By Grace Through Faith Overview

SPEAKER A You once to every time in the sight of the good or evil sky don't break on you that I choice of life forever with that darkness. And. SPEAKER B The Bible assures us in Ephesians two, verses eight to ten, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Welcome to faith to faith Here are your hosts, Ettienne McClintock and Braedan Entermann. SPEAKER C Dear listener, welcome to the program, Faith to Faith. I'm delighted to have your company. You are with your host, Ettienne McClintock. SPEAKER D And Braedan Entermann, and we're very glad that you could join us for our program. SPEAKER C Great. And just before we start, let's just ask God to bless our program as we discuss more about faith. Gracious Father in Heaven, we're so grateful that we can have your Word. You told us it is a lamp to our feet as a light to our path. And as we walk through this dark world, Father, we thank you for the illumination of Your Word. We thank you for your Holy Spirit as well. May you bless our study as we look further at what faith is and what faith represents in our relationship with you, this we pray in Jesus name. Amen. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C Now, Braedan, our program is going to talk about faith, and we want to unpack what faith is and how important faith is. Maybe take some of the mystery of faith out of there because a lot of people talk about faith, the definition of faith we find in that beautiful chapter of faith in Hebrews, chapter eleven, verse one, where it says, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But then if you ask someone to explain that, there's so many different versions of what that possibly could mean, and there seems to be a little bit of confusion around that, and it's often. SPEAKER D Accompanied with the word blind. Blind faith. SPEAKER C Right. Okay. SPEAKER D For a lot of people when they think of the concept of faith, it's associated with ignorance and just blind hope. SPEAKER C Yes. So your faith can be what you believe. My faith is what I believe. But is that really what the Bible is speaking about? SPEAKER D Yeah, that's what we're going to be looking at. SPEAKER C Okay, so we want to actually focus on a key text, and I think we'll refer to this every time we start the program. What is our key text for our study? SPEAKER D So the key text is found in Ephesians chapter two, and it's verses eight through ten. And this is just like the very heart of the Gospel itself. It says, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works. Lest anyone should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. SPEAKER C That's beautiful. And that is a beautiful summary of the Gospel. I love that text. It's one of my favorite texts in the Scripture. So what does it mean that we are saved by grace? SPEAKER D One word in the Bible that's used over and over again is grace. And just like faith, just like love, all these words, they're often very, very misunderstood. SPEAKER C Sure. SPEAKER D The word grace, when it's talking about God's grace, it's talking about his kindness and his loving faithfulness to us. And one of the things we have to know from the very beginning is that we are not saved by any other reason than the fact that God is kind. Yes, we are undeserving of salvation, we are undeserving of life. We are undeserving of every blessing that we're given. Like think about the rain that falls, the food that grows on trees that God provides for us, the many blessings that the joys, the happiness in this life. God is kind. And his kindness and his attitude of kindness and love toward us, that is the source, the fountain from which our salvation flows. It says by grace that we're saved. SPEAKER C Yes. Now, it's interesting that even the Apostle Paul spoke about, you know, and he said that he had a weakness, an infirmity, and he felt that it was affecting his ability to do the work of God. And he prayed a number of times for this infirmity to be taken away. And we see in two Corinthians, chapter twelve and verse nine, where actually God speaks to him. And if you have a red letter edition Bible, you see there, these are the words of Christ. SPEAKER D They are? Yes. SPEAKER C To him. And he said to me, So he being Jesus, said to Paul the Apostle, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. So God's grace is his unmerited favor to us, but it is also his power to save us. Because of his goodness. SPEAKER D It's because of his goodness. And you think of Paul with the long list of tribulations that he faced. Yes, massive long list of tribulations. Knowing that God cared for him was just huge for him. And in two Corinthians chapter five, he says, the love of Christ constrains us or compels us, like whenever he got discouraged, whenever he felt like just giving up. What kept him going, what kept him trusting, what kept him believing was God's incredible love for him. And there's actually another verse. Paul says, it's by the grace of God that I am what I am. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D When we see love and these beautiful fruits of the Spirit in our lives and we are becoming more and more like Christ, it's only because he first loved us, it's by God's grace and by his power that we become anything worth anything. SPEAKER C Amen. Yeah. And your things when we are in desperate need and realize that we can't do it in our own strength or we can't help ourselves and we call out to God. That's when we realize his grace and his mercy for us and the people who go through those difficult experiences, when they come out the other end and God has done some remarkable things for them, regardless of whether they deserved it, they feel the unworthiness. They can really bask in that grace and love of God. And the text in Hebrews, hebrews, chapter four and verse 16, it says, therefore let us boldly come to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace. What does grace do to help in time of need? So grace is God's power to help, but his grace is also a revelation of God's character. But we wouldn't have received or seen what grace was if it wasn't for the fact that we needed grace. SPEAKER D That's right. There's a beautiful verse in Galatians, chapter two and verse 21. The apostle Paul says, I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. And I find that this is like the keynote of the book of Galatians. Whenever we set aside the knowledge that God cares about us and that his love for us is unchanging and unmerited. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D Whenever we set that aside, we basically have this picture of God where depending on what we do, God will change. You'll either be up or down for Paul. He's saying, I don't lose sight of the fact that God cares for me because he cares for me. And that's like the fountain that leads to everything else. When you lose sight of know you're on your own. It's a sad place to be. SPEAKER C And we told in the last book of the Old Testament that I'm the Lord. I change not. God does not change. And we told, even in the Book of Hebrews that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. So we have emotional changes. One morning we get up, we maybe go on our knees and talk to the Lord and we feel good that day. Next morning we wake up and we just feel that we can't connect with God somehow. God feels different towards us. God doesn't change. His feeling towards us has not changed, but our feelings have changed. And sometimes we can ascribe our own feelings to how God reacts to us. So we need to live by faith, not by feelings. SPEAKER D That's right. The Bible says that how tender are God's thoughts toward us if God could count them, they're like more than the sand that is on the sea. God's thoughts for us and his care for us is just mind boggling. And what Paul makes it very, very clear to us is that if we want to experience true Christianity, we need to keep our eyes focused on that and to never lose sight of God's goodness because everything else flows from that. And that's really what we're going to be looking at through these presentations. SPEAKER C I think it's very important because it can be easy for us to have a different concept of what God is like and that will then impact our trust in God and also our faith in his promises. So we want to look at unpacking that a little bit. But it says by grace you have been saved. And then the next word, through faith. Why through faith? SPEAKER D It seems to be well, it points out to us that the fountain of our salvation is God's grace and goodness. SPEAKER C Amen. SPEAKER D But then it says through faith. It seems like faith is somehow the way that we as human beings get to experience this saving power and get kind of plugged back into that relationship with God again, right? Okay, so it's integral like the fountain. The source of our salvation is God's goodness and his kindness. But faith is somehow involved and very important in this whole process for us to experience this salvation. SPEAKER C Okay, well, I look at unpacking that a little bit further. The text there in Romans chapter one, verse 16 and 17, where Paul says actually in verse 15, he says, I am ready to preach the gospel to those who are in Rome as well. SPEAKER A Right. SPEAKER C He's ready to preach it and he says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to all those who believe. And then it goes on to verse 17. It says there that the just shall live by faith. So we're just talking about physical life here. We're talking about more than that. SPEAKER D More than that. Obviously it applies to both. But specifically here, this is the good news of the gospel of salvation of sin. And that's something that's inside of us. It's our mindset, it's who we are on the inside. And I love it. What it says here just in verse 17, it says for in it that is in the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. And when Jesus was hanging there on the cross, when though he was being abused beyond imagination and he cries out, Father, forgive them because they don't know what they're doing under all circumstances, he loves and he loves right to the very end. SPEAKER C Incredible. SPEAKER D It reveals the heart of God in such a powerful way. And again, we're seeing here the fountain God, and people often wonder what the word righteousness means, right? It sounds like a good word. I think it sounds like a good word. But when it all boils down, righteousness is right thinking, right doing, right being. And the standard is the law of love, god's perfect heart of love. That is the standard. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And that's revealed to us, which inspires us to live by faith and to trust in God. SPEAKER C Okay, so righteousness is right doing, right thinking, even right feelings. So it pertains to our thoughts and our feelings and our actions. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C Okay, well, how many of us can attain to that standard of love as we see in the Ten Commandment? We cannot. We can maybe desire it, but unless something else changes in your life and this is where faith starts kicking in that's right. We won't be able to achieve that. Now, I want to bring out a text, the longest psalm in the Bible, Psalm 119. And I'm going to go to one of the big verses there, verse 172. The Bible says, my tongue shall speak of your word, for all your commandments are righteousness. So I just want to connect back the fact that the Ten Commandments, all God's commandments, actually have to do with righteousness. So it's very important for us to understand that God's commandments are the principles of righteousness. This is really the foundation of God's government, his law. We will call that in our nation, we'll call that the Constitution. That's right what the whole country and the way it operates is based on. So God has a constitution, it's his law. But the law is the principles of unselfish love. SPEAKER D It's the practical outflow of a singular principle and that is other centeredness. It is beautiful. SPEAKER C So what you were saying before then, verse 17, that the Gospel actually brings out the righteousness of God. It brings out his self sacrificing love, which is embodied in the Ten Commandments and is embodied in the life of Christ. That willingness to forgive, to go the extra mile, to turn the other cheek, to heal those even who have brought disease upon themselves, just to show grace and mercy and to be long suffering. SPEAKER D It's very interesting what you were saying before. If anyone, I think we all have tried to reach that kind of a standard. We have just been met with failure over and over again. It just seems like the caliber of Christ's love is beyond anything we've ever actually experienced from any other human being or shown. And we ask this question you're like, how in the world, how can I reflect that grace? How can I reflect that righteousness? Jesus said something very, very beautiful in Matthew, chapter five. He said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. SPEAKER C Wow. SPEAKER D And so basically Jesus states that the best place for us to be in is in a place where we are like just imagine being on a desert or somewhere where you're hungry and you're thirsty, you're just crying out, craving. You recognize your great need. You're like, I need food and I need water to survive. When we're in a place where we are saying, I need you. I want to be like you. I want your character. Jesus says, if you're in that position, I've got good news for you, you will be filled. And furthermore, in the book of Romans, god speaks of his righteousness as a gift. He's willing to give us a mindset, he's willing to give us a new heart that will enable us to reflect his character to the world. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And it's a gift, it's free. It's this amazing thing we're looking at. And what we're looking at is the concept of faith, because faith is the thing that plugs us into this whole plan. For a lot of people in our world today, they are actually not aware of the plan. And for other people they're kind of aware of the plan, but they don't know how to receive the benefits of what Christ has done. And so it's imperative that we understand what faith is because it's kind of like the conduit that plugs us into this beautiful fountain that we can drink in the water of salvation. And that's really what we're going to be looking at. SPEAKER C Okay, fantastic. Now there's a wonderful little book that's written. It's only a small little book, it might have only have 80 or 100 pages at the most. It's called Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing. And I found this on page 18 because you just quoted out of Matthew, chapter five, verse six, where it says, blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness. In other words, they're hunger and thirsting for something they don't have that's right, but they see it, they desire it, they value it and they value it and they want it. And then, of course, the promise, they shall be filled. And then the comment is made you're on Mount of Blessing, page 18. It says, righteousness is holiness, likeness to God and God is love. One John, chapter four, verse 16, it is conformity to the law of God, for all thy commandments are righteousness. As we just read in Psalm 119, verses 172. And then Romans, chapter 13, verse ten says, love is the fulfilling of the law. Then these words, righteousness is love and love is the light and life of God. The righteousness of God is embodied in Christ. We receive righteousness by receiving Him. Wow. And how are we to receive Christ? Well, by faith. SPEAKER D By faith? SPEAKER C By reading the word of God and believing what we read regarding God's relationship to us, the relationship he wants for us and the promises he's made to redeem us. SPEAKER D Yeah. SPEAKER C Wow. SPEAKER D That's powerful, isn't it? SPEAKER C It is powerful. SPEAKER D And I think at this point it'd be really good to look at the word faith because often it seemed like there's so many people who, as I was saying before, associate it with the word blind. So blind faith, it's kind of like this it's ignorance, it's just wishful thinking, it's whatever. But if we look at the word faith, it actually means trust. SPEAKER C Okay? SPEAKER D And trust is a relationship word, a relational word. And in order for any relationship to actually thrive and flourish, there needs to be trust yes, I'm getting married soon and I recognize that the most important thing is trust. Trust and communication. Yes. These beautiful elements in a relationship. And we think about this why is God wanting to awaken faith or trust in us? Well, if we go back to the very beginning of the Bible, we see that a relationship was broken. We see that God created Adam and Eve in a perfect relationship with him. And through the lies of the devil, the devil convinced them that God was selfish and a bit of a powermonger and was trying to keep them down. And they believed it and the relationship broke apart. And from that moment on, their trust in God was removed. And so basically it makes a little bit of sense. Why does the Bible always say have faith in God by grace you are saved through faith, walk by faith? It keeps talking about faith all the time. Yes, it makes sense when we realize that the problem in the beginning was a break in trust and therefore the solution will be re, I guess restoring of the trust. A restoration of trust. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And that is what the gospel is all about, is fusing our heart to God's heart, fusing our mind to God's mind, uniting us in a friendship. The Bible says for the Father himself loves you. There's this beautiful the parable of the lost son, that son coming running back and being embraced in his Father's arms. That is the plan of the gospel, is to call those lost sheep home and bring them into the fold in the arms of God. And so faith is about relationship and it's all centered in our value and appreciation of the goodness of God, which inspires us once again to trust in Him. But God's got a lot of work to do. He's got to dispel the lies. That's why the gospel reveals his righteousness. The devil's convinced so many people in our world and at some point in our lives we've experienced it, where we feel that God doesn't care, where God is a fickle, just a God who doesn't care for us. The gospel blows that out of the water and shows us God's goodness and invites us to trust God again. SPEAKER C It's incredible. As you were talking there, I was just thinking why would I trust certain individuals over others? Well, perhaps the person has a position of trust. For example, he's a judge, he's got to administer the law. And you expect the judge to be just and to execute justice based on the law or the constitution of the land. So you would trust a judge. Now, why would you trust a police officer? Well, again, because of the position. Everyone is a police officer supposed to be a law abiding citizen. So they enforce law enforcement. They need to be people who are law keepers as well. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C Or it could be the reputation of someone. So if someone has a reputation. Other people speak very highly of them. So you might hear about this lawyer that's really good. You're in trouble. You go and see this lawyer and you trust him to help you work through this case. Or someone has a bad reputation. So you may consider, well, okay, I've heard bad things about this guy, but you start to get to know this person and all of a sudden you go, but all the things I've heard about this guy, I can't see any of those things. This guy is actually the opposite of what I heard. SPEAKER D Interesting. SPEAKER C As you start to get to know the person and the relationship develops, you start trusting Him more and more. So it all comes down to relationship and the confidence in the person, their position and their authority. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C And with God, it's no different to us if we've had a word spoken to us about God. God is like this god is stern. God is just. God burns everybody in fire for all of eternity. If they've been bad, God is standing there just with a little box to. SPEAKER D Tick all the ones. SPEAKER C If you've been wrong and if you've done more bad than good, then you're going to end up in hell. Then you may have a different view of God and you might be less capable, use the word less capable of actually trusting God. But as you start to get to know God through His Word, as you see God revealed in Jesus His Son. Because Jesus says, the words I speak are the words of the Father. The works that I do is the Father working through me. And you start seeing a different picture of God. Maybe you'll start saying, well, hang on. God is worthy to be trusted. I can trust him. Not only that, I can trust His Word, because when Jesus spoke, he healed people just through His Word. Speak the Word only and my servant would be healed. He spoke the Word and the servant was healed. You can then see God in action and you go, I'm going to trust this person. The reputation that he has is maybe not correct. I'm now learning by personal experience that God can be trusted. Not only that, I'm now experiencing even the power of His Word in my own life because I believe it. SPEAKER D And no wonder I just love what you've shared. There no wonder the Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. SPEAKER C Amen. SPEAKER D As you're just sharing, as we're exposed to this beautiful narrative from beginning to end of the story of the Bible, we see that even though human beings over and over and over again, they're just so unfaithful, or they just keep failing all the time, there's only one who is constant through it all, and that is God. He's patient, he's kind, and we receive the benefits of his kindness day in, day out. And as we read the Scriptures, faith awakens, a miraculous things takes place and a relationship that used to be not doing so well. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D God breaks through with his love. It's kind of like we thaw out in the bright beams of his love. We thaw out and the relationship begins. Dialogue, conversation, connection and trust. And that is God's plan. SPEAKER C And that's a restoration of the relationship that was broken in Eden. SPEAKER D That's exactly right. God has loved us even while we're still sinners. The Bible says that. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D So the source of our salvation has always been there. But God's business of the preaching of the Gospel is to help you. Help you and I and all of us to realize just how good he is and just what is available for us and the experience that we can have in Christ. And that's why when the Gospel is preached, the righteousness, the goodness of God is revealed. SPEAKER C Okay? SPEAKER D And that inspires us to go to drop on our knees and say, you are good, you're an amazingly beautiful God. And then trust awakens in our heart and the relationship is being put back together again. It's an amazing plan that God has. SPEAKER C An incredible plan, as you're saying that the gospel reveals the righteousness of God and righteousness is love. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C Yeah. Beautiful. Now. Look, God loving us. I just like what you said there, god loving us even when we were still sinners. And the fact John 360, in the favorite text probably of everybody of the whole world, for those who know, who know the Bible, god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Romans, chapter five and verse eight says that God demonstrated his own love toward us, that while we were still sinners, not talking about two righteous people while we were still sinners, christ died for us. And Christ's death demonstrates God's love to sinners, to the ungodly. And if you read some of the other verses, it even says there that to his enemies. Verse ten of Romans, chapter five, it says, for when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. Much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. SPEAKER D What we're looking at right here is a love that is beyond compare. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D What we see in the world, the word love is everywhere. Like, we love this kind of food, we love riding bikes, we love people, we love mother's, father's, children. And this word kind of gets lost a lot. And we don't really see what true love is for most people, love is kind of like a transaction where it's like, I'll do this for you and you'll do this for me. And when someone breaks their side of the bug and the other one just walks away, no wonder we see so much relational dysfunction and broken homes. I heard a story about a husband divorcing his wife and leaving his wife when they had a child because the child was getting all of her attention. Now wow. You can't call that love. SPEAKER C No, that's very egocentric. That's selfish love. SPEAKER D Isn't it's a terrible thing? And what we have here but basically on our planet we will love. We kind of call it love. But we'll love someone while ever we'll love them if we'll love them when. But what we have here in the Bible is a type of love that is beyond compare, where while we are still in active rebellion against God, his love is undiminished. Undiluted. And it never changes. SPEAKER C So it's not a vacillating love. Depending on how you treat me, I'll love you more or I'll love you less. SPEAKER D That's exactly right. And that there, what we're looking at is the wellspring. It's the fountain of our salvation and therefore it's important. It's just absolutely essential that we have our eyes fixed upon that beautiful picture and everything will then flow from there. SPEAKER C So when Adam and Eve were tempted the serpent so we know the devil spoke through the serpent to Eve and he made her doubt God. He said, God's holding things back from you. He doesn't want to eat that tree because it's supernatural. It's going to give you abilities that you don't have. Now, matter of fact, you'll be like God. And the same temptation that the Devil was caught with in heaven where he wanted to be like the Most High, he now got our grandparents to fall and fall into that temptation and he made them doubt God. She had to doubt God for her to actually go contrary to what God had commanded. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C And we have inherited that by default. We have a nature that has fallen and that is disconnected from God except for what Jesus Christ has done for right? SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C So faith helps the restoration, but the restoration relationship, we've got to see the goodness of God and trust Him for us to exercise faith in Him. That's what you're basically saying. SPEAKER D That's right. That's right. There's a beautiful verse here, the Garden of Eden. The word Eden means pleasure. SPEAKER C Wow. SPEAKER D God made this beautiful enclosure of just. It's a palatial garden that he made for these guys. What is pleasure? In Psalm chapter 16 and verse eleven, you will show me the path of life in your presence is fullness of joy and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. What we don't realize is that we were made for pleasure. We were made for joy and for happiness. No wonder we try to find it in all these different places. But there's a beautiful quote I heard. Who better to fulfill the desires of our heart than the one who made our hearts to desire? SPEAKER C That's beautiful. Well, with those words Braedan, we've come to the end of our first program. Dear listeners, thank you for joining us today on Faith to Faith. We look forward to catching up with. You next time. Until then, God bless. SPEAKER B Thank you for joining us on Faith. To Faith. If you would like more information about today's program or if you have any questions, please contact 3ABN Australia Radio by Phoning. 02 4973 3456. 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