A crown of thorns placed on his head, he knew that he would soon be dead. He said, did you forget your father, did you? He knew that he would soon be dead. our biblical and our understanding of God's truth. And so it's very important for us to know what is faith in Jesus Christ and what does it mean to have a saving faith in Jesus Christ because our confession makes a distinction. between historical faith and saving faith because there's some people are said in scripture to quote-unquote believe but we know that it's not divinely given faith and so since justification before God has said repeatedly emphatically over and over and over again in scripture to be by faith or that Greek term simply means belief it's vital that we know what belief means now It's actually fairly transparent and ought to be pretty easy to understand. If I believe something, then I am affirming that I hold it to be true. For example, my car is parked in the parking lot here, and so the assertion, I believe that my car is in the parking lot, what I have told you is that I hold something to be true. If I believe it, that means that I believe it is true. Now, if I said I do not believe it, that means that I do not hold it to be true. I do not regard it as being true. So justification before God, we're told in the Word of God, is by faith apart from works. Our guy is cutting the grass. He usually does it on Friday, I think, and he's out there, and hopefully that won't interfere with the sound. of the program today. If it does, maybe the one person who's watching right now will let me know on today's live program of my huge, huge audience out there. Okay, I wanted to go over what is saving faith. Extremely important, and Robert Raymond has a wonderful section in his Systematic Theology on faith and what it is, and this is very important. One of the main reasons I wanted to do this program It's because there's a lot of teaching out there today that claims to be reformed and is not. It claims to be biblical and it is not. And you'll even hear people affirm the words of scripture, they'll affirm the words of the confessional orthodoxy of the Reformation churches, and they'll say, we believe in justification by faith alone. And we believe that faith is the sole instrument of our justification. And people will hear that, well, how can you have a problem with that? The reason I have a problem with it is that they're defining faith as works. And so when they say, yeah, justification is by faith alone, faith is the sole instrument. And then you ask and press them and you find out that their definition of what faith is, of what belief is, includes the very thing that it's constantly set in opposition to in scripture, namely works. Okay, before we look at Robert Raymond, I wanted to look at a passage of scripture that really ought to settle the issue and just put it to bed forever. Romans chapter four. verses 3, 4, and 5. Okay, listen carefully to the Word of God here. I think that this text of Scripture, Romans chapter 4, verses 3, 4, and 5, destroys any idea that working, good works, stuff we do, or whatever, even with the help of God's grace and stuff that we believe to be Holy Spirit-induced and Holy Spirit-born and the result of regeneration, nothing that we do Nothing that we do can be combined with faith as the instrumental cause of our justification before God. Romans 4.3, here Paul citing from Genesis 15.6, what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Okay, here Paul is raising the question, so how did Abraham get to heaven? How was Abraham justified before the judgment of God on account of his, because he was a sinner, how did Abraham get to heaven? How was he justified? He believed. And we know from John 8, 56, Jesus specifically says, Abraham was looking forward to the coming of Christ. And he understood from Genesis chapter 12, that in him, in one of his descendants, all the nations, all the families of the earth would be blessed. And he knew that it would be one of his descendants that would be the seed of the woman that would bring about this blessing. And so Abraham believed that promise. And now verses 4 and 5 ought to lay to rest forever any notion that you could ever include the sinner's works in what faith is. Okay? Because you can't. Paul says, now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as grace, but as what is due. Okay? So if you go to work and you do your job and you get your paycheck, you get your wage, that's not grace. That's what is due. When it comes to justification before God, you can say, we're not saying we earn anything from God, we're not saying that, but really, in effect, you are saying that, if you include works into your definition of faith. But listen to the next verse. Here's where it ought to be laid to rest. But to the one who does not work, and that's actually a participle, to the one not working, That doesn't mean that a Christian never does good works. It just means that a Christian is never looking to his good works in any way as that which is going to save him or get him into heaven or contribute something to his justification or function as an instrument in being consistent with faith or anything like that. To the one not working, but believing, but rather believing, pistuanti. Okay, ergadzamano, the one not working, it says me, the negative particle there, to the one not working, but believing upon the one who justifies the ungodly, asebe, ungodly. Okay, logidzatai he pistus, his belief is credited to him, altu, eis dikayasunen, unto righteousness. Okay, so who is justified before God? Who's gonna be declared righteous before God and go to heaven? The one not working, but believing. Okay, if you say faith in Christ is working, that to be living faith is also working, so we're justified by faith, meaning we're justified by our works. You have completely destroyed the Christian faith if you say that, because that is perfectly false. Faith is the opposite of works to the one not working. but believing that person, ungodly as they are, is justified before God. In verses 6-8, speaking of the imputed righteousness apart from works, he even adds it there, you know, a chorus, ergo, apart from works, righteousness is imputed, legally credited to our account, our divine accounting book before God, our ledger before God. And our sins are not charged against us. Our sins are not imputed to us in Romans 4, 8. Okay? So there you have, there's no way that in any sense you can be biblical if you include the sinner's works in your definition of faith. And that's what a lot of folks do. That's what, for example, Doug Wilson does that. And so that enables him because his definition of faith includes the works of the sinner. It includes the works of the sinner. He can say, I believe we're justified by faith alone and use all the phrases and terminology, read the confessions and everything else, but included in his definition of faith is works. And all I'm trying to point out is that if you understand what scripture says about this, it is the one who is not working, but believing. You can't have believing excludes our working. Believing what? That Christ died for our sins, he was buried and rose again, and it's his person and work, his cross as the satisfaction for our sins, his righteousness to meet the positive requirement of the law of God. That is the sole basis by which we are saved. Okay, let me see who's over here for a second. I pulled up my Kindle there. Okay, we got a few people here now. That's good. There's Brian Thomas. Greetings, dear brother there in Cincinnati. Tell the folks there at Grace I said hello. The New Reformation Apologetics. Hello, sir. There's Julia following, howdy. There's Paul Garvey from England. Man, what time is it in England right now, I wonder? And then he says here, yes, the means of salvation is by grace through faith in the righteousness of Jesus alone. Yep, I think we need to add alone to two more words there, though, grace alone through faith alone in the righteousness of Jesus alone. Okay, there's Robert Walters. Hey, Pastor, haven't caught you in a while. Great to see you. Good to have you all with us. I appreciate my little group that comes and watches this. Okay, I want to read a little bit from Robert Raymond here, and we're going to look at a number of other passages of Scripture. Okay. The reformer saw that it is not faith per se that saves, but Christ who saves through faith through or by the instrumentality of the center's faith in him. Okay. And this is a quotation. I think this is from BB Warfield and this is the famous, yeah, it is. This is, this is such a great quotation here. It says Warfield about faith, saving power of faith resides not in itself, but in the almighty savior on whom it rests. Now, if that one sentence, which is so biblical, it's so excellent, if that was just understood, what I just read, listen to that sentence again. The saving power of faith resides not in itself, but in the Almighty Savior on whom it rests. Faith, belief, means I believe Jesus has done it all in my behalf. That's not me doing good works. That's not me obeying anything. That's not anything done in me or by me. Faith lays hold of Christ. It rests upon the Almighty Savior. Warfield says, it is never on account of its formal nature as a psychic act that faith is conceived in scripture to be saving. as if this frame of mind or attitude of heart were itself a virtue which claims on God for reward. It is not faith that saves, but faith in Jesus Christ. It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith. Okay, so think of it like that. Faith is simply that by which we lay hold of Christ and his righteousness. Okay, faith is not working. It's the opposite of working. Faith and obedience are not the same thing. They're not even synonyms to the one not working, but in opposition to that, believing on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness and dear, whoever you are, whoever will see this or hear this or watch this or listen to this, that's why we can be sure we're saved. Because whether you have a real strong faith or a really, really, really tiny weak faith, it all embraces the same Savior. And it's Christ who does all the saving. Faith simply is that which lays hold of him. Faith is not obedience. Faith is not works. Faith is not faithfulness. Faith is the Greek noun pistis, belief, or pistuo, believing. What is it that we're believing? That Christ died for our sins on the cross. and that his righteousness is imputed to our account. Faith looks away from self and relies entirely upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's all faith ever looks to. Faith is not works. Faith is not obedience. Faith is not faithfulness. Faith is simply belief that Christ is a perfect savior and that he saved me. It's confidence in divine mercy and nothing else. Okay. Okay, the saving power resides exclusively not in the act of faith, or the attitude of faith, or the nature of faith, but in the object of faith. We could not more radically misconceive the biblical representation of faith than by transferring to faith even the smallest fraction of that saving energy which is attributed in the scriptures solely to Christ himself. And so, If that sentence right there were really understood, the federal vision would die and be forgotten. Because they think James chapter 2 were justified by works and not by faith alone. It's talking about the same thing. And so works, as long as they're not done out of a pharisaical, self-righteous attitude or pride, works justify us in the sight of God. That is anathema. That's another gospel. never saved anybody, anyone that's ever died truly believing that has gone straight to hell because they are ignorant, as Paul says in Romans chapter 10, ignorant of God's righteousness and instead seeking to establish their own. And you can say all you want, oh we don't believe in any merit, there's no merit, there's no merit, there's no merit, doesn't matter. If you're still having the sinner look to his own faithfulness or his own works in any way, shape, or form, that's not Christianity, that's not the gospel. Okay. He's weed whacking out there. Hopefully you can still hear me. Okay. All right. Of course I was presupposing on this. Okay, good. Just want to make sure. Because with the screen name, New Reformation Apologetics, I know that you know that. Okay, Rob Gibbs, only God can accomplish through faith what I never could. Amen. That's right. And so when we consider that one day we will stand before the judgment bar of God, there is a judgment of works for rewards. Yes, indeed. Second Corinthians 5.10 and many other passages. the legal basis upon which we enter into heavenly glory is the righteousness that was achieved by Jesus Christ. And if we don't truly believe or understand that, we're cheapening his work and we're, in fact, blaspheming him. So we only come to Christ on God's terms. Okay, the reformers' clarity of vision, respecting the instrumental function of faith with the real repository of salvific power being Christ himself and Christ alone, resulted from their recognition that scripture everywhere, listen to this now, scripture everywhere represents saving faith as, number one, the gift of grace, number two, the diametrical opposite of law keeping, and I would add not only diametrical opposite of law keeping, but of any works at all with regard to its referent, and number three, the only human response to God's effectual summons which comports with grace. Okay, and that's a direct reference to Romans 4.16. I remember when I finally understood Romans 4.16, that was another passage that really sealed the deal as far as justification by faith alone and by the righteousness of Christ alone. Listen, for this reason, the verse before that, verse 15, says, for the law brings about wrath. In fact, let's back up to verse 14. For if those who are of the law are heirs, meaning if those who think that by their works they're gonna be justified before God, if they're heirs of eternal life, Faith is made void and the promise is nullified. If we think that by what we do, we're going to get into heaven in any way, shape or form, even partially, thinking that our works contribute something, if they're heirs of eternal life, faith is void and the promise is nullified. And then here's the reason, because the law brings about wrath. The wrath of God rests on anyone who relies upon their law-keeping, relies upon their law-keeping. Okay, but where there is no law, there is also no violation. Now listen to verse 16. For this reason, justification is by faith so that it would be by grace. Justification by anything in addition to faith or anything alongside of faith in Christ, it's not grace anymore. It becomes works. It becomes merit. It becomes earning. And you can say, no, no, no, no. We don't believe in merit. We don't believe in earning. But if you believe we're justified by our works, then that's just the way it is. You don't have grace anymore at all. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. We're hanging. Hanging. Why are you saying that? Okay. Fighting federal vision again? Yes. In fact, I'm scheduled to do an interview on Back to the Reformation podcast with Matthew Rosenblum and Onig Syadian this coming Wednesday. So I've been doing some preparation for that. They specifically want me to address Doug Wilson, which that's fine. So I've been actually reviewing some of his stuff. And of course, the issue with Wilson has never been what is the grounds of justification? He's always affirmed as Christ and Christ alone. And it's also not what is the instrument of justification? He's always said it's by faith alone. That's why a lot of people have been tricked by that The problem is he includes obedience in his definition of faith which destroys the gospel Okay, let's press on a little bit more here. Okay, Robert Raymond's section here, next section. Saving Faith's Gift Character as Procured by Christ's Crosswork and Effected by Regeneration. We're actually going to skip this section. I actually recently went through that one and that's a real important one. Yeah, this is the one I wanted to read here. Saving Faith's Character as the Diametrical Opposite of Law-Keeping. Okay, so true belief, true belief in Christ is the opposite of law keeping. It is the opposite of working. That's why Romans 4, 5 says what it does. To the one, when it comes to their justification, when it comes to how they're gonna get to heaven, to the one not working, but believing. His faith is credited as righteousness. You try to add working in with your believing, Christ would be of no benefit to you. Coming to God means coming on his terms, and that is we trust in Jesus Christ alone. I always think of, you know, when Jesus came to wash Peter's feet. Lord, you will never wash my feet. Remember what Jesus said to him? If I don't wash you, you have no part with me. Okay, this is a really great illustration there. Really great illustration. Okay, I've bad too, had too many conversations with Catholics about this. It's not truthful, unfortunately. It can be pretty frustrating to talk to folks from Catholicism, from Romanism about this kind of stuff, but if you can get the Gospel in front of them, the Holy Spirit of God can use that and draw them out, which is wonderful. That's really all we're supposed to do. You just get the Gospel in front of people, but if you're talking to someone who's really into Rome and really believes that whole system, you're going to really struggle, because once Sola Scriptura is discarded, You know, it's very difficult, you know, to really get them even to see what scripture says, let alone to acquiesce to it. We, of course, know only the Holy Spirit can do that. Okay. With a gloriously monotonous regularity, Paul pits faith off over against all law keeping as its diametrical opposite as to referent. Whereas the latter relies on the human effort of the law keeper looking to himself to render satisfaction before God, the former repudiates and looks entirely away from all human effort to the cross work of Jesus Christ, who alone by his sacrificial death rendered satisfaction before God for men. Okay, now think with me. If a person says they believe in Jesus, if they're also trusting in their works, they don't actually believe in Jesus. person has combined works in any way, shape, or form, in any way, in any way, in their definition of faith, they don't actually really believe in Jesus. True faith looks entirely away from all human effort to the cross work of Jesus Christ. Okay, listen to Romans 3.20. No one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law. Okay? Justified. No one's gonna be justified by what they do, in any way, shape, or form. But now, a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known. In other words, it will have no referent at all to our law-keeping, to our works. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. Romans 3, 28. We maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart from works of the law. Okay? So remember, faith in Christ, belief in Jesus Christ is the opposite of working. Okay? And if you don't get that part, you're not going to understand that salvation is a gift from God. And that's one of the most important parts of divine revelation. Eternal life is a gift. In fact, I have been preaching on marriage and trying to encourage men to be servants in their marriage and to love their wife as Christ loved the church and everything else. I thought of an illustration, I thought of something that happened a long time ago and I'm going to share this because I think it's a good illustration at this point in the program today. When I was probably 12, 13, something like that, maybe 14, right around that time period, my father's birthday came up and my mom wanted to take my dad out with some of his closest friends from church to my dad's favorite restaurant on his birthday. And of course, myself and my sister went there. And there were probably 14, 15 people there at this. Sorry, I'm being distracted by the chat room over here. I'll get back to this in a minute. And my mom wanted to make sure that the manager of the restaurant and the waiter understood she's paying for all this. She's gonna pay for all of this herself. And she, I remember her telling the manager, give me the check. Please do not put that check on the table because then, you know, my husband's friends will try to pick it up and pay it themselves. And this is my gift to my husband. So of course, they forgot and they dropped the check on the table. And one of my dad's friends who was there for my dad's birthday, grabbed the check and was going to try to pay it. It was people were getting out their wallets and they were going to try to pay for some of this. And my mother was very upset by this. And they, these guys that were my dad's friends, they were really insisting. And she's like, no, no, I, I told them not to put that check on the table. I told them to give me the check. I can't believe they did this. And I remember this so clearly because my mother was about to cry. She was about to start crying because These people that were my dad's friends that were at this birthday celebration, they were going to try to pay for this. And my mom wanted it to be her gift. And I was thinking about that as I was looking at the texts of scripture that speak of justification as being freely given, as a gift by His grace. In other words, our works can't play any role in it at all. And if you say that our faith is works, then you're going to lose everything. You lose the whole concept of it being a gift of God's grace. And those two different Greek words are used, charisma, gift, and then doreion, freely, in Romans 3, 24. Okay. Wow. What's going on over here? I think that the allure of Wilson stems in part from the fact that he is ostensibly reformed, politically conservative, all about homeschooling, etc. Although there's not a doubt about it. And will repeat the words of orthodoxy and people believe him. Therefore people are unwilling to really dig into him because on the surface he's one of them. That's well said, Jeremy. I think that's exactly why. Okay, Jacob Williams, Hey pastor, I really appreciate your dedication to faith alone importance given its importance. Is it okay to take comfort in the change of desires from sin to righteous as a sign of God's work? Oh, definitely, definitely. First John says that. that this is how we know that we know him, we keep his commandments. Now, never perfectly, of course, and we will always struggle with sin, as Paul says in Romans 7, 14 to 25, Galatians 5, 17, the flesh lusts against the Spirit. But there's not a doubt about it. I mean, there's no doubt at all. God has radically changed me. However, the primary grounds of Christian assurance is always the shed blood and the righteousness of Christ. But even the Synod of Doric pointed out that assurance is not to be found by trying to probe into God's secret counsel or anything like that. Even Calvin in the Institutes of the Christian Religion says that if you try to do that, if you try to peer into God's secret counsel and his secret decree, you will enter a labyrinth from which you will never escape. Rather, the grounds of assurance is our faith in Jesus Christ because it's His finished work alone that's going to save us in the end. But the Synod of Dort in its article on assurance says that we also look to the fruits of election that are pointed out in God's Word, namely, a true faith in Christ, a childlike fear of God, a hunger and thirst for righteousness, etc., so on and so forth. So, yeah, you see those signs, you see the fruit of God's saving work in our lives. But when we think about death and judgment, our confidence rests and is never spread out to anything other than Christ alone. When it comes to the satisfaction of divine justice, when it comes to meeting the requirements of the holiness of God, our confidence is in Christ alone, never in the subjective changes that we experience in our in our sanctification. Okay, so good question, Jacob. Have you been, I don't know if that guy, have you been on here before? Okay, I think people get repentance and faith mixed up as well, since they have some overlap. Yeah, I mean, people, to define one as the other is a very serious error. Okay, repentance always accompanies saving faith, and repentance unto life is a saving grace. But listen, repentance is not the instrument by which we are justified. Okay, it's not. And so it is not, as our confession says, it is not, repentance is not to be rested in as rendering any satisfaction for sin. Okay, because it doesn't. That is only what Christ has done. That's why this emphasis on faith alone, faith apart from works, when it comes to how we are declared righteous before God and saved from God's wrath, that is provided by the work of Christ, received by faith alone. It's not received by repentance. But repentance is always going to be there. It's something that God always does in the life of a redeemed person. But repentance is not the instrumental cause of our justification. It can't be, okay? It's simply we grieve over and hate our sin and we recognize sin for what it is and we seek to turn from it all and seek to turn to God. Okay. A not-starved fight, but you contradicted yourself. You said, get faith and repentance mixed up, alluding to error, but then they have some overlap. Okay, well, because they're not synonymous. That's right, they're not. See, this is why catechesis is so great. It's such an important thing to do. I know a lot of people are like, oh, I don't want to memorize the whole catechism. It keeps the categories clean. You know, when I've taught, I've actually taught classes, I actually wrote an 80 page manual on how to do personal evangelism and like how to answer this objection, that objection, everything else. But the thing I always tell people if I've ever, if I ever teach on evangelism, I say, look, if you want to be good at evangelism, memorize the Westminster Shorter Catechism. And not, don't just memorize it, but really understand it. Okay? Think about what the catechism says. What is, what is faith in Jesus Christ? Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation as he is offered in the gospel. What is justification? What is repentance unto life? If you keep the biblical teachings and categories clean, as the scriptures do, those catechisms really help with that. That guy's blowing off the leaves out there. And I just opened my window. Okay, let's let him go, but he's actually a really nice guy. Okay. Oh, okay. A friend of mine showed me your Biblical Masculinity vs Jell-O sermon and I was hooked. Okay, cool. Alright. I have a long way to go, lol. Yeah, okay. I forgot about that sermon, that's right. I did actually call a sermon by that title, Biblical Masculinity vs Jell-O. Yeah, and you know, there's kind of a toxic version of Christian masculinity out there today that's not really... biblical manhood either, where, you know, if you cuss once in a while when you're really mad and you smoke cigars and smash beer cans on your forehead and are a little rough around the edges, that's not manhood either. Okay? One way I defined manhood recently, and I think this is soundly biblical, is self-controlled conviction. That's what manhood really is all about. It's the self-control, conviction, and obedience to the Word of God, and believing in and defending the truth. Okay? So, alright. Faith in Jesus Christ, that being the... As a Marine, I was like that, but now I can't stand cursing. Yeah, yeah. I learned how to curse at a young age. I went to the public schools and played sports and stuff, and that's still a very, very difficult habit to break. It truly is. It truly is. Okay, so faith in Jesus Christ. as the sole instrument of justification before God. What that really is shorthand for, when the Reformation, you know, use that slogan, sola fide, what are they really saying? Justification by faith alone is just another way of saying justification by the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. And if we're justified by anything alongside of belief or anything in addition to belief, it ain't grace anymore. So Paul says Romans 4 16 Romans 4 16 is a passage of scripture for the ages and I wish people understood it therefore Justification is of faith that it would be according to grace so that the promise would be sure Why am I sure I'm going to heaven because it has nothing to do with my faithfulness or my works I It has to do with the performance of the one I am resting on, Christ. That's what makes it sure. Therefore, because since the law brings about wrath, justification is by faith, by belief, by trusting in what someone else did for me so that it would be by grace. so that the promise would be guaranteed to all the seed, and not only to those who are of the law, meaning Jewish people, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, or Gentiles. We're all justified in exactly the same way, by faith in Christ alone, because it's the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone that can meet the requirements of the holiness of God. Okay. Are you going to lose your podcast that you're going to do tomorrow? Am I going to what? Lost your podcast? That you're going to do tomorrow? Oh, posted, posted. Um, I'm not, I'm not planning on doing a podcast tomorrow. It's actually next Wednesday that I'm doing that. It'll be on the internet. It's called back to the reformation, back to the reformation. Is what it's called if I don't link with that over here in the channel back to the Reformation podcast and it's hosted by Matthew Rosenblum and Onig D and I think I Think that's how I audience I forgive me only if you ever see this I for if I misspelled your name That's an unusual name. He is the only Onig I have ever met I and the only the only sciadian i know that's how you say it i just i'm not sure if i spelled it right but anyway okay um love that title yeah back the reformations it's a it's a nice it's a good program um they have me they have me on to do pipe to just talk about pipe or two and i was It's like every time you guys call me, you want me to, like, it's like Tim Shaughnessy said, I hate talking about Piper. It's like talking about, it's like talking badly about someone's favorite grandma or something like that. So anyway, okay, let me press on here. Saving Faith's character as the opposite of works, the opposite of law keeping. Okay, Romans 10, 4, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, for justification, for all who believe. You can't combine our works as instruments of justification with faith as an instrument of justification. You just can't do it. And it is amazing to me, from Norman Shepard forward, and of course, you know, Wilson and the Federal Vision guys got this from Shepard, they think that works can be instruments of justification. And they include that in their definition of faith. But think with me how absurd that makes every statement Paul makes about this. If our works that we do, as long as they're not done out of self-righteousness, but they're spirit born and are done with the right heart attitude, just like Rome's doctrine of congruent merit, meritum de congruo. But think about what that would make all these statements say. Romans 3.28, here's what the scripture says. We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. If they're right, if they're right, then it would really mean we maintain that a man is justified by works of the law apart from works of the law. Does that make it to, to the man who works, excuse me, to the man who, um, works, but works. I mean, that's not, that's not what it's talking about. Theocast has been doing great stuff on the federal vision and Wilson hoping someone picks up. Foster and tenants radical patriarchy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah Yeah, I still need to look up some of that stuff. I still need to look up some of that stuff It's such a there's so much false teaching and the passage I just read to you the first verse Romans 414 if those who are of the law are heirs of Abraham heirs of the promise and are gonna go to heaven faith is void the promise of knowing fact Galatians 2 16 a man is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ That one verse has it like four times in one verse Okay We're not justified by works of the law But through faith in Jesus Christ now the way that Rome and the federal vision and a billion other heresies have always Says all we're not saying we don't believe in justification by works of the law We're only justified by works that are spirit-born by works that are produced in us by the grace of God God's grace makes it all possible for future justifications by works and James chapter two and everything else. You know, it's really incredible to me over the course of 20 years, how much time I have spent on James chapter two. And I really, I really think I understand that passage really well. I've preached through it numerous times. I've covered it on podcasts numerous times. But it's a tragedy that that passage, which is so important and so critical, is so abused constantly. It's just constantly abused. Okay. Galatians 3.11, that by the law, no man is justified before God is evident because the righteous by faith shall live. Are you seeing how repetitious this is in the Apostle Paul? Philippians 3.9, not having my own righteousness, which is by the law, but the righteousness, which is through faith in Christ. Let me share a little anecdote with you. Uh, I had a conversation as my, one of my brothers here was pointing out. It's hard to talk to Roman Catholics. Um, I had an online dialogue with a guy, uh, many years ago about, uh, so I just wanted to see if he could read a text of scripture and I'm like, let it say what it says. And he, and he couldn't, he couldn't Romans 11, six. And if it is, it is, it is by grace. It is not by works. Otherwise grace is no longer grace. That's another clear example. If it's by grace, it excludes works. Our works can't be instruments of our justification. Our works can't do anything to get us into heaven. Romans 11, 6. And if it is by grace, it is no longer of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. And his response to that was, oh yeah, totally, I totally agree with that. The works that justify us before God are gifts of grace and the works that don't justify us are done outside of the context of grace. They're done outside the context of grace and they're works done outside of the covenant. What? Okay, let's look at the passage again. Romans 11, 6. And if by grace, it is no longer of works. Otherwise, grace is not grace. So if you combine works with grace, it's not grace anymore. Grace requires that we trust in Christ alone. It is by faith so that it would be by grace. If it's by grace, it's not by works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. And his response was, yeah, the works that save us are done with the help of grace. Works not done with the help of grace can't save us. Look at it again. If it's by grace, it's not by works. Otherwise grace is no longer grace. Grace excludes works. Oh yeah, yeah. The works that save us are done with the help of grace. You see how that works? You don't believe in soul scripture. You can't, you can't even read a text of scripture anymore. This outside influence, this tradition, this a papacy or, or Eastern Orthodox tradition or Mormonism or whatever, whatever is always going to be encroaching on the flaming of the passages. Now, the text of scripture, in fact, I just met with some dear brothers. We meet like once every couple of Wednesdays and we get pizza and now we're reading the Westminster Confession. And there were four of us sitting around the table and we were just talking about all this stuff and real encouraging, real encouraging time. But we were talking about Sola Scriptura and we were talking about the opening chapter of the Westminster Confession, the doctrine of scripture. And we were discussing, once you have discarded Sola Scriptura, once that's not part of your thinking anymore, Bible's mute. God can't talk to you anymore. Once you've cut yourself off from this, the patristic historical biblical truth of soul scripture, that there is nothing in the church's possession today that is God breathed, that is theopneustos, second Timothy three 16. Well, if you cut yourself loose from that, you'll believe anything, anything. And one of the great examples of that is Mark seven and Matthew 15, the Corban rule. And I've asked my own children this question before I pointed out to them, You know, kids, this Korban rule comes from one of the sections of the Talmud called Tractate Avoth. Tractate Avoth contains the Korban rule. They thought this was passed down from Moses outside of scripture, an extra-biblical inspired tradition. Who else says that? That was exactly Rome's idea. Jesus points out, you guys have nullified the commandment, honor your father and mother by this Korban rule, by saying, whatever I would have given to you is a gift to God. And I gave some money to the temple, I don't need to take care of my parents anymore. Thus you have made void the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition. And I've asked people before, isn't it obvious to you that the Korban rule denies the fifth commandment? Isn't that obvious that it does? Oh yeah, of course it is. But you see, the Pharisees did not believe in Sola Scriptura. So when Jesus pointed out the painfully obvious to them, did they say, huh, you know, Jesus, you're right. Wow. Yeah, that Corban rule, that does negate the fifth commandment, doesn't it? Man, we got to get our act together. They didn't care. They didn't care that it violated that commandment. It's the same with so many other things. You think about, you know, my dialogues. Back when Hank Hanegraaff, you know, went to Constantinople to Orthodoxy, I did a bunch of videos and oh my, the apologists of Orthodoxy came out of the woodwork and were just throwing acid at me and just coming after me with with fangs dripping. And we talked about idolatry, and I showed some videos of, here's a patriarch from the Orthodox religion venerating a cross, and it's the most vile, clear idolatry that I've ever seen. I mean, if you're getting down on your knees and genuflecting in front of a wooden cross and kissing it, and doing all these rituals and waving incense and praying and kneeling and genuflecting and kissing it and everything, if that's not idolatry, then what is idolatry? What is idolatry? And I pointed out to them the same thing Jesus pointed out to the Pharisees. If you don't believe in Sola Scriptura, yeah, you'll believe that something that plainly and obviously denies one of the commandments really doesn't. The Corban rule denies the fifth commandment to honor your father and mother. Clearly it does, but they didn't see it because they don't believe in Sola Scriptura. The second commandment, you shall not make for yourself any graven image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them. He said, you guys make statues and pictures of things in heaven, earth, and under the earth, and you bow down to them. You're violating that commandment. No, we're not. Well, why do you think you're not? Because our church says we're not. Our religious organization says it's not. Same exact thing with the Pharisees and the Korban rule. The Korban rule denies the fifth commandment. Clearly it does. But they didn't believe in Sola Scriptura, so they didn't care. You can have it staring you right in the face, and they don't care. Because once you're loose from Sola Scriptura, you'll believe anything. You can't do exegesis anymore. Okay. Uh-huh. I read that scripture to a Roman Catholic and said the same thing. Works are possible because of regeneration, but that's not a mechanism of salvation. That's right. We really can do good works. We can do good works. And by those good works, we manifest our thankfulness to God. We adorn the gospel of Christ and we strengthen our profession of faith and things like that. It's saved by the grace of God after everything you can do. Isn't that a quotation from the Book of Mormon? We're saved by grace after all we can do or something like that. That's not worship, it's veneration. Yeah, right, right. And when they stoned people to death, they said, we're not really stoning you, we're just practicing calculus. Yeah, I had a Roman Catholic apologist tell me I'm outside the church because I'm not Roman Catholic. Hmm. Which church? The old Catholic church? The Novus Ordo Catholic church? Ignaz von Dallinger's group that split away after papal infallibility was defined as a dogma. You know, Ignaz von Dallinger taught church history at four Roman Catholic schools for 47 years. And when they defined papal infallibility, he left. He laughed. He said, that's so plainly and obviously not true. Not only have popes been accused of heresy, they have been named and condemned as heretics by ecumenical councils. That doesn't affect infallibility because you've got to fill out this special form before you're officially teaching from the chair or ex cathedra or whatever. Okay. Yeah, yeah, Mormonism, federal vision. I know people get so offended by that, but they really are. They're all just versions of the same old thing. Trying to mix works with grace, trying to smudge works into your definition of faith, which that doesn't work either. The essence of faith is assent to the truth of the gospel, receiving and resting upon Christ alone for your salvation. That's what faith is. It is not working for anything, okay? The obedience that we render to God is not of the essence of faith. It's not of the essence of faith. Okay. And let's go on here a little bit further. Oh, there's one other. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Here we go. This little section here is important. Let's see, what's this other? Yeah, listen to Luther. Note, whether Paul does not assert more vehemently that faith alone justifies than I do, although he does not use the word alone, which I have used. For he who says, works do not justify, but faith justifies, certainly affirms more strongly that faith justifies than does he who says faith alone justifies. Since the apostle does not ascribe anything to works, he without doubt ascribes all to faith alone. John Calvin too, while acknowledging that Manas, the Greek word for alone, does not appear in Paul's exposition of justification, urges that the thought is nonetheless there. Now the reader, here's Calvin, now the reader sees how fairly the sophists today cobble against our doctrine when we say that man is justified by faith alone. They dare not deny that man is justified by faith because it recurs so often in scripture. But since the word alone is nowhere expressed, they do not allow this addition to be made. Is it so? But what will they reply to these words of Paul where he contends that righteousness cannot be a faith unless it is free? How will a free gift agree with works? Okay, think about that in light of the illustration of my mom's wanting to make that meal with my father and all his friends, a gift of her to my dad. If they had paid for it, was it her gift to him then? How will a free gift agree with works? Does not he who takes everything from works firmly enough ascribe everything to faith alone? What, I pray, do these expressions mean? His righteousness has been manifested apart from the law, and man is freely justified, and apart from the works of the law." End quote. Says Raymond, since Paul never represents faith as a good work, indeed, since Paul always sets faith off over against works as the receiving and resting upon what God has done for us in Christ and freely offers to us, then it is by faith alone that sinners are justified. That is to say, it is by the blood and righteousness of Christ alone that we get into heaven. So that's what we're talking about. Okay. Alrighty, is it wrong? I lol at a special form I'm missing. I'm not tracking with all the stuff you guys are doing over here Okay, it's like if my wife bought herself a gift from me for herself good. That's good. Good turn of a phrase Yeah, I went out and bought myself a giant bag of coffee. I went out and bought it for myself and But it's from my wife It doesn't make any sense Doesn't make any sense. So salvation from the wrath of God, justification before God, getting into heaven, it's a free gift. And if it's a free gift, it's not by works unless anyone should boast. If it's by grace, it's not by works. And we're justified freely as a gift by his grace and therefore justifications by faith, not by works, not by works so that it can be by grace. God's promise to Abraham is a faith in order that it may be according to grace. Okay, listen to Robert Raymond, he says, Paul is explicit that if salvation is to be affected by God's grace, it can only be by faith. Whose nature as a psychic act looks away from the native human resources of the one believing, looks away from the native human resources of the one believing to the Savior's work of satisfaction. Romans 11, 6. And if a saved Jewish remnant is by grace, it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. Okay, and then Paul in that threat in Galatians 5, you who are justified by the law, which is the diametrical opposite of being justified by faith, from grace you have fallen. I recall on one occasion hearing a well-known preacher say, I don't know why salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ. God just declared that it is the way it's going to be. And we have to accept it because God said it. I was shocked because this preacher should have known why salvation is by faith. He should have known because Paul told him. Salvation is by faith, apart from works, in order that it may be according to grace. If God were to permit the intrusion of human works into the acquisition of salvation to any degree, salvation could not be by grace alone. Salvation by grace and salvation by works are mutually and totally exclusive. In sum, because salvation is by grace, it must be by faith in Jesus Christ, the nature of which faith is to turn totally away from one's own works to the work of another in one's behalf, end quote. And whoever's listening, that's why it is absurd to say that, well, faith is living faith. Yeah, and that's true, it is. It really looks to Christ alone and is divinely given. Living faith doesn't mean it's essence is works. Because the person that is justified before God is the one who is not working, er God zomino, not working, me er God zomino, to the one not working. but rather believing that person's faith, their trust in Christ is accounted to them for righteousness. It's extremely important. We call people to rest upon the finished work of Christ and any doctrine of faith that tries to smudge our works or our obedience or whatever into the very essence of faith has yet another way of recreating the Galatian heresy. So, okay, let me just make sure. Anything else over here? All right. Yeah, papal infallibility. You said it was okay if they used a special, a special form. Yeah, they look, you look back and see the problem is papal infallibility is such an anachronistic concept. It didn't exist in the early church. They wouldn't have had a category for that. So for them to try to look back in history and say, well, do any of these cases where Popes were, you know, like Honorius, who was condemned as a monothelite heretic by ecumenical councils 6, 7, and 8, anathema to the heretic Honorius. Does that count as a violation of papal infallibility? Well, no, because he didn't fill out the special papal infallibility forms that he was actually going to teach something on faith and morals and bind the church to it or whatever. When you're dealing with concepts that have no bearing in history or scripture, you can get pretty creative in how you try to defend them. Okay. Um, Lana and Billy F. Unfortunately, if this ideology has come into one's church, we are not scholars. How do we combat this? What, what ideology is that? What are we talking about here? It seems like Douglas and Foster and these guys, Durbin, et cetera, using the culture today to spread their doctrine. And that's why it is popular. Now James White is sucked in. Sadly though, they missed the gospel. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, Yeah, that's a real shame that some of those alliances and associations are happening. It's very surprising to me. Very surprising, but I keep training myself, stop being surprised by what scripture tells you is going to happen. Like where you have collapses on orthodoxy and guys that apparently care more about their friendships than they care about the glory of Christ or care about family more than they care about faithfulness to the truth or whatever. So for my part, I hope that God strikes me dead before he would ever tolerate me selling out the true gospel in the name of alliances or friends or popularity or anything like that. Okay. Love y'all. Thanks for being here and I appreciate y'all. Thank y'all for watching or for listening. This is Pastor Patrick Hines of Bridwell Heights Presbyterian Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. You can visit us on the web at bridwellheightschurch.com, where all the sermons and podcasts are put into our sermon audio feed, which is accessible in iTunes as well as the podcast app. You are welcome to join us any Sunday morning for Sunday school for all ages at 10 a.m. and then worship for everyone at 11 a.m. If you ever have any questions about the Christian faith or the Bible, you can email me at pastor at riddleheightschurch.org. May the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.