Speaker 1: 0:07

I invite you to turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 13. We're not out of the love chapter just quite yet. We've taken a lot of time in it and, I think, for good reason. It's one of the most famous chapters of the Bible and there's also a lot in it and it's worthy of our time to think about love, it being so central to the Christian life. Last week we circled back and took a look at the beatific vision that's that seeing God face-to-face and all that that means there in verse 12 of chapter 13. This morning we're going to begin to focus on what historically, throughout the centuries, the Christian church has called the three cardinal virtues of the Christian faith faith, hope and love. You'll see why in a minute virtues of the Christian faith, faith, hope and love. You'll see why in a minute.

Speaker 1: 1:11

The ancient philosophers like Plato and Aristotle. They talked about four key virtues of justice, self-control, prudence and courage, and they said that these four virtues were necessary for any civil society. And so that's all well and good as far as it goes. The problem is when these virtues are cultivated just for the purposes of society, apart from the saving grace of God at work in us. They're done without a concern for the glory of Christ, and God expects us to honor the Son in all things. And so what you end up with is it's probably better to live in a society where there's at least some good outward morality, but where people don't know the true God. You end up with a man-centered cultivation of these virtues, and what it in the end ends up doing is producing moralistic, religious Pharisees and so and gives people a sense of self-righteousness, if indeed they are outwardly virtuous. But for the Christian, we want to live a godly life. We want to live a life of virtue. If we don't want to live a godly life, if we don't want to live a life of godly virtue, then we're not a Christian. Because every Christian, if you have the spirit of God in you, wants to be like Christ, longs to be like Christ. And so we want to cultivate godly virtue and in fact, even these ancient virtues the philosophers like Aristotle and Plato would talk about virtues of justice, self-control, prudence and courage.

Speaker 1: 2:50

The Bible has much to say about them. We could go to the prophets to see a lot about what God thinks of justice and hope. The Holy Spirit talks, you know, he teaches us and empowers us to live lives of self-control, and the Bible speaks about that. Proverbs gives a good amount of space to prudence and the Lord Jesus Christ, the apostles and the prophets and the heroes of the faith in Hebrews, chapter 11,. They teach us a lot about spiritual courage and what that's all about, and we see that in other places as well.

Speaker 1: 3:21

So what I want us to do before we exit chapter 13, I want us to spend this week and the next two on what the church has historically called the three cardinal virtues of faith, hope and love. Now, faith is often related most directly to the Lord's. It really relates to all of them, but it's related most directly to the Apostles' Creed because that's what the fundamental beliefs of the Christian life. And then hope has often been more closely associated with the Lord's Prayer, although it obviously relates to the other two things as well, because what do we pray for in the Lord's Prayer? Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, and we look forward to that day when God will bring that about. And then Christian love is often linked more closely to the 10 commandments, although it relates to the apostle's creed and the Lord's prayer. But love is linked to the 10 commandments because Jesus summarized the 10 commandments as love, love to God and love to our neighbor.

Speaker 1: 4:21

But in the context here, the apostle Paul, he's comparing the priority of love, the priority of love above even the most impressive spiritual gifts. You remember 1 Corinthians 12 is about spiritual gifts. The Corinthian church struggled with pride, and so they even made much about their own spiritual gifts. So chapter 13 comes in and Paul says no, you can have impressive spiritual gifts, but if you're not doing them in love, in God's eyes it's a useless thing. And so spiritual gifts like prophecy and speaking in tongues and so forth were elevated in a way that was not loving within the Christian church, and we're gonna see more about that in chapter 14, as a matter of fact.

Speaker 1: 5:04

But Paul says there, in verse 13, this and I usually read the scripture. I'm just going to read this one verse to you. You can remain seated for this morning's purposes, but this is an errant and fallible word of the living God. He says in verse 13,. So now, faith, hope and love abide these three, but the greatest of these is love. I want us to focus our time this morning on faith. Let's pray Father, you have saved us. We are not our own. We've been bought with a price. You are our creator and our redeemer and we ask now, god, that you would help us to understand the vital importance of faith in the Christian life. Help us by your Holy Spirit to the glory of Christ. God's people said amen.

Speaker 1: 5:59

Well, sometimes you see a beautiful car I just saw the most beautiful car in a movie over the weekend. I thought, wow, that is great. And sometimes, when you see a beautiful car I just saw the most beautiful car in a movie over the weekend I thought, wow, that is great. And sometimes, when you see a pretty car, you'll see people that walk all the way around it just so they can look at it from different angles, you know, and things. Well, that's what we're going to do with faith this morning. We're going to look at faith, in fact, from about five different angles to get a better grasp of its importance. Five different angles to get a better grasp of its importance. And the first thing I want us to see about faith this morning is that faith is the work. Faith is the one work, and work is in it's important. You see that it's in quotes there. Faith is the one work.

Speaker 1: 6:38

In John, chapter six, jesus is there in Capernaum, his ministry hometown up by the Sea of Galilee, and a crowd had been following him and they were amazed by his miracles. They were amazed that he had fed the 5,000 men and women, plus women and children, that's about 20 or 30,000 people and he did it with only a little bit of bread and fish. And then they come and they ask Jesus this question what must we do to be doing the works of God? And Jesus says in verse 29 of John 6, he answers their question this is the work of God that you believe in him, whom he has sent. This is the work of God that you believe in him, whom he has sent. This is the work of God that you believe in him, whom he has sent. In other words, jesus is saying this is the one critical thing If you want to work, here's a work Believe in me. This is what God requires from you Faith in me, the Lord Jesus Christ. I am the one who has been sent from heaven by the Father.

Speaker 1: 7:49

Now I want to be careful here when I use this language, because we're not saying faith is a work by which we earn merit with God. That's not what Jesus is saying at all. Now he's using the word work. Ironically. He's playing off their question, because the way they asked it, they said what must we do to be doing the works of God, works being plural, and so Jesus says. And so Jesus says this is the work of God, work singular. In other words, this is the one essential work of God. You want to work? I'll give you one Believe in me and have faith in me. That is the work of God, for everything else flows from a saving faith with me, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, that's the one essential thing God requires from you too.

Speaker 1: 8:52

Without, apart from faith, the Bible says we can do nothing that's pleasing to God. Apart from faith, we can do nothing that's pleasing to God. We can do nothing that's pleasing to God. A lot of people struggle with that, but we must trust God and work our lives through faith, united to Christ, his son. And so the one work Jesus calls on you this morning and me, is to believe in Christ. Do you have that faith this morning? Do you trust in God? It's the one essential business God says that you must do If you want to be doing the works of God, if you want to live a godly life, if you want to have a life that's pleasing to God, the one essential thing that you must have is faith in Christ the son, because faith in Christ and him, as we'll see, is what enables and empowers us to do works that are pleasing to God.

Speaker 1: 9:48

But I also want us to see, secondly, that faith is not just the one essential work. Faith is also a gift. It's a gift. Think of a beautiful birthday package. My sister-in-law, sherry Dawn's sister. She had the most beautiful. She got the gift wrapping award every Christmas. You know, you can just picture a nice gift. Well, faith is a beautiful, free gift from God.

Speaker 1: 10:21

Listen, it comes by grace alone Ephesians 2,. For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of work so that no one may boast. You see, we've been. Our salvation and our faith are both a gift of God. It is our faith, it's we who believe in Christ. We are the ones who exercise faith. And yet our faith, our believing, is only possible through God's intervening gift of sovereign grace. That's what enables us and empowers us to believe. Think of it this way there's a mystery here. You have the intersection of the sovereign will of God and the will of man and our puny little brains. It's hard to wrap around that sometimes, but the prophet Daniel, chapter five, verse 23,. He says God sustains our every, but who's doing the breathing? We are breathing, it's our breathing, but our breathing would not be possible without God sustaining grace, his common grace. And so it is with faith, with saving grace. It's God who grants and sustains our saving faith, and yet it's we who do the believing in Christ.

Speaker 1: 11:48

I love that big oak tree out here outside the sanctuary. Anybody else like that big oak tree out there? It's beautiful. Listen to what the theologian William Hendrickson says. The roots of a tall oak perform a well-nigh unbelievable amount of work in drawing water and minerals from the soil to serve as nourishment for the whole tree. Nevertheless, these roots do not themselves produce the necessities, but they receive them as a gift.

Speaker 1: 12:23

Similarly, the work of faith is the work of receiving the gift of God, and so what we have in the scriptures is that God both empowers us to believe in Christ. Faith itself is a gift in that sense and we also receive salvation through faith, that salvation being a free gift of God's grace. God is a gracious God. Aren't you glad for that? What if we had to work our way to heaven? What if we had to earn it? How would you like to stand at the judgment seat of God, wondering? Well, I wonder what my grade is. That's a horrific way to live. We have no confidence in our works. So how privileged we are as believers. If you're a believer, praise God. It's a gift. The Christian life is a gift.

Speaker 1: 13:23

1 Corinthians 2.14,. It's coming up from the other side. Listen. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God because they are folly to him. Now listen. And he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. An unbeliever is not able to understand. A natural person is not able to understand the things of the Spirit of God. Why it takes the grace of the Spirit to give spiritual discernment to a person through faith. It's Christ, by his spirit, who opens the eyes of the blind. It's Christ, by his spirit, who makes the deaf hear, who causes the lame to get up and walk, who cleanses the leper, who wakes the dead.

Speaker 1: 14:22

You know all these physical miracles that we read about in the Bibles and are testified by the blood of the apostles themselves who saw them. They are physical miracles. They are miracles where Jesus, our Lord. He shed mercy and compassion on particular people. Oops almost fell over there, jeez, watch out for that line in the sidewalk. There were physical miracles, compassion that Christ had for these folks. But there were more than that.

Speaker 1: 14:58

Jesus was showing us the kingdom of God. Jesus was showing us, too, what salvation is like. He showed us the kingdom of God and that everything is going to be healed and right and whole. But he's also showing us, when he healed the blind man. This is what salvation is like. A blind man doesn't heal himself. It's a sovereign act of God. A blind man doesn't heal himself it's a sovereign act of God. A deaf man doesn't heal his own deafness it's a sovereign act of God. That's what salvation is like.

Speaker 1: 15:24

He gives us ears to hear. Why is it that you, christian, have heard the things of God and it's sweet to your soul, but someone else can hear and they don't care. In fact, they even are hostile to such things? It's because the Spirit has opened your ears, aren't you glad? Before, we're Christians, we can't walk with God. In fact, we don't even have any desire to walk with God. But when the Spirit comes, he heals the lame, so that we can walk with Christ by faith.

Speaker 1: 16:01

Verse 12 of 1 Corinthians 2. Now we, speaking of Christians. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God. Why? That we might understand the things freely given us by God. We have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God that we might understand the things freely given us by God. Spiritual understanding comes through the Holy Spirit and that's why we have no reason. We, as Christians, ought to be the most humble, grateful, gracious and loving people on the face of the earth. If we're a Christian, what a privilege we have been given, what a gift God has given us. And it's the Spirit of Christ who does all this work opens ears, opens eyes.

Speaker 1: 17:02

Jeremiah 13, 23 puts it this way from the other direction. Can a leopard change its spots? The leopard. Can a sinner fix himself? No more than a leopard can change his spots. But the good news is God can change our spots. Aren't you glad he can take our sin stains and wash us clean? That's what he does in Christ. He makes us alive.

Speaker 1: 17:29

Ephesians 2. And here's what Paul says. And you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked, but God. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. We were spiritually dead, but God made us alive.

Speaker 1: 18:02

Christian, would you have it any other way? Would you have it any other way? Where would we be without the gift of the Holy Spirit and without Jesus Christ as our Savior? This is what makes grace truly amazing. It isn't because believers are a little wiser than your average Joe or Jane. It's not because we're a little smarter than our unbelieving family members or friends. It's not because we're just naturally a bit more spiritual. That's not what explains us having faith. It's that God made us alive in Christ. He raised us from the spiritual. Why me and not another? I don't know. You'll have to talk to God about that Amazing grace.

Speaker 1: 19:04

How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see. Do you hear? He didn't say I once was lost and and then I found god. That's not what john newton says. He says I I once was lost, but now im found he was found by god. The good shepherd found the lost sheep. Come home, my son and so the faith that abides, true saving this is the root of, I think, true worship is to see the amazing thing, that faith is a gift.

Speaker 1: 19:42

Third, let's go from nice wrapping paper and a bow and faith is a gift to the battlefield, because faith is a shield. It's a shield. Faith is the one essential work. Faith is a free gift of God's grace, but faith is also a shield in battle. You hear it in Ephesians 6, the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. Do you know that Satan is firing arrows at you and your children and your loved ones and your neighbors and your friends? He is no small foe. This war language Paul uses. You know how much suffering Paul endured taking this gospel around the Roman empire. It was bloody battle, literally, for him. But there's a spiritual battle and we have this spiritual battle of the sin inside ourselves. And then you add to it the pressures of this rebellious world trying to squeeze and conform us into its mold rather than to have the spirit conform us to Christ. And then you add the powers of Satan and the powers of hell assaulting us.

Speaker 1: 21:02

We need a shield.

Speaker 1: 21:02

What is that shield?

Speaker 1: 21:04

It's faith. It's when we trust God. That's how he protects us. A shield protects the vital organs of the heart and the vital organs in here, in the midsection of the person, of the heart and the vital organs in here, in the midsection of the person, and we need that protection. Without the shield of faith, you are a sitting duck for the devil and he would like nothing more than to drag you down into the pit of hell forever. Without faith, we have no shield for spiritual attack. We have no shield to guard us from great misery spiritually. Without faith, the devil would like to destroy our relationships and even worse. We need faith.

Speaker 1: 21:56

You know, I have found out something interesting faith. You know, I have found out something interesting. I have discovered that when you buy a gym membership to get in shape, you actually have to go. Have you? Have you discovered this? I didn't see that in the fine print, but that's the truth. Why do I say that? But that's the truth. Why do I say that?

Speaker 1: 22:22

We cannot just profess faith. We have to exercise it. We have to exercise our faith. You know, if we're not exercising our faith. That's a recipe for spiritual misery within the Christian life. We can't just rely well, I made a profession, I'm a Christian, and then go on to my life. No, we trust God coming into the Christian life and then we trust Him all along the way, in everything.

Speaker 1: 22:48

What's overwhelming you this morning? What's causing you pain? What's causing conflict in your relationships? What's hurting you? What makes you angry? What are you confused about? Are you trusting God? I'm not asking you did you make a profession? I'm not asking you if you're a Christian, are you trusting God? Are you leaning on him and his promises? He is great and he is good and God gives grace to the humble. Who are the humble in the Bible? Those who believe in Christ. We have to trust in God. We have to exercise that gym membership called faith in Christ. I want you to see that, with this gift of faith God has given you, it doesn't just have great value, dear Christian, it has great power and I wonder if you know it.

Speaker 1: 23:55

One of the blessings of the last several weeks in particular is to see the power of Barb Meister's faith, the power of Angel Sandoval's faith, as they were riddled with cancer, facing death. The kingdom of God does not consist, paul says, in talk, but in what Power? The kingdom of God meaning what? The rule and reign of God, the rule and reign of Christ, the King, in the hearts of His people, by the Spirit. It doesn't consist in things like cheap talk. No, it consists of power. Do you realize the power that you have within you?

Speaker 1: 24:49

1 John 5,. Everyone who's been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith. And what or who is it that overcomes the world, except the one who believes that Jesus is the son of God, not just the one who made a profession, but the one who believes an ongoing trust, a belief. That's how you overcome the world. That's how you're going to overcome the issues in your life right now. It's how you're going to overcome, even if you're facing death, like Barb and Angel just did. That's how we overcome. There's power there. But there's another thing I want you to see this morning.

Speaker 1: 25:43

Thirdly, that faith is a cleanser. I have no stock in this company, but I will say I am a fan of OxyClean. I like what they do to my shirts. They take the stains out. It does a good job. Faith is kind of like that. Faith is a cleanser. The Bible says and I'm going to spend a little time on this one you can even picture a maintenance man with a mop. You know, faith is working the mop inside of our hearts.

Speaker 1: 26:09

In Acts, chapter 15, verse 9, the apostle Peter. He couldn't believe the Gentiles. Actually, he witnessed God. Give them true faith. Listen to what he says. And God made no distinction between us Jews and them, that is, the Gentiles who believe, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Their hearts were cleansed by faith, through faith. I'm going to spend a little time here.

Speaker 1: 26:36

How does faith cleanse? Well, faith cleanses our understanding. Through faith we begin to understand what Ephesians 3, the breadth, length, depth and height of the love of Christ, so that we may be filled with the fullness of God. That's how Paul would pray for the Ephesian Christians that they would know just how much God loves them. Why, so they could be filled with the fullness of God. Da Carson says that's just Paul's way of saying so that they could be mature. How do we get mature? How do we grow maturity? Our problem is we don't know how much God loves us and that stunts us. We know this instinctively. You show me a child who questions whether his parents love him or her, is that child stunted? Of course we have to know how much God loves us. God loves us and he shows us in the cross. Faith cleanses our understanding. That's one way it cleanses us, god of Freitas Udemens, the Dutch reformer. He talks about it. The ways God cleanses our hearts and lives through faith. The ways God cleanses our hearts and lives through faith. So by faith we mature. We come to grab the love of God when we understand the love of God. But we can only understand the love of God by faith. We have to see and understand by faith, by trusting in God and growing in our knowledge of Him.

Speaker 1: 28:16

The creation evolution debate of the last hundred plus years in Western culture. It's a debate, I believe, largely between faith and unbelief. Hebrews says by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of the things that are visible. You see, everybody knows God exists. That's Romans 1. You can look and see that God exists. You just look at the creation. You know he exists. But unbelievers don't want to deal with God, so they typically suppress him. They suppress him. They suppress the knowledge of God. But by faith an unbeliever understands. We have true spiritual understanding that embraces this glorious truth that the universe was created by the word of God, and so it cleanses our understanding and it cleanses our judgment.

Speaker 1: 29:01

Faith does Hebrews 5.14, listen. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment, trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. You see, when we feed our faith, when our faith is fed, and then we exercise our faith, having it been trained through constant practice, we grow in these. We have these powers of discernment that we did not have before All the sexual confusion and promotion of perversion in our culture today. It stems from natural human judgment that has not been cleansed by faith. It's by minds blinded by Satan, by the God of this age, minds where sin reigns rather than the reign of Christ, minds that have not been cleansed through faith in Jesus. And it shows in the moral judgments. Faith cleanses our memories too, not just our understanding. Those who live by faith in Christ, their memories, in a certain sense, are purified by faith.

Speaker 1: 30:12

Let me put it this way James 1.25,. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. What's James saying there? The Christian is the one who looks at the law of God, is not condemned by them. He's been set free. So James can speak of the law as the law of liberty, because there's no way the law can condemn us because of Christ. And now the law just helps us in the Christian life. It shows us the way of walking in freedom, in Christ. But you see, the one who looks into this law, and he's not just a hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts. That's the difference between someone who has faith and someone who doesn't. The person who has faith in Christ hears the word of God and it changes his actions for the will of God. Faith in Christ purifies our memories to not forget what we've heard from God.

Speaker 1: 31:24

Jesus says it this way in the parable of the soils there's some who have a rocky heart and God spreads the seed on their heart and it's quickly taken away by the birds, which Jesus says is Satan. Others, they have other problems. They have a temporary faith where they get excited for a short time about Jesus, but it has no root. The sun comes out and scorches it and it goes away. And then there's another kind of temporary faith that's just choked out by the thorns and thistles. Jesus says, and this is people who have a certain kind of attraction to Jesus, maybe they're haunted by Christ, as Flannery O'Connor says about some Americans, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires of other things, they just squeeze that out.

Speaker 1: 32:09

But saving faith, jesus says, is that seed that goes into the heart, takes hold and root. And what does it do? One of the things it does when it takes root is we hear it and we remember it and we act on it. Jesus told the disciples in the upper room, in John 14, the secret to a good memory, meaning a spiritual memory. He told us the secret that leads to obedience. We remember, we hear what God says, we receive it by faith, we recall that in life and we commit to obedience. And Jesus says why? But the helper of the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Now, that was true of the apostles and they wrote it down in scripture, but in a secondary way. It's also true of us. He will call to mind the spirit, will the things that you have learned, so that you can obey. The apostle Paul calls this at the beginning of the book of Romans and at the end the obedience of faith.

Speaker 1: 33:21

A mere profession is not salvation. We're saved by a living faith. This is why Jesus says in Matthew 7, 21,. Not everyone says to me Lord, lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does what, he that does the will of my father in heaven, do we do the will of our father in heaven? Is your life committed to Christ by faith, a faith that is committed to the will of God? Are you committed to obeying Christ in every area of your life? Is that the fundamental commitment of your heart? That's what it means when we embrace Jesus as Lord. But faith, you see, we have faith, true faith. We want to obey God, we want to obey Christ. We want to obey Christ, we want to please our Father, not to earn our way to heaven, but because that's the longing of our heart.

Speaker 1: 34:19

Faith cleanses our conscience. Like I said, it's a cleanser, it's like a maintenance man running that gospel mop within our conscience. And why is this important? Because when we sin, we get guilt and we get shame. Guilt says I know I did something wrong, I sinned against God. Shame says I'm a filthy sinner. I didn't just do something wrong, I am a sinner, it's my identity and it clings to me like lint. And see, Christ didn't just die for our guilt, he also bore our shame. He died for our guilt so that we can know that all of our sins, past, present and future, are taken care of, and then on the record books of heaven is his perfect righteousness next to our name. But he also died. That we don't just say you know, today I get a little word. Sometimes all I hear Christians say is I'm a sinner, no, you're not. Yes, you sin. But that's not your fundamental identity, dear Christian. Your fundamental identity is I am a child of God. You see, the gospel is for shame too, and it is not a healthy thing to wallow in our sin. It's not a good thing to be shallow about it and it's not a good thing to wallow in it. And the cross straightens all of that out for us.

Speaker 1: 35:42

Hebrews 9 talks about the gospel purifying our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. You see, because we get peace in our conscience and now we can get on with the business of serving God in a way that gives us joy and is pleasing to him. I love how Charles Spurgeon says I believe that as often as I sin, god is more ready to forgive me than I am ready to offend. Do you believe that God is more ready to forgive you than you are ready to sin? He is. That's what the cross teaches us. I stand ready with open arms to forgive you. I'm dying for your sins. God cares more to forgive us than we even do to sin. Jesus says my yoke is easy and my burden is light. You see, it's with Christ we find rest.

Speaker 1: 36:35

And then he purifies our, he cleanses our affections. Faith cleanses our affections when we have faith in Christ. What do I mean by affections? I'm talking about more than emotions. I'm talking about the desires of our hearts, the longing of our hearts. Do I hate what God hates and love what God loves? Do I hate what Christ hates and love what Christ hates? And you see, whereas we used to hate our neighbor, now we love our neighbor. Whereas we used to drink up the sewage of the world in all the various ways. Now we find it repugnant and we look at the world and we see its love of sexual immorality and its political and financial power struggles and the fame and the exaltation of the self and the abuses of the poor and vulnerable and how it box biblical marriage and promotes the killing of unborn babies and discounts the importance of the elderly and forgets the orphan and the outcast and the homeless and writes off the prisoner. And then you look at Jesus Christ and it turns all of that upside down. We now long to love the things God loves and hate the things God hates.

Speaker 1: 37:44

And so Paul puts it like this in Galatians 2.20,. I am crucified with Christ. 220. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God. Everything now for Paul is about Christ. He's Christ-centered in everything. What Christ loves, he loves because he has been crucified with Christ. His old man has been crucified and now everything's about Christ.

Speaker 1: 38:19

Paul in Romans 7, you see, even when we get it wrong, we have a longing to get it right. Even when we fail, there's a difference between sin and a Christian and sin and an unbeliever when a Christian sins. Here's what it sounds like from Romans 7 with the apostle Paul, I do the very things I hate. The world just rushes on, but Paul hated his sin. Do you hate your sin? God hates our sin, but then Paul didn't wallow in his sin. Do you hate your sin? God hates our sin, but then Paul didn't wallow in his sin. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And aren't you glad you cannot be condemned if you're in Christ through faith, so your conscience can rest.

Speaker 1: 39:13

Lastly, and very briefly, I want to get this in Faith is a root. What do I mean? Faith roots us in Christ. It roots us in Christ, in fact, it unites us with Christ, and so, in this sense, faith is not a virtue really at all. Faith is the root of all the virtue. It's technically not a virtue, it's the root of all true virtue.

Speaker 1: 39:43

Listen to Peter in chapter one of his second letter. His divine power, that is, god's divine power, has been granted to us, has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Do you know that God has given you, dear Christian, everything you and I need to live a godly life? He has given us everything we need. How, through the knowledge of Christ, who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises. You see, faith fuels, it feeds on the promises of God so that through them, you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire and so on. And then he says for this very reason, you see, you have the ability to live a godly life. And for all this, for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith.

Speaker 1: 40:41

With what Virtue? Supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with god, and knowledge with self-control, self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with godliness, and so on. But the root is faith, and all of that other in the chain flows from it. Faith is the one essential thing. Don't coast into glory. Whatever you're dealing with today, trust in God. Are you trusting him with your problems? Have you made a mess of things in your sin? Are you trusting him through Christ. He'll forgive you. He's more ready to forgive you than you are to confess. Are you overwhelmed? Exercise that trust. Exercise your gym membership in Jesus, because faith needs to be exercised, not merely professed and God will help us. So let's pray and ask him.