True Saving Faith
Minister: | Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: | 4/26/2020 AM |
Text: | Acts 16, 18; Lord's Day 7 |
Psalters: | 264, 68, 221, 356 |
- Faith as a power.
- The Bible teaches that the Mediator died only for the elect who are gathered from all over the world.
- The Bible rejects universalism: that God loves every man and that Jesus died for everyone.
- The Bible teaches limited or definite atonement (Matt. 1:21 John 6:37-40; 10:14,15,26).
- Salvation is by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8,9), so faith is the means God has chosen for salvation.
- The ability to believe is not given to all men (I Cor. 2:14), but only to the elect (Acts 13:48).
- Those given faith respond to gospel preaching positively.
- Thus, Scripture speaks of faith as a graft which connects two (making them one) in a living connection.
- The Bible teaches that the Mediator died only for the elect who are gathered from all over the world.
- True saving faith is an ability (active) - faith without works is dead (James 2:17,20,26).
- The first activity of faith is the ability to know what God has revealed in His Word – centrally: Jesus is God.
- Faith has substance, i.e., it holds objective truth, revealed realities.
- Central to the Scriptures is the revelation that Jesus is God and that He is the only Savior.
- The second activity of faith is the ability to rest on or trust in Christ and His wisdom and care.
- The first activity of faith is the ability to know what God has revealed in His Word – centrally: Jesus is God.
- Bound together with Christ, Christians are assured of their salvation.
- What believers know makes them confident and sure.
- The more we know the nature of our Father and the content of the gospel, the more assured we are of salvation.
- Confidence is a part of friendship and is rooted in the knowledge that we are unchangeably loved.
- The activity of faith is like anything living, namely, it either develops or it wanes.
- Peter could walk confidently on water when he kept his eye on Christ, but not when he looked away from Him.
- The Spirit works the activity of faith through the means of the Word, the means of grace.
- What believers know makes them confident and sure.