welcome to real Christianity a weekly show designed to help Christians know their Bible defend their faith and truly understand what it means to follow Jesus the premise is simple the culture is getting louder the church is getting flash ear but few pastors are teaching on how to live a Biblical life my name is Dale Partridge along with my incredible wife Veronica join us if we start an important conversation about what it really means to be a Christian
 hello and welcome today we're going to be discussing the idea of face do you have a Biblical Faith do you have a Biblical understanding of faith and with this coronavirus pandemic that is around the globe right now we have a unique opportunity that the awareness of our mortality is being Amplified and the gospel is it has fertile ground right now and I think it's an important discussion that we have today about faith if you can't understand Faith you definitely can't communicate say JC Ryle once said health is a good thing but sickness is far better if it leads us to God again we have this really unique platform it's almost as if Christians are standing on a stage with a crowd of people filled with worry and anxiety and depression and confusion and Christians have the
 only answer for Hope and peace and calmness and joy in the midst of these trials so we have a unique opportunity before us and not hoping that peace only comes from the Gospel of Jesus Christ we know that but sadly I did we can't I don't expect if everybody can communicate the gospel as clear as they might think and so today I think we really should look at the mechanics of the Gospel in the mechanics of Faith so that we can communicate them more effectively to those that are listening to us I want to start with the idea of definition I really do believe the definitions matter in fact sloppy definitions leave the sloppy Theology and sloppy theology leads to really poor life application and so when you don't have something right from the beginning it might not seem that off here but as you go forward it can really put us away
 are are Mark as you go down the road and so I'll give you a few examples as you know if we Define love as an intense feeling of affection then telling your alcoholic sister that she can't come to your house until she quits drinking isn't going to seem loving to her and her response back to you might actually cause you to retract your rule because it doesn't align with that definition of love so definitions are critical if sin is defined as wrongdoing and then someone might say that you send for preaching the gospel in a place that it's illegal to do so I'm someone might say that you send by teaching your child that there are only two genders or someone might say that you send because you are teaching people that abortion isn't health care but it's murder rights of this these are ideas that we have to really bring clear definitions to definition
 do matter in the very concept of a false teacher when you think about the idea of a false teacher the very concept of a false teacher is built upon the concept of teaching ideas that are inaccurate to their definitions that that's what a false teacher is so having biblical definition is really critical we as Christians need to have a certain words in terms clearly defined and and that's words like love and hate and sin and peace and joy and conversion in evangelism atonement baptism truth good all these things need to be determined by the word of God and and that's a really important process for the educated Christian and we know that it says the first commanded us to love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind and sometimes we neglect that last piece too much and we need to spend the time educating our
 on the definition of the intellectual understanding of what these words mean and how they are to be applied to our life this is why church history is filled with councils right there's the and Creeds right there's the Nicene Creed there's a the Council of chalcedon there's the 1689 Baptist statement of faith there's the Westminster Confession these are all times work where it's theologians pastors get together to bring clear definitions to certain words definition do matter now if there's one word that we need to have Define more than any other word I'm going to say that that word is faith
 Hebrews 11:6 as in without faith it is impossible to please him for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him we can't even please God without faith and so safe is critical to have a core definition Paul says in Ephesians 2:8 for by Grace you have been saved through faith to Faith again is Central to having a clear definition of what does he mean by faith J Gresham machen I might be actually make sure he's a brilliant Pastor for the 1919 hundred I think that he said this in a sermon probably in the 1930s I believe he says the center of the Bible and the center of Christianity is found in the grace of God and the necessary corollary of the grace of God is salvation through faith alone we know also
 what is the reformers have you created these incredible statement these Solas right I saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone and so Faith finds itself as a really vital word to be defined I would say the defining Faith might be the most important work that you do because without a correct understanding of Faith you can never know if you're actually saved what is Faith and in again we we think that just because we're Christian we have this understanding of what face really is the saving faith and so we want to be make sure and be clear that we are speaking in biblical terms when we talked about the idea of Faith so what is Faith what is the Bible say about faith well a lot of you guys are probably already think of this verse is verse it's verse 1 and chapter is 11 for the book of Hebrews
 and it's commonly referenced when I ask a question what is faith will this is what people typically respond with it says no face is the Assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen before we jump on as this being the carb lunch for sure full definition of faith I want to bring some contacts to this verse the first verse of chapter 11 is actually carrying on a concept from the last few verses of chapter 10 where the author of Hebrews is talking about a backup and how our faith will continue to give us patients in these matters it's actually a really bad spot to split the chapter I was doing some studying Calvin actually says whoever made this the beginning of the 11th chapter as unwisely disjointed the contacts we know that the word of God is in there and we know that the word of God has a thought
 give our lives but the the spirit did not Inspire which verse would be which verse and verse numbers and chapter structures and all that kind of stuff so we know that there's been some splitting of chapters that man should be split in different sections and I think that's what happened in Hebrews chapter 11 because it broke up the context there and is talking about this is talking about this that the ability to be patient comes from Supernatural faith and if you read those two chapters you'll see this which is why he says now Faith is the Assurance of things hoped for the conviction of Things Not Seen Amigos on to show how faith is actually carried people by patients driven by hope through all types of crazy trials and they took them to the Finish Line Time After Time space has the ability to do so but the definition of faith that we read here in Hebrews chapter 11 I'm going to say is a partial definition of fate
 faith is a multi-dimensional in a robust word especially in Biblical context we need to have a multi-dimensional almost think of a diamond is different dimensions of the diamond so that we can have a full understanding the definition of faith and so in Hebrews it speak of the type of faith that we receive as a Divine fruit of the spirit we have this Supernatural ability to believe in the things that we can't see were driven by this safe and we already have as Believers as followers of God's and we can sustain and hopes by his faith given to us by the Holy Spirit and that's what the author of Hebrews has stated that we can do this through the last couple verses of chapter 10 we can do this weekend to stay because we have the hope we have the faith and we can believe in those things and we can be sustained by that
 a deal Partridge here we hope this podcast has been a blessing to your walk with God for those that don't know real Christianity is an audio ministry under our nonprofit relearn church.org I'm telling you this because we're listener-supported podcast it takes a small team a serious amount of equipment and several hours per week to keep the show going I share this because Veronica and I want to grow the reach of the show so that it might help even more Christians mature and their understanding of God's word so if you're a regular listener to this podcast would you consider supporting us in this effort we're not asking for much maybe $10 $20 or $25 per month I promise you that your support will help us continue to get God's truth out to strengthen the body of Christ and to further the gospel if you feel led to make a donation at simply go to relearn Church. Org forward slash donate again that's relearn Church. Org forward slash donate thank you so much for your consideration
but today I want to talk about saving face which is a slightly different understanding than this idea of just believing in things that are unseen I want to talk about the face that Jesus and Paul and John and James are are preaching to to let you know to meander or hearing the gospel I want to talk about that type of State this dating faith that the face that men exercise to to initiate the Salvation process I want to talk about the faith that Paul writes about when he says for by Grace you have been saved through faith we need to have an understanding of that dimension of the word Spate and it's obvious that Jesus and the apostles are not calling people in the crowds that they're in their evangelism moments and you imagine you know 4050 200 people there their they're not saying have the Assurance of things hoped for the things
 you don't seem right the conviction of things unseen that's not what they're doing that's not the dimension of Faith they're talking about of the Saving Face that's the back end of Faith that's the result of faith in Hebrews I want to talk with the front end of faithy the other side of face the beginning of Faith the saving faith that gets us to that back end that will allow us to have that patience in that hope talk about Hebrews River Hebrews is a letter written to Christians it's a letter written to people who've already made this decision, it's not necessarily like John which of the Gospel Evangelistic nature trying to convince people that Jesus is the Christ and so did I want to talk about the front end of faith not the back and if they don't want to talk about the beginning not the result of Faith which has seen in Hebrew what is this mean to put your faith in Christ besides Paul and James and Peter and Jesus are trying to put in your face
 what is that mean what are we actually talking about I think synonyms could probably be very helpful in this this this conversation because we're looking at a word faith it's got some many dimensions we have some preconceived notions and ideas about what faith is I want to look at some synonyms that I think might be helpful here because the word of faith again of the word faith is is robust and it it's got those Dimensions so I want to look at what Paul says here again in the fusions 280Z for by Grace you have been saved through faith I think he's basically saying this for by Grace you have been saved through trusting in Christ and I think better yet a better way to say that is by Grace you have been saved by relying on Christ so it says use the word Reliance and Trust as synonyms for Faith right so you've been saved by
 flying on TriStar by trusting on Christ but again what are we actually relying on him or trusting on him to do it and if you don't know the answer to this question you're basically revealing that you're not capable of preaching the gospel because if you can't answer this question you can't explain the the Full Gospel. It's a basic question why why I have faith why do I need faith in Jesus Christ what am I trusting on him to do what am I relying on him to do that I can't do my myself you know when you read the Bible you quickly learn that the most important moment or or need I should say of every single person is to be found righteous before God that's the most important need
 is to be found righteous before God that's the Pinnacle of the human need right there
 and because you've been created you and I we've been created we didn't create ourselves we're not autonomous when we're not self accountable beans because we didn't create ourselves the creator of us has a right to exercise judgment upon us and has a right to exercise judgment Upon Our Destiny based off of his moral law in the Bible also teaches that were Sinners write you and I we're Sinners and it's not just an act of sin that makes us dinner we're actually in a condition of sin were born in sin I want to say that again send message to Sara Lee a nap it's more of a condition and we know this because then entered by the way of Adam is it says Enter The Dru Adam and the disease of sin stained the entire human race were actually born into so we don't need to learn how to send it's something that's a part of who we are and other words
 people all people all humans we're actually Hellbound and we're actually deserving of it and that's the bad news okay that's the bad news the the proper 20/20 vision perspective correct perspective of what our need is and where we are is it were broken were Sinners where we're standing outside of of God's holiness we are under God's Wrath judgment we deserve hell and we're dead and our trespasses and sins and this this is a moment here this is bad news and again the only reason the gospel is good news is because there's bad news or the bad news wasn't there it wouldn't be good news and so this is an important part of the building blocks of sharing the gospel right so you're you're going again you're going to this idea of explaining why we need faced what are we were lying on Jesus or trusting on Jesus to actually do
 let me know the bad news we know our current state with a perspective of where we are and all men our prior to meeting Christ and and we need a now determine the good news the good news is that we have the gospel we have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this is that the god-man Jesus right he came and he made a way to escape the Judgment of the Father by living a sinless life we know that that happened he's bearing the consequences of our sins on the cross that's another in important parts of this building block of just discussing the gospel but not only that is it he actually appease the wrath of God on Calvary this word you might have heard in your Bibles is your reading through is propitiation that word propitiation mean to appease the wrath of God Through Blood Sacrifice this is another work that the cross has accomplished for us we got to remember that the Cross isn't just a place to die on the cross is actually a place where God's
 r a spell upon our fell Upon Jesus makes us clean he paid the price of our sins are many people have been crucified and and can handle crucifix and the only people are the only person that can handle Gods of Wrath is Jesus himself was a difference there but not only that he he rose from the grave and he conquered death and the biggest thing is that he imputed his righteousness his sinless life all these things that we just talked about he imputed righteousness To Us by belief by space right and so he amputated this righteousness this right standing before God by faith
 it so we can understand what is Fay and why are we were lying on this so again asking that question what exactly are we trusting him to do for us by placing our trust and relying on Christ the answer is this the answer to the entire sermon is that you're trusting that Jesus Will secure for you A righteous verdict before God the father and I talked about earlier that the number one need of all humans is to be found righteous before God and you are trusting and relying upon Christ to hear you a righteous verdict before God that is
 that is why you have faith now again faith is not this ethereal light thing that you go over you no believe in the things that are unseen that that's not the back and faced it will drive you because you can believe in things that are unseen the front end is that you actually have to look at price and rely on him and not on yourself because you have a sober clear accurate definition of perspective on your current status outside of Christ which is dead under God's Wrath
 and so you're trusting that you're guilty and that you're not sufficient and that Christ is righteous and he's worthy and he's your only hope for salvation that's what you're telling people when you tell people to have faith you need to be able to explain to them that you need to rely on Christ because you will not be able to secure a righteous verdict standing before God the father on your own have faith in Christ believe on him Trust on him right that those terms are we here so often this is the meaning behind that without Christ you're helpless and Hell Bound and you need to have that perspective this is what it means to have a saving faith in Christ again it's not believing in things unseen it's a Reliance upon him to be your righteousness he is your righteousness there's no pride in your own works of your own ability that's all gone you got to get that away you're not merely believe in his in his existence
 just because you can't see him right your trust in upon his work on the cross for your Redemption you know that it's satisfactory you believe that God raised him from the dead which is by saying that you believe that God validated Christ atoning work on the cross and it was sufficient and it was it was worthy he was actually the worthy lamb that would take away the sins of the whole world that if you believe on him and he will be saved your believe in those things through him you're saved anyone who exercises this Reliance in this type of trust is going to be saved that's the core of faith in the biblical definition we have this going to read this is the
 the next important question is how do we have this face
 the Paul says
 in the scriptures that that faith is a gift of God that's delivered by the word of God I'm going to say that again Paul says that the face of the building have faith in God is a gift of God that is delivered by the word of God and we're going to pull out Romans 10:17 its list of faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ the word of Christ has power okay faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ and this is why we preach the word of Christ this is what we preach Christ crucified this is why we don't need to sit here and be persuasive in our sermons because we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ the word of Christ is the gospel message the true gospel message and when we preach that gospel message we know the Sheep will hear his voice because when you're preaching that that gospel out of your mouth that she ever going to hear his voice they're going to come to him and they're going to follow him
 so not only does the the word have power it's it it's also has has logic and it has a beauty and it's wrapped in complete truth but it also has the power to convert as the power to convert dead men and a live living loving trusting and relying Upon Jesus people right who can exercise this type of faith
 they can actually have eyes to see and ears to hear we remember those words of Jesus would often say and is again they can start to see their deeply they can start seeing their own Brokenness right there in ability to be found a righteous is impossible before before the Lord you know they can see their impending doom this is what causes that guilt that shamed the conviction the need for repentance is the birthing process right of of Salvation they're coming to repentance and they need to trust and rely upon Christ to obtain salvation for them and how Christ will again in cute that righteousness that he has to us through belief through faith
 Charles Spurgeon wants that he said genuine Faith as it saves the soul has for its main element trust absolute rest of the whole soul on the Lord Jesus Christ to be Captain Faith actually is to to keep this perspective right as Christians we're not in the gospel isn't just for day one Christianity the gospels for everyday Christianity we need to remember that Jesus is keeping us right he promises that he'll do this for us that we will never perish but nobody will snatch us out of his hand a saved person going to continue to rely and trust and cling to Christ because they've been made aware of their own depravity their own need for Christ they cannot stand before the throne and be found righteous outside of price they are going to need to exercise that Faith which is to rely upon and to trust Upon Jesus Christ
 securing a righteous verdict when they stand before the Lord this is the gospel you need to understand this in order to communicate it correctly
 I'll close this with this story I guess it's more of a quote it's from a nineteenth-century pastor in Theologian midday to use borax think action 1800 it's Robert a 10 and a sermon he said these words and I thought it was a really good at sitting piece of content for the end of this message here he says I believe in a position when I put my case is it that Physicians hand and I trust him to cure me I believe it a lawyer when I leave my case in his hands and trust him to plead for me I believe it a banker when I put my money in his hands and allow him to keep it in my behalf I Believe In My Savior when I take him to be my savior when I put my helpless case in his hands and trust him to do what I cannot do for myself save me from my sin have you done so
 you believe he continues on here you believe there is such a person as Jesus and that he is the Sinners savior you do well but that is only a partial and incomplete space as we talked about to believe that a certain doctor exists and has a large practice is not to believe personally in that doctor true Faith contains a moral as well as an intellectual element you are a sinner he represents himself as your savior you are a lost one he has died to find you you are dead he presents himself as the resurrection and the life the point is do you take him by faith to be what he reveals himself to be that is believing and trusting on him if you can say in your heart yeah I believe in him and trust in him then at the Judgment Day you can no longer be convicted of your sin all your sins were laid upon the Lamb of God Who Bore the sin of the world there is no long
 a case against you the charges have been dismissed there is no condemnation you are pronounced acquitted and accepted in the Beloved amazing Passage
 that sermon time and time again when we see suffering enter into the world in math we see that the gospel advances forward intensely we have a moment now in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic there is a fear a blanket of fear and worry that is laid upon so many people there is also death that is all around us because of this virus and our mortality is knocking at the door of many people's hearts and what a fertile ground to preach the gospel to help people have this hope and an end to remove the fear of not knowing what's going to happen after death
 I recently heard a disturbing statistic only eleven percent of Christians have read the entire Bible now we can't wonder why the church is being influenced by the culture more than the culture is being influenced by the church the vast majority of Christians don't know God's word because they've never Reddit we cannot live out what we do not understand so Veronica and I want to challenge you right now to read the Bible in one year we put together a basic 365-day reading plan that'll take you no longer than 20 minutes per day and you can download it for free at relearn church.org Bible again that's real Southern church. Org forward slash Bible
 the reality of death right now because it's it's no longer foreign people are thinking about it you know we have to remember that some people are going to meet our maker today some people are going to meet our maker this week some people are going to meet their maker this year this might be anyone of us and what are we telling people to rely on what are you relying on what are you trusting on are you still at trusting on your social justice work are you trusting on your humanitarian efforts are you trusting on your moralism are you dressing on your biblical knowledge is that what's going to say to you is that what's going to put you there are you trusting that you believe that Jesus exists and you understand the Christian philosophy or do you have a deep heart you know just as course Metroparks of you understand that your insufficient that you need Christ and if the only way that you can stand before God the father and Escape his wrath is by relying on Christ
 there's nothing that you do it is only him are you there are you there the only thing that's going to stand in the last day of judgment is that Reliance and that trust everything else you've done everything else that you claim to have done everything else that you think might be good it's all going to burn the only thing that's going to stand is your face a biblically defined faith in Christ with Brett
 father we thank you Lord that you have made it clear in your word that you have not left us lost and confused father that we cannot study and understand who you are and what you require of us father that you would continue to illuminate the scriptures to us father that you would draw people to you through Independence to Reliance through a complete trusting father that you would bring conviction Lord if there's any of us that are listening to this that are relying on our good works to keep us saved to make a save whatever it is father that you would eliminate that out of the heart that it was only Christ that there's nothing that we can do except face and it your son it'll make us righteous Before the Throne father bring Clarity to this biblical Doctrine for us father help us understand this so that we can communicate it to others father that we can preach the gospel faithfully and accurately father
 in Jesus name amen
 thank you for joining us on this episode of real Christianity real Christianity is an audio Ministry of relearn church.org if you'd like more information on how to live out a Biblical life relearn Church. A host of variety of Articles podcast sermons and videos to support your journey real Christianity is 100% listener-supported Ministry and if you'd like to support our efforts simply click to donate a pat relearn church.org you can also connect with both Veronica and I on Instagram Facebook and Twitter for daily lessons and Bible teachings thank you for being with us today we hope to see you next Wednesday for another episode of real Christianity