Truth For Life

Guest (Male): When you plant a seed, you don't just toss it into the dirt and hope it takes root. You nurture it with adequate water and sunlight. You monitor it for signs of growth. Faith is similar. What is the evidence that faith has taken root, and what can we do to help our faith grow? That's what we'll hear about today on Truth For Life as Alistair Begg continues our study in the book of Ephesians. We're in chapter four, and we're focusing today on verse five.

Alistair Begg: I'm going to ask you about your faith. Are you a person of faith? You say, "Oh, yes." They say, "Well, what is your theme?" Or you tell me, you say, "I'm not going to sing it to you, but I can give it to you in a song." "Okay, go ahead." So you tell them. You say, "My faith has found a resting place, not in device or creed. I trust the Ever-living One, His wounds for me shall plead." They're going to go, "What?" Then you'll tell them.

The whole story of the Bible is about sacrifice, about substitution. You can work your way through all the stories that you learned at Sunday school, pointing to the one who was to come, who would take the place of sinners. Then you can tell them, "My faith is resting in the word, the living word of God." On what basis are you being saved? On the basis of what Jesus has done. Not on the basis of what we're doing, and certainly not on the basis of how we're doing.

The answer to the question, "How am I acceptable before God?" is the same all day every day: on the strength of what another has done. I am accepted in Him. In the same way that you can't just walk into Augusta National, just go, "Hey, I'm Alistair. I just wanted to come and play at Augusta." They'd give you the bum rush right down Primrose Avenue or Magnolia Way. But I can go in with somebody who has got the green jacket. And all I have to say is, "I'm with him."

You're going to stand at the gate of God's heaven. Are you going to tell him about yourself? Not a good idea. But there is one thing you can say: "I'm with Him. I'm in Him." If any man is in Christ, he's made new. The old is gone, the new has come. If you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you have believed in vain. Unless you believed in vain. That means you can believe in vain. That means you can think you believe, and you don't believe.

If anyone hears my words and does not actually put them into practice, believe them, receive them, take their stand on them, that person will be like somebody who builds a house on sand. As soon as the implications of life and the realities of eternity hit them, they will collapse. The distinction, you see, is not in the hearing of it, but it is in the believing of it. Anyone who hears my word and does not put it into practice, sand. Anyone who hears my word and puts it into practice, rock.

Now, what is Paul doing here? He's doing what the writer to the Hebrews does. That is, it's a little zinger here at the end of this great affirmation. "Here is the gospel I preached to you, which you have received, on which you have taken your stand, and by which you are being saved if—if!" If what? If you're really being saved. Hebrews says the very same thing. The writer says we belong to Him if, indeed, we hold fast our confidence to the end.

If we don't, then it will be apparent that we don't. He's not talking about losing your salvation. He's talking about a spurious profession of faith. He's talking about somebody who, like in the parable of the seed and the sower, where the seed falls down and there's an immediate reaction and it blooms immediately. "Wow, what a success!" You come back 10 days later. It's gone. There's no evidence of life at all.

Read the parable for yourself. What is Jesus saying? He's saying that when the word of God is sown, there are all kinds of reactions to it. Some people actually make a great profession of believing immediately. And there's no life there at all. There's no root. There's no reality. It never happened. Others may be sitting there chewing on it day after day after day, and eventually the seed germinates. It may be tiny at first, but it's going and there's life, and it brings forth fruit.

Again in Hebrews, we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold on to our confidence firm to the end. Hebrews again: see to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. What's that in there for? Because the inclination of my heart is sinful. I mean, we sing about it. Let's just get straightforward. "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love." We sing that, and we're quite happy about it. We should have our hankies out singing that.

See to it. In other words, as it is in your power, that's why you need this Bible. That's why you need to listen to the Bible preached, as tough as it may be many times. Why? Because ordinarily, as the confession says, it is through the preaching of the word that not only is faith engendered, but faith is sustained and faith is strengthened. So when you absent yourself from the teaching of the Bible from whatever source it comes, you lay yourself open to the difficulties that then are there.

See to it that you don't have a sinful, unbelieving heart. What is one of the ways to do that? Make sure you're in the word. Make sure you read your Bible. Make sure you keep short accounts with sin. Make sure you stay in touch with God. You don't want to be like some of the characters in Pilgrim's Progress, do you? Pilgrim sets off from his home, got his fingers over his ears, and his people are calling him back. "Don't be crazy, Pilgrim. You're nuts. You're a crazy man." "No, no, I'm going, I'm going."

He hooks up with Obstinate. Obstinate's there for about 15 minutes. As soon as Obstinate gets an inkling of what's involved, he says, "Tush! Away with your book," he says. And he says to Pliable, his friend, "Come back with me. Don't go on with that guy Pilgrim. He's nuts." There's a company of these crazy characters. He says, "They're wiser in their own eyes than seven men that can render a reason." And Pliable says, "No, no, you go ahead, Obstinate. I'm sticking on the pathway. I'll be good."

Now says Bunyan, "I saw in my dream that when Obstinate was gone back, Christian and Pliable went talking over the plain." And thus they began their discourse. It's wonderful. And so Pilgrim is explaining to Pliable, who's asking, "Well, what's this like? What can we expect?" And in almost pre-C.S. Lewis terms, he gives him this amazing picture of all the crowns and the seraphim and everything that is before them. And Pliable's really quite excited about it.

"It seems like you'll be transported to heaven on flowery beds of ease. This is terrific." And then all of a sudden, boom! They walk right into the Slough of Despond. Splash! Right up to their knees. Covered in mud, splattered all over their face, and Pliable goes, "Hey, wait a minute. I thought we were going to the heavenly city. I thought we had the seraphim and the kings and the royal crowns and the—what is this about?"

And he says, "Listen, is this the happiness you told me about? If it's this bad and we've only set out, what can we expect at the journey's end? I need to get out with my life. You go. You go possess the country on your own." And with that, he gave a desperate struggle or two, and he got out of the mire on that side of the slough which was next to his own house, and so he went away, and Christian saw him no more.

The epistles of John: "They went out from us because they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would have remained with us." He's not talking about church membership. He's talking about those who are the genuine followers of Jesus. And you read on in the progress and you say, "Well, what happened to Pliable after he got out? What did he do?" Listen: "Then I saw in my dream by this time Pliable was got home to his house."

"So his neighbors came to visit him and some of them called him a wise man for coming back. 'Man, you got rid of that Christian stuff. That was smart. Can't believe you even went.' And some of them called him a fool for hazarding himself with Christian. 'What? I can't even believe you would even hang around with that guy. He's a nut, that book, he's always reading the book and he's heading for a city of—' Others mocked his cowardliness saying, 'Oh, if since you began the venture, why couldn't you have stayed with it? A few difficulties and you're back already?'"

And Bunyan writes, "So Pliable sat sneaking among them. But at last he got more confidence, and then they all turned their tails and began to deride poor Christian behind his back. And thus much concerning Pliable." I preached it. You received it. You took your stand in it. You are being saved by it if—if you continue. The ground of our salvation is entirely outside of us in the work of Christ. That's why we sang the song, "My faith has found a resting place."

The evidence of it is in our continuance. That we're still on the horse. That through many dangers, toils, and snares, ups and downs, fits and starts, tears, failures, messes, chaos, we're actually still in the game. Why? Because the grace of God that saves us keeps us. Makes us awful thankful to Him. Now my time has gone, but I want to say two more things and say it quickly.

Ask yourself the question then: If this saving faith is imparted to me, what are the evidences that might be apparent in reflecting on things and in looking to the future? For this for your homework, I suggest Hebrews 11. The first six verses will get you on the right track. By faith the men of old gained approval. And so read the story. Think about it in these terms. Think about Moses, you find him there in Hebrews 11 in the Hall of Fame as it were.

Moses, we're told, decides to forgo the pleasures, the immediate opportunities that are before him for prominence, success, aggrandizement, and so on. And it says that the reason that he forsook these things was because he was looking to a city whose builder and maker is God. It's a very straightforward but wonderful statement. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

In other words, he was looking to see a Messiah who was going to come and who did not show up for more than 1,400 years. For the reproach of Christ, who was to come 1,400 years later, Moses ditched all this stuff and chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. That was faith. You see, he saw what others couldn't see. You have the exact same thing, take for example from another place, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

They're taken away along with Daniel and the others into the exile. Their parents have brought them up. We're going to find out how they do. Now they're confronted by the big, visible, powerful King Nebuchadnezzar. Are they going to do what big King Nebuchadnezzar says that they can see and respond to in fear? Or are they going to submit to the living God whom they have never seen? You see, by faith they see Him who is invisible.

What about Noah? "Noah, we're going to have a flood." "A what? We haven't even had rain." "No, there'll be a flood. Now I want you to build something." "A what?" "An ark. Don't worry about it, I'll tell you how to do it." And Noah did it, seeing Him who is invisible. You see, because faith is the conviction of things not seen. And we could go on. We won't need to go on.

You see, because the unbeliever doesn't see. That's why we sing in the hymn, *Holy, Holy, Holy*, "Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see." You see, the unbeliever is like a blind man who refuses to believe that there is such a thing as light because he's never seen it. "I don't believe there's light. I've never seen such a thing." Well, the fact that you don't believe it doesn't call in question the reality of it.

It just means you've never seen it. And the reason you've never seen it is because you're blind. But God opens blind eyes, God softens hard hearts. God provides men and women with the ability, whatever their background, scientific, artistic, whatever it is, for a denouement to take place and for, if you like, a light to go on and, against even their own inclinations, to say, "Goodness gracious, I think I've begun to see this." This is faith. This is Christian faith.

And people say to me, my friends say to me, "Wow, I can't believe you're involved in that stuff. Why don't you get in the real world? Why don't you get in the world of the rationalist? Why don't you enjoy life and just get rid of that sort of category up there, that supernatural stuff you're into? Who knows about that? Why don't you get with us? We know about everything." "Oh, you do?"

"Okay, well then let's just put it up. We could have a debate. There's no time now, so we won't. But okay, you say this is reality, I say it's absurdity. You say I'm in the realm of absurdity and you're in the realm of reality. Okay, let's just do it pragmatically. All right? I say to you that Christian faith answers the cries of the human heart in a way that a godless philosophy does not."

We can't go through them all, but let me just take one. Man and women live their lives. I know this. I saw the Super Bowl. I read the newspaper. I see it. I have friends. I look around. Men and women are in search of meaning, they're in search of peace, they're in search of security, they're in search of significance. They are trying to make sense of this weary struggle from birth to death. Understandably so.

Don't want to hear anything about God who made the universe, don't want to hear anything about Jesus, don't want to hear anything about the Bible. They want to live quote, "in the real world." How's it working? Jesus answers the cry for meaning. Sartre, the great existentialist, you can imagine him sitting in one of the cafés in Paris, and he looks at one of his friends and he says, "You know, here we are having another meal, eating and drinking to preserve our precious existence, and there is nothing, nothing, absolutely no reason for our existence. Have a good day."

It doesn't work. Jesus says, "I am come that you might have life and that you might have it in all of its fullness." The search for love. Jesus says to the woman at the well, "Why don't you go call your husband?" She says, "I don't have a husband." He says, "Well, I know."

"In fact, I know you've had five men and you're living with a guy now. Honey, aren't you just looking for love in all the wrong places? Do you think there's a person on the face of this earth that can satisfy the longing of your heart in relationship to these things? There is. You're looking at Him. I'm the Messiah." The cry for freedom, for freedom.

I watched two musical documentaries that depressed me horribly in the last eight days. One, the documentary on Harry Nilsson. "I can't live if living is without you," that guy. Which is a sad, sad story. And my girl Janis Joplin, epitomized by the screeching sounds wonderfully rendered of Kristofferson's song: "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose, and freedom ain't worth nothing but it's free."

If ever there was a picture of a girl that knew nothing about freedom, it's got to be Janis. She was trapped in her own designs and desires to break free from everything, without ever having discovered that Jesus says, "You'll know the truth and the truth will make you free." Where can a person go to find forgiveness? Christianity answers the cry for forgiveness. I finish with this.

David Watson, who was an amazing evangelist, he was an Anglican minister in the '60s, '50s, '60s. I had the privilege of hearing him preach when I was a student myself. He was the best evangelistic preacher I've ever heard in my life. And he did lots of university missions. He was always engaged with—he was a clever man. He was a Cambridge guy and he could handle these folks, but he was simple enough for a child to understand.

And he records how at one of the university missions as he's preaching, as he's looking out on the group, there's one girl's face that just stands out. And it stands out because she just obviously doesn't like what he's saying. And she's sort of rebellious and actually she's smoking. Those were the good old days. And he finishes his talk and he encourages people to embrace Jesus as a Savior and a King, and he leads them in a prayer.

It ends and people begin to leave. And who comes forward but this girl? She's still smoking. And he said she just looked so hard and so empty. And she comes up to him and she says, "Mr. Watson, I listened. I heard what you said. I believe it. I'll be back tomorrow." And she walked away. And Watson says in his book, as she walked away, I said to myself, "We'll see."

He describes how the following evening at the end of his talk she comes back. She is so visibly different that he doesn't even recognize her. Her face has changed. She says to him, "Mr. Watson, since last evening I have cried for virtually 24 hours. She says, because you see, behind all of my toughness, behind all of my bravado," she said, "for years I have felt as guilty as hell. And it never once occurred to me that Jesus loved me, that He died for me, and that He will save me. And when you told me that last night, that brought about the change that changes everything." This, you see, is the faith in which the believers are united. Is it your faith? It may be.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Truth For Life with Alistair Begg. Alistair will be back shortly to close today's program. As we just heard, the ability to live and die in faith is grounded in God's word, not in what we see or experience. And today, we have a special offer that will encourage you to hold firm to your faith, even in a culture that is increasingly rejecting Christian beliefs.

For a limited time only, you can download Alistair's audiobook, *Brave by Faith: God-Sized Confidence in a Post-Christian World*, for free. Follow along as Alistair walks you through the Old Testament story of Daniel and his experience living in the unbelieving culture of ancient Babylon. You'll learn how God upheld Daniel's faith through many incredible trials and find out why you can trust God to uphold your faith in the same way. Download the *Brave by Faith* audiobook for free today at truthforlife.org/brave. The book has a companion study guide that you can also download for free. Both the book and the study guide are available at no cost for members of your Bible study group, if you'd like to make this your next study topic. The link once again: truthforlife.org/brave. Now, here's Alistair to close with prayer.

Alistair Begg: God our Father, thank you that your word says that you are able to save to the uttermost all who come to God through Jesus. You save us from the uttermost and to the uttermost. Only you can do this.

So I pray, Lord, that you'll help us to think these issues out. For those of us who believe that this kind of thing is just a leap into oblivion, help us to think it out. For some of us who are toying with these things, help us, Lord, so to take our stand and to rest in you. Save us, Lord, from Pliable and from Obstinate, from Timorous, from Mistrust, from Mr. Worldly Wiseman, from all those characters along the pathway, the narrow pathway that leads to that wicket gate, to that yonder shining light, to that heavenly home.

Thank you that you've given us the Bible so that we can read it, so that we can actually go away and see, well, let's see if what he said is actually in there. That your word is fixed in the heavens. We take our stand here. In Jesus' name, amen.

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we will focus on the significance of spiritual baptism. Is it essential for salvation? Is it an optional expression of faith? Join us tomorrow to hear the Bible's answer. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth For Life, where the learning is for living.