grace through faith, I need to be able to summarize and explain what that means. If I say God is Father, Son, and Spirit, someone at some point has to explain how can God be one and three? What does it mean for God to be Father, Son, and Spirit? So at the end of the day, when we say no creed but the Bible, what we're saying is that what is authoritative is me and my interpretation of the Bible . It's my personal Bible study. It's my personal understanding, it's my personal explanation of God and Jesus and grace.

But you know how Mormons became Mormons? You know how Jehovah's Witnesses became Jehovah's Witnesses? By using the Bible incorrectly, By misinterpreting the Bible on their own authority Why do we approach the Bible like this sometimes? Why do we? Why do we approach the Bible in our own authority? I think there's a lot of reasons. One is the scientific approach the Enlightenment made us Scientists and there's nothing wrong with science. Science is great. But we approach the Bible like we're doing a scientific method. We want to get all the pieces and we want to put it together and we want to sort of have this theory of, of what the Bible means. And we put our study together and we think that we'll arrive at a perfect understanding of the Bible on our own. We won't. We won't, not on our own. Or we live in a Society of consumerism, OK, where we can customize our meals, customize our cars, customize our houses, customize everything. That's why I love simple restaurants in and out. Chick-fil-A, it's either burgers and fries or chicken and fries. It's simple. We just do this. It's easy, no decision fatigue. I hate the build your own part of a menu. It stresses me out so much I don't want to build my own, I want you to build it for me I want you to tell me what you've got, and I just want to say #2 large.

We live in a consumerist culture, so we think that so, So we think that when it comes to Christianity or the faith of the Christian, that we can build our own version of it, that we can customize it, that we can create what kind of Christianity and spirituality we want to create. Or the technological advances of our society. We live in a quickly advancing society with technology. What we start to believe is that new is always better. But the truth is old. The gospel is ancient. Christ lived, died and rose 2000 years ago, and he lives and reigns in heaven now. Truth, the gospel, the deposit is old. But we live in a society that thinks we're constantly advancing . And lastly, I would say it's because we are a subjective society. We live in a postmodern society where we approach everything as my truth, my views, my feelings. And if it's my truth, you need to affirm me in my truth. You need to affirm what I believe and what I say and what I feel. Because whatever I feel and believe and say that now has the authority, your job is to affirm me in my beliefs and my feelings. It's called expressive individualism. All that to say is I want to sort of build some tension in your life. Not to say I'm not trying to say that anything is above the scriptures. Please do not mishear me. Nothing is above the scriptures. The scripture is breathed out by God, nothing else is So don't hear me saying that the Apostles Creed or the Knights and Creed or any other explanation of the Bible is above the Bible. It's not. It's under the Bible.

But we all have a way of explaining the Bible, of understanding the Bible of summarizing what we believe as Christians. FCBC has a doctrinal statement. We have a summary, a statement of faith explaining what we believe. Why do we need something like that? Well, because a Mormon or a Jehovah's Witness would read John chapter one differently than we would. They would say Jesus is a God or a demigod or a sub God. They would say he's sort of like 1/2 God. And they would try to argue that point from the scriptures themselves. Whereas we know that Jesus is the word, the eternal God, the Son of God, the eternal Son who's come to save us. And so we need statements of faith. We need creeds and confessions. We need explanations of the Bible in order to make sure that we preserve the true Christian faith and hold to the true Christian faith. In Matthew 28 verse 19, Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” What Matthew does right there is he summarizes for us. He gives us a structure for the true Christian faith, Father, Son and Spirit. One of my favorite verses that is very obscure is 2 Corinthians 13:14. It says this, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

Can I share with you a little song we sing with our kids real quick? Would that be all right ? Is that OK at 8:45 in the morning ? So in order to teach them the faith, to teach them who God is and what he's done for us, we made this song. “May the grace of our Lord Jesus and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Spirit be with you.” So we say that in the morning, we sing that at night. They're starting by understanding that God is 3 in one . And that this God loves us in our sins. He has acted to save us. That's what faith is about That the Father, Son and Spirit, this true God has created us, we rebelled, and this true God has acted to save us from sin and death and judgment through Jesus his Son. If you read John 1, right away you see that God is Father, that He is Son, and that He is Spirit. You see the Father, you see the word Jesus Christ his Son, and you see that Jesus at his baptism in chapter one, is anointed by the Holy Spirit. He's the one that baptizes with the Holy Spirit. If you read through the letter of First John, you'll see consistently that the faith is the Father and his Son, and that He has given us his Spirit.

And so I think that for this morning, as I try to briefly summarize the faith, the Christian faith for us, I think that's a helpful outline. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit. How has this great God saved sinners like you and me? Flip to Ephesians 1:3. First we'll look at the Father. The Father is the one who loves us, as Second Corinthians says, He's the one who loves us, and he's the one who sent his Son. He's the great lover of sinners and the sender of His son. Verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love. The Father predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will. What do you see here? You see that the Father in Scripture is the one who Loves us with a great love. He's the one who loves us so much that he doesn't keep his son to himself, but he sends his son He gives His Son, He delivers over His Son to die in our place for our sins, that before He even made the world, He chose us. He set His affection on us. He set His commitment to us. He sent His love to us. His will upon us for us to be saved through Jesus Christ. The Father is the one who loves us and sends His Son to bring us back to Himself. You know the famous verse John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that we might have life in Jesus.” First John 4:9. “In this the love of God was revealed among us, that God sent his only Son into the world. So that we might live through Jesus in this is love. Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us. And sent his Son to be the sacrifice for our sins. The Father is the one who knowingly we would send before the creation of the world. He chose us. He set his love on us. And He when He created the world and when we rebelled, He finally sent His son to us. And sent His son for us. Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will He not also with him graciously give us all things?”

When you think about the Christian faith it all starts with the Father choosing us, the Father creating us, and then when we rebelled and when we lifted the 1st to God, he did not spare Jesus but sent his Son to save us . This is who the father is. This is his great love for us. We are all prodigal sons and daughters, haven't we all run away. We've all squandered the inheritance, we've all cursed God to his face. We've all been arrogant and selfish and greedy and self-centered. Romans one says that we deserve God 's wrath because we did not honor him. We did not honor him. Do you believe that about yourself? That you have not honored God, you have not loved God, but that he loved you when you hated him. This is who the Father is, that though He could have crushed us and destroyed us and poured out his wrath on us, but he chose us, He created us and he sent his Son to save us. You know, in the story of the prodigal son man, you see the father 's heart in that parable. It's one of my favorites. It's so well known that this prodigal son, which is who we are, comes running in repentance and confession of his sins. The father runs to him, embraces him, clothes him, and throws a party for him. My son was lost, now he's found. My son was dead, now he's alive. This is the Father choosing us, creating us, sending his son Jesus to save us. I hope you see the glory of his love for you. Do you believe this morning that the Father loves you with a perfect personal love? That He set his affections on you before He made you. That though you've raised your fist to Him and rebelled against Him, He loved you with a great love and gave His Son, His precious Son, for you. He gave you what is most valuable to Him, which is Jesus. How do you know that God loves you? Is it because you feel good on a certain day, your life 's going well, or nothing 's wrong in your life? No, no, no, no. The way we know God 's love for us is we look to Christ hanging on the cross for us. And we remember the Father did that. The Father sent Jesus, the Father gave his Son, the Father chose me in Christ before the world was made.

Maybe you've forgotten how much the Father loves you. Maybe you've forgotten how warm his love is for you this morning. But remember that though you're a Sinner, the Father loves you in Christ. What an amazing love this is. The Father is the lover and chooser of his people and the sender of His Son. This is the first aspect of our faith. Let's look now at the Son of God, the Son, the second person of God. We have the Father, we have the Son. And remember Paul in Second Corinthians. What does he say? The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. The grace of the Lord Jesus. John 1:1 says this, “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God.” Jesus is the Word. (2) “He was in the beginning with God. (3)All things were made through him. Without Him nothing was not anything made. (4) In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.(5) The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

So you have the Word, who is Jesus? He's with God and He is God. He's with the Father, and He is God Himself. He created all things with the Father. But look at verse 14. Look what happens in John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh.”, became human, took on humanity, and dwelt and lived among us. We have seen His glory . Glorious of the only Son from the Father. Watch this full of grace and truth Verse 16, “For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. (17) “For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (18) No one has ever seen God, the only God who's at the Father 's side. He has made God known.”

This is incredible, guys. I don't want you to underestimate how amazing this passage is. And this reality is that when God became flesh, when the Son of God became flesh and human, what did he reveal about God? That God is full of grace and truth, Jesus Christ, who is God in flesh, did not come with wrath and vengeance towards us. He came full of grace and truth It says in verse 16, For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace from the fullness of who He is, from the fullness of who God is in his, in his being and His life, from the eternal being of God. What have we received from him? We have received a Savior full of grace and truth, a Savior full of mercy, a Savior that wants to save sinners, a Savior that came to die for you and me. When Jesus came to reveal God, what did we see? We saw a God overflowing with grace and mercy. That's what we see . We see a God who is tender and compassionate towards sinners like us. When God revealed himself in human form, as close as he could get, we saw that God is a God of goodness and mercy and forgiveness and grace and justice and kindness.

That's why Titus 2:11 says that when Jesus became flesh, “the grace of God has appeared.” Jesus is grace incarnate. He's grace personified. When God became a human, what did we see? Grace, mercy, love. A God willing to save and die and forgive sinners who repent and put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ full of grace and truth. Can you hear the ring of that? God came full of grace and truth. Not wrath and justice for you, but grace upon grace upon Grace. Is there anybody here this morning that needs grace? Are you a good person? Am I a good person? Are you righteous? Are you a righteous person? Is there anything you can do to make God like you? Can you measure up to God 's holy standard? Not even close. And I can't either. Guys, I'm a Wretch. That's why that hymn says Amazing Grace that saved a wretch like me. It doesn't say a wretch like them out there. It says a wretch like me. That's a song for the church. That's a song for redeemed sinners. Oh, Amazing Grace has saved a wretch like me. It's not that I simply was a wretch. It's that I am a wretch without Jesus Christ. I am always a wretch without the righteousness of Jesus Christ for me. When God became human, He came flowing over with grace for you and me. Isn't that amazing?

Oh, how easy it would be to read that with such a theological mind and forget that God the Father in grace and love sent the Son full of grace and truth. For you and me Hebrews 1:2 It says that Jesus Christ is the radiance of God 's glory. The radiance. When you look at Jesus, you see the shining glory of God 's grace. If you want to know what God is like, just look at Jesus, for Jesus is God. If you want to know God is gracious, look to Jesus, for Jesus is gracious towards sinners. When you look at Jesus, what you see, if the Spirit of God opens your eyes, you see a God flowing, overflowing with grace and mercy for those who will come humbly in repentance and faith to him. So come humbly in repentance and faith to Jesus Christ. Come again through faith in Christ. Come again and again and again, constantly hoping in Jesus Christ.

The Christian is a life of hope in Jesus Christ, who is full of grace and truth for broken rebels like us. I have enough time for this. This is so good Exodus 33 and 34. Moses is up on the mountain. He's getting the 10 commandments while he's getting the very law of God that they're going to agree to. They build the golden calf . They break the covenant as soon as the covenant is made, immediately imagine that idolatry, rebellion. God is threatening. God is threatening to not go forward with his people personally. Moses intercedes. It says, Lord, if you don't go with us, I don't want to go like your presence has to go with us. God listens to Moses. And God says this, He tells him to get 2 new tablets . In verse 17, Exodus 33:17, it says, “This very thing you've spoken to me I will do, for you have found favor in my sight. I know you by name.” Moses. Moses says this, ” Moses said, “Lord, show me what your glory is like. Show me what you're like. Just show me that's enough for me. I want that. I want to see you for who you are.” You know what the Lord says.”I will make all my goodness My goodness, pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord. I will be gracious to whom I am gracious. I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy Lord, show me your glory. And the Lord says, Oh I will, make my goodness pass before you. He doesn't say I'm going to pass by you and slap you across the face for all your wickedness Or pour and crush you with a rock, you know, he says.” I will show you my glory and I will show you all of my goodness.”

Do you believe that God His goodness is both the greatest news in the world and the worst news in the world. It's the worst news in the world because we are not good. It's the best news in the world because he can make us good, in Jesus Christ. Then when the Lord, in chapter 34 descends in the cloud, stands before him and proclaims his name to Moses, the Lord passed by proclaiming the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, forgiving sin and transgression and iniquity, who by no means clear the guilty .

When the Lord shows us His glory in Jesus Christ, what do we see? His goodness, His mercy, His steadfast love You know when God passes by Moses, he says you can't see my face, for no one can see my face, and live, you can see the backside of me, but you can't see my face. I'll show you a glimpse of my goodness, but not the fullness of my goodness.

But when Jesus Christ came to earth. No one had seen God 's face until that moment. He told Moses, you can't see my face and live. But then God became a human and now I can look right in the face of Jesus, and you can look right in the face of Jesus, and you can see the fullness of the glory of the goodness of God. No one had seen God 's face and lived until Jesus arrived. Now you look in the face of God himself, Jesus Christ. And what do you see? You see a God of goodness and mercy, full of grace and truth Isn't that incredible And he came for you, He came for me. And we need this Jesus. We need a Savior. We are not good people, but He can make us good. He can declare us righteous. He can give us new life, and He can give you new life and mercy. It is in the face of Jesus Christ that we finally can see the fullness of His grace. From His fullness we've all received grace upon grace upon grace. You see it Moses couldn't see his goodness in his face, but we can in the Lord Jesus Christ. A Jesus who lived for you, who died as a sacrifice for your sin, who rose from the dead, who ascended to heaven, who poured out his Spirit, who's coming back to reign and judge the living and the dead, who promises every single human being who will repent and put their trust and faith in Him and call upon His name, eternal life.

What an amazing God! We guys, we have to be the tax collector in the temple saying I am not worthy to even look to heaven. Have mercy upon me, a sinner. We cannot be the Pharisee, like don't be the Pharisee in the temple that says thank you God, that I am not like other people and that I am righteous Jesus said the tax collector, the one who repented, went home. Justified. Not the Pharisee, not the self- righteous. Lastly, the last aspect of the faith. So we have the Father and we have the Son. And we have the Holy Spirit. May the grace of Jesus and the love of the Father, Paul says, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you. The fellowship, I love that word. The fellowship. What is he saying? He's saying that the Holy Spirit is the one who brings us into fellowship with God. That the Holy Spirit is the one who opens your eyes to see who Jesus is The Holy Spirit is the one who gives you the ability to believe in Jesus. He gives you the ability to repent. He convicts you of sin and righteousness and judgment. The Holy Spirit is the one sent into the world to draw people to the Savior, to bring us from death and sin to life with God. The Holy Spirit is the one who comes to get us and brings us to Jesus Christ. He is the one who lives in us, who believes. He is the one who seals us, who keeps us, who comforts us, who opens our minds and our hearts to God? He's the one who grants us a repentant heart He's the one who keeps us to the very end. He's the one who makes us alive when we were dead in our sins.

He's the Lord and the life giver He's the one who sets us free from the power and the guilt of sin In Romans 8:1, “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (2) For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” He is the Lord. He's the one who gives us life. He's the One who sets us free from sin. He's the one who brings us to the Savior. He's the one who indwells all who believe, and He seals us for the final day when Jesus comes for us again . This is the faith once and for all delivered to the Saints Church, the Father, the Son, the Spirit. We rebelled, we lifted the finger to God and the Father loved us. The Father chose us. The Father gave us his Son. Jesus lived and suffered for us and rose again, and he sent the Spirit, and the Spirit brings us to repentance, and he brings us to the Savior, and he comes to live inside of us and give us new freedom in life. This is the faith. Once and for all delivered to the Saints.

Why does this matter so much? Why would I even preach a sermon about this? In fact, I bet when I was getting started you were a little bit unsure about what I was going to say. Because God wants us to worship Him in spirit and truth. We are not free to worship God as we like We must worship God as He has revealed, as He has revealed himself to be. You see, Christianity is not us coming to God, us seeking after God, us making ourselves right with God. Christianity, as we've walked away completely from God, our back is to Him. We want nothing to do with Him, and this great, glorious triune God of love has constantly pursued us. And he has saved us through Jesus, and by the Spirit he brings us to Himself There are no people in the world who seek after God on their own. Romans 3 tells us that. But there is a God who seeks after us. That's the Christian faith . And once he grabs hold of your life, you want nothing else but him. Faith has everything to do with discipleship. It has everything to do with our life of worship. It has everything to do with our discipleship of our kids and our grandkids. It has everything to do with how we pray, what we sing, what we preach. It has everything to do with how we even approach the Bible. It has everything to do with evangelism and what we teach to people who are far from God. It has everything to do with keeping this church unified around what is most important.

It has everything to do with avoiding deception and not being led astray. The other day I was sitting in the village. There in the village center in the beautiful weather and I overheard a conversation. A young man and his fiance, a Mormon woman walked up to them from behind us. They started to share the faith with her. The Father loves you a Sinner He sent his Son. This is what his Son has done, and he offers you repentance and faith and eternal life in Jesus. I turned to them later. I said, hey, I didn't want to interrupt the conversation, but I'm sitting here writing a sermon on the faith once and for all, giving to the Saints, and you just preached the gospel, the faith to their, to her. They had prayed that morning for a divine appointment for the gospel, and God delivered. Would you start praying with me for divine appointments? Would you think about the people and the neighbors and the coworkers in your life and the family and start praying for their souls, praying for divine appointments, praying for boldness to share the faith, the good news of God and His Son with sinners like you and me?

I met with a brother on Wednesday morning who has this prayer tablet or prayer journal and so many of the people on there are his neighbors and friends who are lost and he is praying for them. He will meet them and stay up past midnight just to talk to them about God He's spreading the faith about Christ to them I encourage you to get together with your life group or your small group or your Bible study, and instead of simply thinking about yourselves, start praying for and thinking about people who are lost and how you can share the gospel, the faith with them and reach them for Christ.

We are sent into the world to represent our Savior. Are you living this sort of outward, moving life where the faith is no longer just for you, the faith is for those who are far from God to proclaim the love of God, the grace of Christ, and the freedom that comes by receiving the Holy Spirit. If you were far from God this morning, maybe you wandered in here and you wanted to know how to be a Christian. You know nothing about Christianity, nothing about the Bible. You've come to a Bible church and you know nothing about it. You are so welcome here And I hope this morning you've heard about a God who loves you. I hope you've heard about your need for a Savior. And that this God has provided Jesus Christ. He is the Savior. Jesus died to pay for all of your sins He rose again, He is alive. And the Bible says if you will turn from your sin and you will put your faith and your trust in him alone, if you will call upon the name of Jesus saying, Jesus, save me, forgive me, make me new.

The Bible says he always answers that prayer that he will save you, you'll be forgiven and you'll have eternal life. If you decide to do that today, if you pray to Jesus, if you call in his name, I want you to come up after the service and I want you to tell me that you did that and I want to help you take next steps in Jesus. Let's pray together. “We love you, Lord, we worship you, but we know, Lord, that it's not we who have loved you first, it's you that's loved us. The Lord. This is what Christianity is. It's people made in your image who have run away. And it's a God who's run after us and saved us through his Son and by his Spirit”

“So, Lord, we pray that we will love you for who you are. That we would see, your Grace, that we would cherish your son. We pray that we would live a life of freedom from sin, of hope in Christ. We pray that we'd be a church and a people who share this love, this good news with the world. God give us divine appointments this week. Stir up life groups and small groups to live missionally together, to think about people they can serve and reach. We pray that we would see many unbelievers believe in Jesus. We pray you would revive us and quicken us and awaken. Stir us up for you Lord, and for your glory, in Jesus name, Amen.