Chariot of Fire 2004.06 - Rising to the Call of Faith - Part 4

I hope your family discussions on saving faith have been meaningful and fruitful this past month. If you recall, we recognized the first three qualities of saving faith revealed in John 3. They were:

* Saving faith enables one to see and enter the Kingdom of God.
* Saving faith comes by the Word of God.
* Saving faith is a work of the Holy Spirit.

I was able to find four more characteristics of saving faith. You may have found more. In this last article on rising to the call of faith, let's consider the remaining characteristics.

Saving faith is founded on the work of God in Christ.

The fourth characteristic of saving faith is its foundation is the workof God in Christ. Read John 3:11-15.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak that which we know, and bear witness of that which we have seen; and you do not receive our witness. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things? And no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life."

Saving faith requires a promise from God as its object. The promise of the gospel is firmly rooted in God's glorious work of redemption and deliverance in Jesus' substitutionary death. God's promises regarding Jesus' death and resurrection bring hope. Hope is a powerful dynamic producing faith in the heart of one who receives the promises (see Colossians 1:3-5). Without promises, no hope exists. Without hope, there can be no faith.

Therefore we can understand now why Jesus was revealing to Nicodemus. He first gave the foundation for the promise to be made of eternal life-God lifting up His own Son! The mistake often made today is to think the foundation for the promise of eternal life is one's believing in Christ. The unique characteristic of saving faith is it doesn't rest in the work of man (believing), but in the work of God (Jesus' death and resurrection).

Such is the analogy provided in the testimony of the serpent lifted up in the wilderness. God did something. He revealed His wrath. Then He sent forth His promise as a means by which faith could be born and the spirit work. Jesus simply told Nicodemus eternal life can't be had without faith, and saving faith can't be born without a promise.

Saving faith rests in God's love.

After citing the Old Testament story regarding Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness as an object of faith, John provided a very important commentary on the encounter with Nicodemus. The wind of the Holy Spirit is going to blow into the world among the Gentiles. God has the same redemptive plan for the world he had for Israel. Most importantly, the redemptive plan is motivated by the same love! God's redemptive plan is not exclusively for the Jews. This would have been unbelievable to Nicodemus in the flesh as well as to his Jewish readers.

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. (John 3:14-17)

Pride is blinding. Because the Pharisees boasted in their own works, they failed to notice the importance of God's Word to Israel about His love as the reason they were favored. The prophet Jeremiah wrote, "The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, 'I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness'" (31:3). Malachi testified to Israel, "'I have loved you,' says the Lord. But you say, 'How have You loved us?' 'Was not Esau Jacob's brother?' declares the Lord. 'Yet I have loved Jacob'" (1:2). In both cases God's messengers were declaring God's great love as a resting place for faith. Israel missed the point, but saving faith doesn't! That's the fifth characteristic of saving faith.

Saving faith is not universal.

The sixth quality unique to saving faith is birthed in a remnant of people, not everyone. Just as God saved a remnant of Israel from His wrath, so He will save a remnant from the world because of His love. This has been called the doctrine of the remnant. Dr. D. Martyn L. Jones addressed this in one of his sermons on Romans 1:16.

God never said that every single Israelite in the flesh was going to be saved. No! There is an Israel within Israel. "They are not all Israel that are of Israel." The remnant according to the election of grace--they will be saved, and will continue to be saved, so that a day will come when all shall be saved who are going to be saved, for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

Faith born of the Spirit therefore is evidence of God's redeeming love and deliverance from God's judgment against sin. Read John 3:18. "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." The first kind of faith is natural, earthly, demonic as described in James 3. It only believes what can be proved by physical means. The second kind of faith is supernatural, heavenly, and of the Holy Spirit. Its presence in the heart indicates where the wind of the Spirit has blown and upon whom God's love is outpoured.

Saving faith glorifies God.

Characteristic number seven stands out as an easy test when one wants to discern true faith. Saving faith wants all the glory to go to God for anything done which is good.

And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God (John 3:19-21).

John struck at the heart of his Jewish readers, the Nicodemuses, the people who have taken pride in their having "believed" in the power of their flesh, who have gone to great pains not to let others see their sins and their weaknesses. But his words also strike at the heart of every man, woman, boy, and girl who has the same kind of faith Nicodemus had. Just what would it cost Nicodemus to believe in Jesus?

If salvation is by a Spirit-born kind of faith and not by the natural kind, then Nicodemus' ability to recognize Jesus' connection with God means very little. Nor does the prestigious position as "the teacher" of the Jews count for much. A lifetime of good deeds means nothing. This would have been a very hard pill to swallow for Nicodemus. If he were to be saved, he had to humble himself and confess all he had lived for to be trash, dung, as Paul called it compared to the faith which comes from the Holy Spirit. He would have had to change his garments, leave his teaching position, and testify there is no glory in the works and faith of the natural man, and the only thing which counts is God's producing faith in our hearts toward Jesus Christ. Had Nicodemus taken such a course of action it would have indicated his rising to the call of God by faith.

The same is true today.

Those who take pride in their choosing to believe in God, who are yet strangers to saving faith, face the same humbling lacking in Nicodemus. They need to recognize their only hope lies in what God has done on their behalf in Jesus Christ. How about you? How about your wife and children? What kind of faith do you and they have? If you only have the first kind of faith, you may rejoice in God that you have the prerequisite to saving faith, but I encourage you not to be satisfied with anything less than Spirit-born, saving faith. You may glorify God by declaring the natural-born faith to be nothing about which to boast or be confident. If you now see the vanity of the first kind of faith, you may be on the doorstep to the second kind of faith. Will you renounce your self-righteousness and hope in the promise of God for those who believe in Jesus Christ, trusting not in your own believing, but in His work for your unbelief and weakness of faith? Those who have saving faith recognize its presence is something wrought by God, the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God. Indeed, such faith reveals the promise of eternal life in Jesus Christ alone. In short, those who have this second kind of faith boast in the Lord! When asked how they know they are saved, they would say with the apostle Paul,

If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ (Philippians 3:4-8).

"But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, that, just as it is written, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:30-31).

Therefore, let us boast in the glorious work of our Father in and through His Son, Jesus Christ! Let us rise to the call of faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Family Discussion

In summary, saving faith has at least these seven characteristics:

1. Saving faith enables one to see and enter the Kingdom of God.
2. Saving faith comes by the Word of God.
3. Saving faith is a work of the Holy Spirit.
4. Saving faith is founded on the work of God in Christ.
5. Saving faith rests in God's love.
6. Saving faith is not universal.
7. Saving faith glorifies God.

Here are some ideas for what to do during some family worship times.

Read the story of Moses' lifting up the serpent in the wilderness from the OT. Discuss how God's word to Moses about lifting up the serpent is like God's word to Nicodemus about the Son being lifted up. On what were the people's faith founded who were saved from the bites of the serpents?

Did Nicodemus and the Pharisees rest their faith in God's love or on their own religious faithfulness and good deeds (see Matt. 6)?

If saving faith is not universal, then how is it you came to believe in Christ (see Acts 13:48)?

When you stand before Christ in the judgment and receive the reward for believing and seeking Jesus (Hebrews 10:6) what do you think you will do and why? Rehearse this event in your imagination and share it with your family.

Would you like to be on the Elijah Ministries Prayer Team?

The backbone of Elijah Ministries is the prayer team who pray diligently for God to turn the hearts of men to Himself, their wives, and their children. Before I leave to speak, I send out a prayer team invitation to those who will intercede for God to work for His glory in us as a team for the Kingdom. Not only is it a blessing to those whom I speak and myself; but it is also a reminder to the team about the direction of their own hearts. If you would like to enter into the labor together with me, you may go to my website and click on "Prayer Team".

If you haven't visited our website, www.spiritofelijah.com, please stop by sometime. You'll find:

* Resources to equip you and your family.
* Previous Chariot articles.
* My speaking schedule.
* A free MP3 download from our music CD, the song "God's Glorious Grace."
* Various pages translated and available in Spanish.
* An online store to purchase resources and make tax-free contributions by credit card.

The article above is a part of the message, Rising to the Call of Faith in the RISING TO THE CALL series. The series is available on both audio cassette, CD and DVD. If you have enjoyed the Equipping Men Series, you'll also enjoy this sequel of twelve practical life-changing messages. This and other resources, including all past issues of the Chariot, are available at http://www.spiritofelijah.com.

I invite you to be a part of the moving of the Spirit of Elijah in your church, community, and the world. How?

1. Send this article to other men or families that you know would benefit from it. You might inform them of the previous articles available on-line at our website.

2. Share resources from the Spirit of Elijah Ministries with others.If Equipping Men or Rising to the Call have been a blessing to you, then you know it will be beneficial to others. Either share your resources, tell them about the resources, or purchase a set or two as an investment in their lives.

3. Share with others what you have learned and put into practice in turning your heart to God, your wife, and your children. If God has done this in you, then He wants to affect others through you.

4. Join the Elijah Ministries email prayer team and make intercession for others that their hearts would be turned in revival to the Lord, their wives, and their children. This can be done on-line at www.spiritofelijah.com.

5. As God provides financially and moves your heart to contribute to Elijah Ministries, you help provide for this ministry to give away resources to single mothers and needy families, produce more resources to equip men and their families, and provide for the on-going needs of the ministry. You may make contributions by check through the mail or on the website.

Norm Wakefield