The Bible reads not everyone that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven
But he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven many will say to me in that day Lord Lord
Have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works
And then while I profess unto them, I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity
You know one things for sure that I'm pretty darn positive is these people right here thought that they had saving faith
They thought they were going to heaven but then when they found out then obviously we see what happened
They asked these questions out of surprise kind of
And but what I want to talk about today is the many people that think that they have saving faith
That and they don't and how that we can better analyze them to see if they actually have true, you know biblical saving faith
But
Today the title I'm gonna title it is saving faith in Jesus what it is and what it isn't so you can turn over to
Romans 10
So I want to talk about first I'm gonna talk about a few points on what saving faith is and then I want to talk about
After those few points what saving faith is not
So you're there in Romans 10 hold your place there. First of all saving faith is
Believing the gospel of Christ Romans 1 16 says for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ
For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it to the Jew first and also to the Greek
You're there in Romans 10 look at verse 9
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead
Thou shalt be saved turn over to Acts 16
The gospel is what saves us only if we have faith in it
Well, it's the first thing that saving faith is it is believing the gospel of Christ
You're there in Acts 16
Hold your place there. The second thing that saving faith is is saving faith is
Believing Jesus is God the Bible says in Deuteronomy 6 verse 4
Deuteronomy 6 4 reads here Oh Israel the Lord our God is one Lord and
You're there in Acts 16 Acts 16 verse 31 tells us that we need to believe that Jesus Christ is Lord
In order to be saved it says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved turn over to 1st John 5
so the second thing that saving faith is is believing Jesus is God and
Believing he is Lord. That's one in the same
You're there in 1st John 5 hold your place there
The third thing that saving faith is is believing in Christ's death burial and resurrection
1st Corinthians 15 verse 1 reads moreover brethren I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you
Which also you have received and wherein you stand by which also you're saved verse 3 reads for I delivered unto you
First of all that which I also received how that Christ died for your sins our sins according to the scriptures
And that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures
Now the fourth thing I want to cover and I'm sure there's more things I can cover
This is the last thing I want to cover real quick for what saving faith is is
Saving faith is believing that God gives us eternal life. You're there in 1st John 5 look at verse 10
It says he that believeth on the Son of God
Had the witness in himself
So someone gets the witness and has it inside of him only if he believes in the Son of God
Then it says he that believeth not God hath made him a liar
You know, obviously they're not gonna have the witness and then it says because he believeth not the record that God gave of his son
So they're not saved
They don't have saving faith because they deny the record and part of the record in verse 11 is and this is the record that
God hath given to us
Eternal life and this life is in his son turn over to Hebrews 6 Hebrews chapter number 6
So what does all this mean? What does all this mean that what saving faith is?
Here's what all this means if someone at the door says hey, I believe in Jesus or I have saving faith
They don't if they believe in another gospel like denying that you have to call upon the name of Lord
You know, it doesn't matter if they say that they have faith in Jesus Christ
They just don't if they're denying that you have to call upon the name of Lord or believing some other gospel
It also means that hey if they think they have saving faith
They don't if they believe in other gods, you know, a lot of a lot of other religions to say
Oh, we believe in believe in Jesus too. You know, we do we believe in Jesus. No, you don't believe in Jesus
No, you don't
You believe in other gods
also
If they say they have saving faith, they don't if they deny that Jesus physically resurrected. That's the JW's for you right there
They they'll say that they believe in Jesus and and and stuff like that, but they don't
Lastly real quick coach place in Hebrew 6, but lastly what another thing that this could mean all of what saving faith is could mean
is that
You don't have saving faith if you deny that God gives us a never-ending ticket to heaven
Why because you're denying the record that God gave of a son, but you're there and I believe I told you Hebrews 6
Hold your place there now. I want to cover what saving faith is not
This is what saving faith is not number one
Saving faith is not repenting of sin and I want to kind of cover this in a different way because there's so many different ways
You can cover it. I don't think I've ever covered it this way
But hold your place in Hebrew 6 but what you know, it's funny there's a few verses in the Bible that mentions
repentance repenting or repent
With faith or belief or whatnot and what's funny is only one of those verses that I know of
I'm sure that there might be another one maybe but there's one that I know of
that actually it tells us what we have to repent of or repent from and
It's funny how people will look at all the verses that say repentance toward God of a tortle or Jesus Christ like in acts
2021 or mark 1 it'll say repent and believe the gospel and say there you got to repent of your sins. I'm like
No, you don't, you know and and just so you know the Bible actually clarifies in Hebrew 6 1 you can look down
Hebrew 6 1 it actually clarifies because God knew that this would happen, right?
Clarifies what we need to repent from it says therefore leaving the principalities of the doctrine of Christ
Let us go on unto perfection not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and a faith toward God
And if you just use logic and you think about it, what's dead faith faith without works. So what's dead works means?
It's missing faith
So all that God is literally telling us you can turn to Galatians 5
All that God is literally and it's so simple all that God is saying when he says repent to believe the gospel
Is you need to get faith? That's it
And but people don't like how simple that really is and repentance is not complicated
But that kind of show the comparing those verses
You can see where God clarifies that he's just telling us that we need to
Go from not believing in Jesus Christ and and and put our faith in him, but you're there in Galatians 5
the second thing that saving faith is not is
Saving faith is not adding something to your justification
Other than Jesus look at verse 3 of Galatians 5
It says for I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law
Christ has become of no effect unto you and whosoever of you are justified by the law
Obviously, it's not saying everyone that's ever been circumcised is not gonna go to heaven
It's obviously not what it's saying
What it's saying is when you add that to your justification like that that's a requirement for your justification
Then Christ had no effect on you. So if someone at the door is adding something to
Faith and calling upon the name of the Lord don't have saving faith. They don't that's not saving faith
It's not Christ have no effect on them
Turn over to John chapter number six
John six the third thing that saving for I'm just about done here a little longer tip
John's chapter number six the third and last thing I want to cover that saving faith is not
Is saving faith is not fulfilling every will of God
fulfilling every will of God Matthew 7
Reads
Hoge placing John 6 Matthew 7 21 reads not everyone that saith unto me Lord Lord
Don't answer into the the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven
So people will take this verse and teach
Sinless perfectionism and say that you have to obey the will of the father and if you don't then you're not gonna be saved
Obviously, that's not true and and I'm not even gonna spend time to debunk that because that's so obvious about teach for Center
Sinners and that we will always be sinners while we're on earth. So that's obviously not true
But what I want to kind of talk about though
Is that there's this other end of the spectrum that they'll take that verse and they'll say oh well
No, you know, you don't have to be fully in the will of the father to be saved
But you got to be willing to be fully in the will of the father
You got to be willing to fully quit your sins
You better be willing to submit to him or better be willing to surrender him or how are you want to say it?
They say it a million different ways and it's like wait a minute
So why would God
Make us not make us do something and say hey, you don't have to do this, but you have to be willing to do that
So why would I have to be willing to do something? I don't have to do
It doesn't make any sense and on top of that. Why would he make us be have to be willing to do something?
We can't do
it's not logical and
If that logic doesn't isn't proof enough for someone at the door you can turn over to John 6 and look at verse 40
God clarifies God always has verses that clarify
It says and this is the will of him that sent me. That's the will of the Father
That everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on him
May have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day
So simply the only will that God has that you believe on Jesus Christ and you'll have everlasting life
and so all this means what saving faith is not is that if if someone thinks they have saving faith, but
They're connecting the law in some way to getting saved like saying that you have to obey the law or quit sin
Or you got to be willing to obey the law
Which is the same thing as saying you have to be willing to turn from your sins
They don't have saving faith. That's not saving faith. They're like the Galatians 5 people. They're adding something else to their justification
Lastly if someone thinks they have saving faith, they don't if the only way they derive their assurance of salvation
Is not Jesus and what he already did here's I'll give you an example what I'm talking about
Matthew 7 is a perfect example of that people find out they're not going to heaven then they're like wait
Have I not all done all this?
So where they thought where they got their confidence that they're going to heaven was based off their works
That's a good example, but I'll give you a real-life example of somebody in my life
My old pastor's dad literally said this
the pastor said it to
But he literally said that the only way that I could know that I'm saved once I get saved
The only way that I can be like 100% sure I'm saved is if I see a change in my life
Meaning like you can't know you're saved when you get saved
You know I'm saying so literally what he was deriving his assurance of salvation and his confidence of salvation from
Was what happens in his life him quitting his sin and cleaning up his life
And it's like your alliance your confidence is not on Jesus when you're saying that it's just simply not
I don't care. I don't care and the point of this whole the point of the whole sermon is this I don't care
How Baptist they are if they say they're Baptist or if they say they're independent Baptist, but they say that they believe in Jesus
They say it's by grace through faith like Stacey Shifleff, and they'll say this a million times
But then they're on top of that say well hey you ain't willing to surrender to God
You you cannot be saved
I don't care if you believe in Jesus you cannot be saved unless you're willing to give up that one saying that you're really struggling
with right now
They do not have saving faith
That's not saving faith in Bible, and we need to learn to interpret this and see people at the door that
May say in the beginning. Oh, yeah, it's through Jesus Christ
But then the next thing you know they're like well
You know if somebody is like not quitting their alcohol and everything that they're probably not
Surrendering or making God Lord of their life or something. That's a red flag. They're saying stuff like that
But I hope this helps us as so owners actually wrote this for last night
But I think it can apply to sowing for sure so let's pray
Did Lord think for this time that we have to go so willing to pray you would fill us with your spirit and help us
to
discern
people hearts the best we can based off the scriptures, and how it clearly teaches what saving faith is and
Keep us safe out there and Jesus name. Amen