Saved By
Faith
Good evening,
this is Bobby Stafford with the Granby Church of Christ in
Granby, Missouri. Tonight, we're going to delve into faith and
follow some notes by Carl Cooper on this important topic of
being saved by faith and its meaning. We will begin, and I hope
you have your Bibles, by examining one of the most well-known
verses in the New Testament, which is John 3:16.
Please follow
along if you have your Bibles; I hope you do. We will start by
looking at that familiar verse, which will introduce this
evening's lesson on being saved by faith. I believe most people
are quite familiar with John 3:16, probably more than any other
verse in the Bible. However, I want us to start with John
chapter 3, verses 14, 15, and 16, and I will be reading from the
New King James Version.
This will also
serve as the conclusion of our lesson today. As for these same
verses, John 3:14 states, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life."
You might
wonder, what does Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness
have to do with being saved by faith? How could lifting up the
serpent save anyone? Well, that is really what this lesson will
ultimately address. What does this have to do with being saved
by faith? Most people in what we would refer to as the
Protestant world believe in salvation by faith. But we will
explore what the Bible says about the type of faith that saves.
Is it any faith? Is it mere belief?
What does it
mean to be saved by faith? We will start with the Old Testament
and then transition to the New Testament. We'll explore some
well-known stories and accounts that we likely grew up listening
to and reading.
The first story
is about Noah and the ark, which is quite familiar; we will go
back to Genesis chapter 6. If you have your Bibles and are
following along, let's return to Genesis 6 and read a few
verses. We’ll begin with verse 13. Genesis chapter 6, verse 13
says, "And God said to Noah, 'The end of all flesh has come
before Me, for the earth is filled with violence because of
them. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark
and cover it inside and out with pitch.'" We skip to verse 18,
which states, "But I will establish My covenant with you, and
you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your
sons' wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh,
you shall bring two of every kind into the ark to keep them
alive with you. They shall be male and female." Verse 22 says,
"Then Noah did according to all that God commanded him; so he
did."
At the end of
that verse, it says that Noah did everything God commanded him
to do. So, what was that? He built this enormous ship, the Ark,
based on the pattern God provided. When the time came, God
instructed him to enter the Ark with his family. By obeying all
that God commanded him to do, he was saved.
The question
is: why did Noah build the ark? You might think that's an
unusual question, but consider it for a moment. It took him
many, many years to complete this task. Noah had never seen
anything like it; he had never seen an ark of such size or this
gigantic ship. He had never witnessed a flood. So why did he do
it? Why did he follow all these complex directions and
instructions year after year?
During that
time, he was also preaching. He is referred to as a preacher of
righteousness, trying to get people to listen and do what he
said, warning them that a great flood was coming. So why did
Noah go to all this trouble? We know he did it because of faith.
That’s why Noah acted; he had faith in Jehovah God, believing
that Jehovah would fulfill His promises. Sometimes, I think it's
important to distinguish between merely believing and having
true faith.
In James
chapter 2, verse 14, James makes a pivotal point in his writing
about this topic. It states, "What does it profit, my brethren,
if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith
save him?" In other words, can faith alone save him? Can faith
that does not produce works or obedience truly save? That’s the
real question tonight: can faith without obedience save?
Let’s be
honest. If Noah had chosen not to obey God and failed to build
the ark, would he have been saved? I think everyone knows the
answer: no, he would not have been. He would have perished along
with everyone else.
What if Noah
built the ark but thought God's instructions were too
challenging, or if the ark was too large, or if it was too hard
to gather the wood He required? What if he modified God's plans?
Would that have shown enough faith to save him? Of course not.
Noah was saved because he had enough faith to obey God and
follow exactly what He commanded him to do. That's what it all
comes down to.
So that's one
example of the faith that saves. The faith Noah had in God was
one that led him to obey, and that faith brought him salvation.
It wasn't faith alone that saved him; rather, it was the faith
that motivated his obedience that resulted in his salvation.
What about
another example? Consider the Old Testament patriarch Abraham.
We have many stories about Abraham and the various things he did
that demonstrated his faith in following God's commands. The one
we often think about most is when he was instructed to sacrifice
his only son, Isaac.
Abraham and
Sarah had long desired a child, and at last, in their old age,
the Bible states they had a son named Isaac. Remember that God
promised Abraham that through him, all the world's nations would
be blessed and that his descendants would be more numerous than
the stars in the sky. Abraham and Sarah weighed their options
and ultimately had Isaac. Then, God instructed Abraham to take
his son Isaac and offer him as a sacrifice.
Once again, we
recall what James says in chapter 2, verse 20, and the following
verses. It states, "But do you want to know, O foolish man, that
faith without works is dead?" In other words, it's useless.
Wasn't Abraham, our father, justified by works when—there's the
important time element—he offered Isaac, his son, on the altar?
Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and
through works, faith was made perfect, complete, or fulfilled?
And the scripture was fulfilled, which says, "Abraham believed
God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness," and he was
called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified
by works and not by faith alone.
That is a
highly relevant example of what we're discussing in this lesson
about the kind of faith that saves and when it saves. Just like
in Noah's case, would Abraham's faith have been enough to save
him if he had refused to sacrifice his son Isaac? If, when God
told him to take his son Isaac to the mountain and sacrifice
him, Abraham had said, "No, I'm not going to; he's my only son,"
would that faith have saved him? Of course not. The Bible tells
us, just as we read in verse 23, that Abraham believed God, and
it was accounted to him for righteousness.
Many people
misunderstand that when Abraham believed God, he was saved. But
is that what the text says? No, it says he was called the friend
of God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness when his
faith worked. Wasn't Abraham, our father, justified by works
when he offered Isaac, his son, on the altar? It wasn't when he
believed what God said; it was when he offered Isaac, his son,
on the altar. So, what does that tell us? It tells us that
Abraham's faith caused him to obey God, and it was then, and
only then, that it was accounted to him for righteousness. It
wasn't when he believed; it was when his faith led him to obey.
James states that this kind of faith is the one that saves
someone because it's strong enough to obey whatever God
commands.
James states
that, through inspiration, the Holy Spirit, God himself,
revealed that faith alone is not enough to save. In other words,
when we say that, we're affirming that faith leads to salvation.
But faith alone, as James states and as God reveals, by itself
never saves. It's only when that faith gives us the opportunity
to receive salvation. It's not enough to save by itself. In
fact, James says the devil and demons possess that kind of
faith, and it's not sufficient to save. So, just because people
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that alone will
never save anyone. The kind of faith that saves is the kind of
faith that Noah and Abraham had. It's the kind of faith that
leads us to obey whatever God tells us.
Well, let's
fast forward to today. If faith alone will not save us, what
kind of faith will it take to save us? And when does that faith
actually save? Has God given us instructions? Has God revealed
that to us? Well, he absolutely has.
One thing he
mentioned that we must do, believers, is to repent. In Luke
chapter 13, verses 3 and 5, he essentially repeats this, saying,
"I tell you, no; but unless you repent, you will all likewise
perish." In Acts chapter 17, verse 30, during Paul's famous
sermon in Athens on Mars Hill, he states towards the end that
"the times of this ignorance God overlooked; but now He commands
all men everywhere to repent."
The type of
faith that leads to salvation and offers the possibility of
salvation is the kind of faith that inspires one to repent and
make significant changes in their life. This change involves
shifting focus from personal desires and pleasures to aligning
with what God wants them to do. Is there anything else?
There are still
more instructions. If we look at Romans chapter 10, we notice
something Paul told the Christians in Rome. He states this in
Romans 10:9-10: "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus
and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you
will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto
righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation." Both verses emphasize the crucial fact that
confession and belief lead to the possibility of salvation,
forgiveness of sins, and eternal life.
We have learned
here that the kind of faith that saves us today is the faith
that leads us to repent and make that great confession of who we
believe in: that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Jesus said in
Matthew 10:32, "Whoever confesses me before men, I will also
confess before my Father who is in heaven."
What happened
on the day of Pentecost? We can find out by looking at Acts
chapter 2. This takes place shortly after Jesus's ascension into
heaven. The Jews are gathered in Jerusalem. Peter and the other
eleven apostles stand up after being filled with the Holy
Spirit, which enabled them to speak languages they had never
learned. They address the crowd, and many people become
believers in Jesus Christ. At the end, several thousand are
converted. The Bible says they are cut to the heart, which is
where that change we call repentance happens. They realize what
they did was wrong.
Now, notice
what happens in Acts 2:36. "Therefore, let all the house of
Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you
crucified, both Lord and Christ." When they heard this, many in
the crowd were cut to the heart and asked Peter and the rest of
the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" What shall
we do for what? What has been discussed? Salvation! If we go
back to verse 21, they were asking what they should do to be
saved. They were not saved yet; they were believers; they had
faith. They were indeed cut to the heart, had repented, but they
also knew they weren't saved. So what does Peter tell them they
need to do? "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the
name of Jesus Christ by His authority. For what? For the
remission, or forgiveness, of sins, and you shall receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit."
Peter and the
other apostles explained that what they needed to do is have
faith strong enough to obey God by repenting and then being
baptized, meaning to be immersed for the forgiveness of sins.
This is the faith that leads to salvation; it is the faith that
prompts repentance. Repentance may be the hardest thing in the
Bible to do. It requires turning away from self-will and
becoming selfless because we are now paying attention to what
God the Father wants us to do, rather than what we want to do.
That’s challenging. We turn away from our old life, our bad
habits, and our sins, and we surrender our lives to God,
confessing that we believe and will live as if Jesus is our
Lord. That's the kind of faith that saves.
It is the kind
of faith Noah had because he believed in God and acted on it. It
is the kind of faith Abraham had; he had faith in God and acted
on that faith. So, let's conclude where we started and return to
John chapter 3. What does looking at the serpent have to do with
our discussion?
To understand
that, we want to revisit Numbers 21. This is where the account
of the bronze serpent originates. In Numbers 21, we will read
verse 9: "So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole.
So it was that if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at
the bronze serpent, he lived."
So why did
Jesus reference this when he said whoever believes in him should
not perish but have eternal life? What is the connection between
these two events? Let’s read one more time, John 3:14: "And as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son
of Man be lifted up." In the Old Testament account, what did
those people have to do? Did they need to believe they would be
saved when they looked at the pole, that bronze serpent?
Absolutely. Did they have to look at the bronze serpent? Yes,
that’s what the Bible states—they had to look. Their faith was
the kind that led them to obey, and that faith saved them at the
moment of obedience when they looked at the pole and the bronze
serpent. Similarly, for us today, action is required on our part
before faith saves. We don't simply believe in God, or believe
in Jesus Christ, or believe that he died on the cross. That
belief, just like for those in the Old Testament, must lead to
action. We must follow God’s commands. Therefore, faith leads to
the possibility of salvation, but as we read in James, no one is
ever saved by faith alone.
February, 2025
Sermon prepared
by Bobby Stafford
Prepared by
Bobby Stafford
The church of
Christ at Granby, MO
Located at
516 East Pine St.
P.O. Box 664
Granby, Mo. 64844
(417) 472-7109
For more
lessons and Sermons, please visit
https://granbychurchofchrist.org/
https://granbychurchofchrist.com/
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