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August, 2021 (Vol.55-No.8) |
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Preached by Dr. Gene Scott on October 11, 1987 (3rd in the series on The Called and Chosen) Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2 THE APOSTLE PAUL WROTE IN 2ND CORINTHIANS 4:18, “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Faith focuses on things not seen. Throughout this series of messages, I have defined faith as an action, based upon belief, and sustained by confidence. Faith involves the will, the mind, and even the emotions to the degree that faith requires a felt sense of confidence. For the Christian, faith must always be an action, based upon belief, and sustained by the confidence that God will back His word. Thus, biblical faith must have God’s word as its object. Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent.” What God has promised, He will do, and what He has spoken, He will make good. Your confidence in God’s word grows with exposure to His performance. Paul said in Romans 10:17, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” As you hear the word of God and witness His faithful performance as it unfolds in the Bible, you learn to act in faith on the promises He has given you. Paul said in Romans 12:3 that “God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith,” but it is very apparent that not everyone has saving faith. Saving faith responds to God’s word. You have saving faith when you hang your life on God’s promises in spite of everything else you see. When you act in faith on God’s word, two things happen: God immediately seats you in heavenly places in Christ, and at the same time, He places His Spirit of life in you and you become a new creation in Christ Jesus. Romans 8 makes it clear that you are in Christ when He is in you. That is salvation. Christ is formed in your heart by faith. But the traditional church has redefined biblical faith as mere belief. Faith is much more than belief; it is an action, based upon belief, and sustained by confidence in God’s word. Salvation is all God’s doing. But if salvation is so simple, then why isn’t everyone saved? God is the Caller, and His calling is unilateral. Paul wrote in Romans 9:11 that when God calls someone, it is not by their works, “but of him that calleth.” Paul demonstrates this using the Old Testament record of Jacob and Esau, saying, “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” God made His choice while Jacob and Esau were still in the womb, before they could have done anything good or bad. Likewise, God’s response to our faith, which places Christ in us and us in Christ, is an act of His grace. Grace is unmerited favor. We do not deserve it. We cannot earn it by righteous living. Our works will not save us. God acts in response to our connection of faith in His word. He puts His Spirit in us and views us as in Christ. Paul said that the Holy Spirit in us is “the earnest of our inheritance,” a part-payment guaranteeing what we will fully receive when we stand in His presence. As long as we maintain our relationship with God through faith, we have the promise that we will rule and reign with Christ throughout eternity. God gives us grace and peace. Peace is “cessation of againstness.” God is not against us anymore. There was a wall of partition between God and man because of our sins. But Christ, by His death, broke the wall of partition and can now put His life in us. He bore our sins in His own body to enable the Spirit to come and dwell in us. The Bible says that we become “an habitation of God through the Spirit.” That is the basic doctrine of salvation. Christians sometime have their own concept of faith that falls short of faith’s essential meaning. Desperation often drives people to claim God’s promises, but it doesn’t take much faith to reach out to God only when you have run out of other options. People who are dying of a sickness will try just about anything. So I am not very impressed when a sick person recites the verse, “I am the LORD that healeth thee.” I don’t want to be misunderstood: I believe that it is God’s nature to heal. He is a “healing kind of God,” and even the smallest grip of faith will connect you to His life. I teach people to take God’s promises and hang on to them. But if you are driven to claim His promises only in times of desperation, that is relatively easy to do and usually doesn’t require much faith. Likewise, it doesn’t take much faith for someone who is broke to start tithing. They hear a preacher preach on Malachi 3:10, where God has promised, “Prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” So a person who has little or nothing might start to think, “I’ll try this. I have nothing to lose!” It has been proven that gambling increases in times of economic depression. When people are broke and have little hope of getting money, they will bet their last dollar on a roll of the dice or use it to buy a lottery ticket. It is true that faith strikes a connection with God, but God looks on the heart, and it doesn’t take much faith to reach out to God only when you are desperate. The real test of faith comes when your circumstances do not require that you act in faith. People say that the church always grows in times of persecution, but does it really grow? Likewise, people say that the church always goes downhill in times of prosperity, but does it really go downhill? Or is prosperity a better time for sorting out than persecution? The New Testament teaches that salvation is given only to those who faithe. God’s response to our faith is an act of grace: He gives us His Spirit and His peace as an act of grace. “Spirituality” is God’s life working through us. Not everyone has the capacity to express continuous saving faith. God is the Caller, but He does not want everyone. That is why the same word of God brings life to some and death to others. The word of God remains true no matter what we do. The prophet Zechariah preached to encourage God’s people who were rebuilding the temple at Jerusalem, and he said, in essence, “Where are the prophets of old? Do they live forever? The prophets are dead, and those who didn’t listen to God’s word are dead, but God’s word keeps marching on!” The same word of God that brings forth faith in some people produces death in others, because having heard the word, they do not respond with faith. Why does God give this calling and why does He bless some of us with faith? You might reply, “Well, because He wants me to be saved!” Not if you are “bad soil.” The parable of the sower describes four different kinds of soil, and only one was good soil. If you are one of the three bad-soil candidates, He doesn’t want you. He doesn’t want people who have been called unto destruction. Do you want to protest that statement? It will be very hot in the place where you will be doing your protesting. If you say, “Well, I’m not sure I agree with you,” that may mean you are lost. Why does God offer salvation? Why does it put His life in us and place us in Christ? You might say, “Well, because He likes me!” Yes, that is true! Romans 5:8 says, “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” To those who are in the “us” and “we” category, that is good news. It doesn’t do a thing for those who are left out. God is still calling people. How can you know that you are one of the called? Let me say it again: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” I have been giving you some good news in between all of the bad news. If God’s word has grabbed you and has made a continuing faither out of you, then you should rejoice! There is a difference between those who are committed to the Lord and those who remain on the periphery of the church. If you have been living on the periphery, you need to make up your mind. It should not take years for God’s word to finally grab you. There are some on the periphery who are in the process of entering the core, and there are others who are in the process of leaving the core and are now on the periphery. There is a reason why God’s word can produce a band of committed people while the same word cannot seem to grab other people. Have you ever wondered why some people hear the word and want to give everything to the Lord, while others hear the very same word and give nothing? Doesn’t that puzzle you? Those who are committed to God know that following Christ involves making some sacrifices, but they sacrifice with joy. How do you know you have saving faith? The proof of the pudding is in the eating. You have responded to God’s word and have given of yourself even while going through many trials and tribulations. The fact that you have endured should be comfort enough. This message of encouragement is also needed by God’s ministers. Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 3, “Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters or commendation from you? Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.” Then Paul declared in 2nd Corinthians 4:1, “Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not.” Like Paul, any conscientious preacher will be concerned that when preaching to others, he might become a castaway himself. This message can only be understood in the context of the previous messages. Do not attempt to turn this message into a message of salvation by works. Again, salvation is neither by means of works nor according to works, nor is it demonstrated by works; works are an axiomatic accompaniment of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Salvation is the work of God in us, through us, for us, and for Himself – by faith alone. Therefore, the only way that I can shipwreck is to lose faith. There are many people in the church who do not believe that. They think we must maintain our relationship with God by good moral behavior, and they apply an even more unmerciful standard to a preacher. Someone will undoubtedly ask me, “But what about those preachers who got caught in some kind of scandalous behavior?” I would say that such behavior is a symptom of losing faith. And whatever they did wrong, it is still not as bad as what Peter did. Peter denied his Lord. Remember what Jesus said to Peter before Peter failed. Jesus did not say, “I have prayed for you that you fail not.” Jesus knew that Peter would fail; He foretold that Peter would fail three times! But Jesus said to Peter, “I have prayed for you that your faith fail not.” The only way that I can fail is to lose faith. Like Paul, I must remind myself before I preach to anyone else: “Therefore seeing we have this ministry,” this calling of God, “as we have received mercy, we faint not.” There have been times during the course of my ministry when I considered quitting, but I always changed my mind at the last minute. There were times when I felt that God was ready to say, “Okay, go ahead and quit!” and I sure changed my mind in a hurry! Some people imagine that God is like a namby-pamby, cherubic angel. To me, God acts more like Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind. Every so often He is brought to a point where He might say, “Frankly, I don’t give a damn!” But I can encourage myself today in the knowledge that I have not fainted. You should never take the things of God for granted. You might think, “I don’t have to do anything by faith today. I can skip going to church. Besides, the church will always be there, and the pastor will always be there too.” Before you take the church for granted, remember God’s word: “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” But there is encouragement in having a track record with God. Again, God is the Caller. The theological expression is “prevenient grace.” It means that God takes the initiative. The good news accompanying the bad news is that some are called, and the calling of God is without recall or repentance. This is a severe message because of its relationship to our ultimate destination. But you can take comfort in the fact that God knows where you are and understands what you are going through individually. Perhaps you have tried to quit as many times as I have; but like me, you have learned that you cannot quit so easily. God does not give up easily on people. It is harder to get out of His will than it is to remain in it. People need a sense of purpose. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” It is easy to grow faint when something that God has clearly purposed for His saints appears to be withheld for a time. But God’s purpose stands ready to be fulfilled when He sees that we are ready. And there is no sense of purpose as important to the ministry as finding people who are committed to doing God’s work, God’s way. Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 4:7, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” One translation says, “We have this treasure in fragile clay pots.” I would say, “We have this treasure in ‘cracked pots.’” God does not call perfect people; He calls earthen vessels. Saving faith is His gift to us. It is as though God has placed a receiver within each of us, and that receiver is waiting for a message from a transmitter. A receiver must be present within the earthen vessel to receive the word of God. When the word of God is received, and when we earthen vessels respond with faith, God places His Spirit in us and places us in Christ. Why does God save us? Because He wants a people who will rule and reign with Him throughout eternity! This country has been so saturated with the word of God that it is difficult to find those who are truly the called. They are sprinkled among the uncalled in various denominations. They are surrounded by uncalled people who have been motivated by fundamentalist bullies or by Madison Avenue preachers who try to see God to man in a competitive frame. One preacher offers you a god who will help you unleash the possibilities within yourself. Another preacher offers you a god who uses faith like a magic wand to make you rich and enable you to live to an old age. Then there are other preachers who offer a god who makes you feel good. God is not cooking up schemes in heaven and coming up with new methodologies to save a few souls. Neither is God standing at your heart’s door, trembling with His hat in His hand, begging you to let Him in. He is making up a quota to fill the void left by Satan and his followers when they were cast out of the heavenlies. God wants a people to rule and reign with Him in a new heaven and a new earth throughout eternity! Someone might say, “That doesn’t sound very appealing.” I would say to such a person, “Then you are lost.” If someone says, “I prefer a religion that does something for me here and now,” again, I would say, “You are lost. It is time someone tells you that your receiver is missing.” Suppose that person gets angry with me and says, “Who are you to tell me that I’m lost?” I would answer, “I am not telling you that you are lost; I am just telling you that the condition is self-evident and your reaction is the reaction of lost people.” You might ask, “Is there any hope for me?” We will see, won’t we? If you have not given up on God, then there is still hope for you! Maybe you live on the periphery of making a commitment to God, or maybe you have already made up your mind and declared, “I don’t like this message. It doesn’t describe God as I would like Him to be.” If the latter describes you, then I can tell you that God will not still be worrying over your opinion ten billion years from now. “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” Some Christians might say, “I had thought that Christianity would be an easier life. I’m tired of problems!” Do you ever get tired of your problems? We read in 2nd Corinthians 4:8, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed.” As I read this passage, I wonder, “Am I troubled on every side, yet not distressed?” The first part of this verse certainly describes me: I am troubled on every side. It is the next part that bothers me: “yet not distressed.” I am often distressed, but glory be to God, we have this treasure in cracked pots! Paul said, “We are perplexed,” and I am often that, “but not in despair.” Let’s continue to read in 2nd Corinthians 4: We are “persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” Paul describes us as being “cast down, but not destroyed.” Many popular preachers today would never preach that Christians could be cast down. They always preach a message about Christians being lifted up. Some people stop attending church because they are only focused on their “outward man” and never on their “inward man.” Paul said, “Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man dominates your perspective. Even though I preach grace and peace, that is not a license for people to free themselves into the constant indulgence of the desires of the outward man. “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” You cannot even hope to be one of the chosen if you cannot put time into perspective as but a moment in relation to eternity. Before I came to pastor Faith Center, I wrote a little book called A Hole in Rome.* The message of that book is Christianity’s cold-turkey choice of time verse eternity. We have now returned to our opening text: “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” This leads us to Romans 5: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God . . .” To be “justified by faith” means that God looks at us as though we were just like Christ because of our faith. What does it mean to have “peace with God?” God is no longer against us; we have “cessation of againstness.” How? “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus broke the wall of partition and the enmity that existed between us and God, by bearing our sins in His own body. Paul said, “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.” Allow me to use a word picture to describe this idea of having access by faith into this grace. Imagine a darkened stage and a spotlight shining down on that stage, forming a circle of light. To move into the domain of God’s grace is like stepping out of the darkness and into that circle of light. When _______________________ *Dr. Gene Scott, “A Hole in Rome,” (1971) in Short Lessons from the Big Book (Glendale: Delores Press, Inc., 2016), pp. 35-45. we live the life of faith, as faith is working in us, we move into the beam of God’s unmerited favor, as though a spotlight is following us around on a stage. Faith lets us live in the dimension of God’s grace. Why doesn’t everyone live in that dimension? Because not everyone has the capacity to respond. This message might be discouraging to some, but the essence of this message is that you should take heart: if you have responded to the word, you are one of the called! That ought to make you feel good. You ought to get excited about that. But there is another part of the message that isn’t as pleasant. Paul said that “we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also.” Pardon my being ludicrous, but Paul sometimes has a way of ruining a good message. I liked the part about rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God, but there is nothing pleasant about tribulations! Our English word “tribulation” comes from the Latin word tribulum, which was an implement used to crush and beat wheat to separate it from chaff. To say “we glory in tribulations also” means that we are to glory in this crushing experience. I like to call the process “God’s whackings.” We glory in the whackings. Now put this message in the context of our opening text: “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Though the outward man is being “whacked” away, the inward man is being renewed daily! The world is full of Christians who are looking for an easy way. There are plenty of Christians who are looking for some new spiritual park to play in, but God is looking for tough Christians who can endure whackings! We glory in the whackings “knowing that tribulation worketh patience.” Our English word “patience” sounds rather passive. A better translation of the Greek word translated “patience” is “endurance.” Paul said that tribulation worketh endurance, and endurance worketh experience. The word “experience” is also not the best translation of the original Greek. The Greek word translated “experience” describes something that has undergone a trial of affliction. I have coined a word that says it better: triedness. Whackings produce endurance, and endurance produces triedness. If I may use another ludicrous expression, God wants to make us into what I call “beef jerky Christians.” Jerky is tough and it can survive almost any condition. If you are packing food for a long and difficult journey, you want to take jerky and not a bag of marshmallows. God wants to make us into tough Christians. Tribulation produces endurance, and endurance produces triedness. After you have been through many trials, your confidence starts to grow: you know that you will make it through the entire journey. There are times when I could shout, “By God, I am making it!” There are things I do today by faith that might have killed me if I had tried to do them ten years ago. There are problems that I thought were the end of the world fifteen years ago that just come and go today and I hardly notice. I take comfort in the fact that it takes a far bigger mountain to discourage me now than it did a few years ago. The giant that used to defeat me is now merely a sparring partner. Endurance worketh triedness, and triedness worketh hope. “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” The fact that we are tried, and that we are able to endure the trials, is the proof that we are called. That gives us the hope that we will complete the trip! It is the proof that God’s love, His Spirit, His life is in us. One of my intentions is to make Christians who stay on the fringe of commitment worry about themselves. But the central purpose of this message is to tell those who have trusting in Christ, “We have a hope!” Isn’t it wonderful? You see, salvation is by faith and not by works. Christ is still asking the question He asked of His disciples: when He comes, will He find faith in the land? He is still saying to earthen vessels or cracked pots who are stumbling, “I have prayed for you that your faith fail not.” You faithers, take heart! God’s Spirit in you makes you a new creation. How do you know God’s Spirit is in you? Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 8 and 9 that the proof of the genuineness of God’s Spirit in you is the way you give. Giving is important to God, and thus it has always been an area of great controversy. The first fight in the Bible, between Cain and Abel, was regarding their offerings. The first great sin in the Bible, after Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden, was Cain’s murdering his brother over an offering. Why do you think the world attacks Christians about their giving? Because the front, center, middle, heart and soul of man’s relationship with God is his offerings! In the world’s view, financial matters are separate from spiritual matters. But in God’s view, giving is the most spiritual act you can do. That is where the war of faith is fought. And if you cannot have enough faith to claim God’s promise of supply and give God’s way, you might be lost. In Malachi 3, God told a rebellious people, “Ye are cursed with a curse,” for robbing Him of tithes and offerings. Some people object to tithing because they believe that tithing is under the law, and we are no longer under the law. But the principle of tithing was actually given long before the law was given. And in Malachi, God changed the law of tithing into a promise, saying, “Prove me now herewith.” Tithing is a principle that goes to the heart of your relationship with God: put God first in everything, and He will take care of the rest. Reprinted with permission from Pastor Melissa Scott | December, 2021 Wingspread | November, 2021 Wingspread | October, 2021 Wingspread | September, 2021 Wingspread | August, 2021 Wingspread | July, 2021 Wingspread | June, 2021 Wingspread | May, 2021 Wingspread | April, 2021 Wingspread | March, 2021 Wingspread | February, 2021 Wingspread | January, 2021 Wingspread | | Year 2019 Wingspreads | August, 2016 Wingspread | 2016 Wingspreads | 2014 Wingspreads | 2013 Wingspreads | 2012 Wingspreads | 2011 Wingspreads | 2010 Wingspreads | 2009 Wingspreads | 2008 Wingspreads | 2007 Wingspreads | 2006 Wingspreads | 2005 Wingspreads | 2004 Wingspreads | 2003 Wingspreads | 2002 Wingspreads | 2001 Wingspreads | August, 2001 Wingspread | November, 2001 Wingspread | December, 2001 Wingspread | 2000 Wingspreads | 1999 Wingspreads | 2015 Wingspreads | Year 2017 Wingspreads | 2018 Wingspreads | Year 2020 Wingspreads | Year 2021 Wingspreads | Year 2022 Wingspreads | Year 2023 Wingspreads | | Return Home | Current Wingspread | Wingspread Archives | Contact Us | |
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