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All right, well, if you have 
your confession, we are in chapter 14 of Saving Faith. Chapter 14, so I will read the 
entire chapter, and then we'll look at the paragraphs in detail. 
So chapter 14 of Saving Faith. The grace of faith, whereby the 
elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, 
is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is 
ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word, by which also, and 
by the administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper, prayer, 
and other means appointed of God, it is increased and strengthened. By this faith, a Christian believeth 
to be true whatsoever is revealed in the word for the authority 
of God himself, and also apprehendeth an excellency therein above all 
other writings and all things in the world, as it bears forth 
the glory of God in his attributes, the excellency of Christ in his 
nature and offices, and the power and fullness of the Holy Spirit 
in his workings and operations, and so is enabled to cast his 
soul upon the truth thus believed. and also acteth differently upon 
that which each particular passage thereof containeth, yielding 
obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing 
the promises of God for this life and that which is to come. 
But the principal acts of saving faith have immediate relation 
to Christ, accepting, receiving, and resting upon him alone for 
justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of 
the covenant of grace. This faith, although it be different 
in degrees and may be weak or strong, yet it is in the least 
degree of it different in the kind or nature of it, as is all 
other saving grace from the faith and common grace of temporary 
believers. And therefore, though it may be many times assailed 
and weakened, yet it gets the victory, growing up in many to 
the attainment of a full assurance through Christ, who is both the 
author and finisher of our faith. So the subject of saving faith, 
of faith, it is of utmost importance. The Lord Jesus said in Mark 16, 
16, he who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does 
not believe will be condemned. So we see how important it is. saving to faith, the importance 
of faith and understanding what it is. It's the difference between 
life and death according to our Lord Jesus. So, but thankfully, 
saving faith is quite simple. So just because it's so important, 
it doesn't mean it needs to be confusing. So that's the one 
thing that I think we should appreciate as we go through this, 
that it is not something confusing. I think we've... much ink has been spilled, to 
use the old cliche, on what is faith, and sometimes it can lead 
to more confusion than it can to actually just clarifying what 
it is. So I hope that by means of this, 
I don't confuse it more as well, that my goal is to just is to 
show from the scripture and from the confession what is true saving 
faith. So the title here says, Saving 
Faith. So with that qualifier of saving, 
that would imply then that there may be a kind of faith, or at 
least a profession of faith, that is not saving. I think those 
of us familiar with the Reformed traditions, often there's a classifying 
of faith that takes place there, and we need to be very careful 
when we want to start classifying categories of faith. There's 
definitely a danger in there. Sometimes we hear of historical 
faith, or miraculous faith, or temporary faith, These things 
are things that we need to be careful of trying to classify 
faith into these things because true faith includes what would 
be classified as historical and what would be classified as miraculous 
faith, etc. So these are necessary elements 
of true saving faith. I think it's best to just, to 
make the distinction, just, you know, true faith versus false 
faith or no faith at all. So, you know, we do see in the 
Bible instances of people believing in Jesus. It says, uses that 
word, but it was more of an excitement of following after him. You know, 
obviously the miracles played a big part in that. But wow, 
this man is doing these miracles. Let's follow, let's watch. But 
there's not the element of, true faith in that, the element which 
is directly related to our salvation and our standing before God. 
So that's the main difference, and we'll look at that as we 
go through there. So paragraph one then refers 
to the source of true faith. Paragraph two is the essence 
of true faith. And then paragraph three is the distinctiveness 
of true faith. So first then on the source of 
our faith. So the confession asserts here 
that faith is a grace, a grace of God, meaning it's a gift of 
God, that it is a gift in association with our salvation. Ephesians 
2 verse 8 is probably the most clear and the most common verse 
on that. So why is faith a gift? The next verse, then verse 10, 
gives us the answer. For we are his workmanship, created 
in Christ Jesus. So our salvation is all work 
of God. We, as the people of God, are 
the workmanship of the Father in salvation. So therefore, faith, 
because of that aspect, because God is, because salvation is 
monergistic, we call that one working, one God moving, therefore 
faith must be a gift of God. So even the faith, we talked 
about it, when we look back at chapter 10 of the effectual calling 
in the Ordo Salutis, the effectual calling, we saw there how that 
faith is an act of our will. We're not forced, our will is 
not violated, it's still an act of the will, but it ultimately 
is because of the work of the Spirit, which we'll see here 
as we go through this. So, actually, we can look at 
chapter 10 for a minute. In paragraph 1, halfway through, 
or three-quarters of the way through, it says that this is 
because of a renewing of their wills by His almighty power, 
determining them to that which is good and effectually drawing 
them to Jesus Christ, yet so as they come most freely, being 
made willing by His grace." So again, that's probably one of 
the most important things that we can grasp in Reformed theology 
is the sovereignty of God, but doing so without violating 
the will of the creature. That's probably Again, one of 
the most important concepts in chapter 3 of the Confession, 
paragraph 1, it says that God has decreed in Himself from all 
eternity, all things whatsoever comes to pass, But then moving 
on, it says, so God is neither the author of sin, nor hath fellowship 
with any therein, but then this part, nor is violence offered 
to the will of the creature, meaning God does not violate 
the will of the creature, nor yet is the liberty or contingency 
of second causes taken away, but rather established. So that 
without violating the will of the creature, that is of utmost 
importance to understand that. So if we, And again, the confession 
here in paragraph 1, now back to chapter 14, it emphasizes 
that again. It says, whereby the elect are 
unable to believe to the saving of their souls. So prior to salvation, 
they were against God, unwilling to believe in Him. But then, 
and we saw that when we looked in the free will, chapter nine, 
I believe, of free will, we see that prior to salvation, our 
nature is against God, so we will not choose for God. So we 
have that aspect, but we also, not only will he not choose for 
God, but he doesn't, natural man does not understand the truths 
of the gospel, the truths that are necessary to understand and 
believe for salvation. First Corinthians, 2 verse 14, 
but the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit 
of God for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them 
because they are spiritually discerned. And then we want to 
turn to 2 Corinthians now, chapter 4. We see the same emphasis there 
in verses 3 through 6. But even if our gospel is veiled, 
it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God 
of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light 
of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, 
should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, 
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for 
Jesus' sake. For it is God who commanded light 
to shine out of darkness, So the God who said, let there be 
light, that God who has shone in our hearts to give the light 
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ 
Jesus. So we see there that by nature we hate God, we reject 
the things of God that ought to be believed, and we reject 
them because we just think it's just utter foolishness. That 
is our nature. So there needs to be obviously 
a change whereby we are enabled to believe. And that is what 
the Confession says next year. It's the work of the Spirit of 
Christ in their hearts. And again, that was fleshed out 
in detail in Chapter 10 when we looked at that, and that is 
the regeneration, the new nature that the Spirit creates in the 
heart of man. which enables him to believe. So again, understanding 
this is crucial to our Reformed faith. A failure to do so, if 
we don't understand how this can work together in harmony, 
the sovereignty of God and man yet exercising his will, either 
it's going to result in Arminianism, which we see that's an emphasis 
on that faith is an act of the will. So then we'll say, well, 
then he has to have absolute free will if he's going to enact 
this faith. And we do so to the sacrificing 
the sovereignty of God. Or we have the other side of 
the spectrum, which is Hyper-Calvinism. Then we say, well, God is sovereign. 
and faith is a gift, and then, therefore, we sacrifice the responsibility 
of man and the fact that man is enacting his will when it 
comes to faith, therefore, you know, and then we, I think a 
lot of us are familiar with that, this idea of, well, then we need 
to just sit and wait until we get saved, you know, if God is 
going to be sovereign. So it's an inability to reconcile 
those two truths that the Bible teaches. So when we understand 
those things, proper understanding of that, that God is sovereign, 
yes he is, but God does not violate or manipulate or coerce the will 
of man, but rather he changes the nature of man. He doesn't 
change his will, doesn't manipulate his will, but he changes his 
nature. So then therefore man can choose for God. He's enabled 
to choose for God, or enabled to believe, as the Confession 
says there. So we can properly say, then, faith is an act of 
the will of man, but we can also properly say, then, without contradiction, 
that it is a gift of God, given and worked in the heart by the 
Holy Spirit. So, and then the means that the 
Holy Spirit uses to bring about this faith in our hearts. Now, 
obviously there is the supernatural element of this, but that's far 
beyond our comprehension. What's going on and how is he 
changing our nature on the supernatural level? That is what Jesus said 
to Nicodemus. In light of this regenerating 
power of the Spirit, what's going on there? Jesus said, the wind 
blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you 
cannot tell from whence it comes and where it goes. So is everyone 
who is born of the Spirit. That's John 3, verse 8. So again, 
that's something we can't comprehend. We just know that it is reality. 
So the means that the spirit uses then in regarding to the 
will of man in coming to faith is what the confession says here, 
that it's ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the word. So Romans 10 verse 14 and verse 
17 very clearly say that, emphasize this. How then shall they call 
on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they 
believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they 
hear without a preacher? And then verse 17 says, so then 
faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Ephesians 
1.13 also, in him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, 
the gospel of your salvation. So it's the ministry of the word 
that the Holy Spirit uses in bringing sinners into faith and 
into union with him, union with Christ. through the ministry 
of the Word. So now why is it the ministry 
of the Word? Why is it not just... doing this 
immediately without the use of something. It's because the word, 
the word being the gospel, not necessarily just not limited 
to the scripture, but the contents therein, the word of God, it 
contains the truths that we are to believe in faith. And I think it's, again, it's 
so important to understand that faith is built on knowledge, 
that the Christian, The Christian faith is not a blind leap of 
faith into the darkness and hope somebody catches us at the bottom. It is built upon knowledge. And there's a departure in today's 
professing church from that reality that they've separated. It's almost contradictory. Now, the world tries to to say 
that. They say you can either believe 
in science and in truths, or you can believe in religion. 
It's one or the other. Religion has become very mystical, 
and so therefore that has crept into the church. So we have In 
our post-modern age, we have this despair of absolute truth 
in the sense that when post-enlightenment, when we remove God and all things 
supernatural out of the picture, well then there becomes no grounds 
for absolute truth. because God is the only ground 
of absolute truth. So when we remove God from the 
picture, we have no ground of absolute truth. So then therefore, 
truth just becomes very, very subjective. It becomes subjective 
to your own experiences. And unfortunately, again, that 
is filtered into the church today where salvation and the whole 
Christian faith is based on our experiences and just very, very, 
very subjective. So it's important to understand 
that the Bible contains the truths that we are to understand. So 
the Holy Spirit, he opens our hearts, regenerates our hearts, 
and then illuminates our minds to understand the truths of the 
Bible. And those truths become the foundation 
of our faith. So our faith is built on solid 
truths that are contained in the scriptures. This doesn't 
mean, when we speak of this in an order, when we say the Holy 
Spirit regenerates and illuminates, then we have this period of now 
where we study the Bible and we learn all the truths about 
it, and then we can believe. So it's not a chronological order 
here. This is a a logical order. It's important to understand 
that, too. These things happen simultaneously. The spirit regenerates. The moment 
of regeneration is the moment of faith. It's the moment of 
understanding the truths and grasping them. So we just have 
to realize that. We can't necessarily always pinpoint 
these moments in time as they relate to us, but it's important 
to understand that. We don't want to set a you know, 
a timeline for salvation or things like that, where, you know, this 
is first, first, you know, we say, okay, now I'm illuminated, 
and now I can study and understand the truths. And, you know, we, 
that's just, that's not how it works. These things are simultaneous. 
It's a logical order, not a, not chronological order. So, 
and then again, we have the, I just wanna point out here, 
it says it's ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the word. 
So the ministry of the word here, it means the preaching of the 
gospel. You know, Paul says in Romans 
one, that I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power 
of God unto salvation. So that the gospel message, the 
truths of the gospel, or is the power of God. It's the message 
that God uses to bring a person to saving faith because it contains 
the truth whereby what their faith is built upon. So the ordinary 
way that people are saved is under the gospel preaching. It 
doesn't need to be restricted to a church setting with an ordained 
minister preaching the word. That's not what it's saying here. 
It's just saying that generally it's through the truths of the 
gospel being proclaimed, be it you telling your neighbor, being 
on the mission field, or in the church, whatever it may be, but 
it's the Word of God. And ordinary, that means that's 
generally, but it's not to restrict God into that and saying, if 
you think you were saved because you were listening to whatever 
it was, an audiobook, and they were talking about something 
else, and that was the means that God saved you, whatever 
it may be, we don't want to restrict God to a box of only when someone 
was directly teaching you about the claims. the truth claims 
of Jesus Christ. So, now again, I want to make 
sure we understand, you know, our faith is built on that, so 
you need to understand the truth claims of Christ, but the means 
whereby we come to know these things ordinarily through the 
preaching of the gospel, but not strictly limited to that. And then we have the strengthening 
of our faith. So again, important to understand 
here that faith begins small, and it begins on different levels. So we don't have to have this 
full understanding of all the concepts of Scripture in the 
ins and outs before we can believe, but rather we start small. We start trusting in Christ as 
our Savior. We may not know all the ins and 
outs of it, But then our faith is to grow. We are to grow. And then it's also important 
here to understand that faith is not a one-time act. It's not 
something that like, oh, I believed in Jesus, now I'm saved. I believed, I did it once. Oh, 
the gospel, I believed that when I was a kid. My parents prayed 
with me. and I believed it, and I'm saved. It's an ongoing process 
in our lives. It begins small, and then it 
is to increase and to be strengthened. And we are responsible for that. Yes, we need the power of the 
Holy Spirit for that, but yet we do need to exercise the means 
that God has given to grow our faith. 2 Peter 3.18, grow in 
the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, 2 Thessalonians 
1, 3 as well. We are bound to thank God always 
for you, brethren, as is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly. 
So we see them, or we see how faith is growing. So, and then 
again, back to Peter there about the growth 
in grace and knowledge, that's the connection with the growth 
of our faith comes from a growth in knowledge. Jay Gresham Machen, 
he has a little book called What is Faith? Fantastic book. I highly 
recommend that to everyone. It's a very clear treatment on 
faith, and he really deals with the subjective aspect that has 
crept into our churches, that faith has become very mystical. 
So he deals with it. Speaking of faith, it is built 
upon knowledge. So Machen says, the greater the 
amount of knowledge it involves, the better for the soul. But 
even a small amount of knowledge may bring true union with Christ. 
So he's sort of emphasizing two different things there. But the 
first part, the greater amount of knowledge it involves is the 
better for the soul. So again, like I mentioned earlier, 
faith is not to be contrasted with knowledge. They are the 
same things. We don't want to capitulate to 
the world trying to tell us that, that you can have one or the 
other. Faith is not just your experience. 
An experience, there's no objective, and saying that there's no, there's 
no objective truth to faith. You can just, you know, just 
whatever that experience was, you know, that's rubbish, quite 
honestly. So that, you know, the entirety 
of the Christian faith is founded upon the objective truth in the 
Bible. So, and again, that especially 
applies to our faith when it comes to, you know, our faith 
in Christ as our Savior, what the Confession says here, the 
principal acts of saving faith. We'll look at that in a minute. 
understanding who Christ is, the work of Christ, these truths 
that we need to grasp. Machen again, confidence in a 
person is more than intellectual assent to a series of propositions 
about the person, but it always involves those propositions. 
So that's the thing there, it always involves those propositions, 
so we need to understand what we are believing. So the means 
then of strengthening our faith, we have first here the confession 
says, the preaching of the word, so that first line, by which 
also, which is referencing the ministry of the Word. In 1 Peter 
2, verse 2, he says, "...as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of 
the Word, that you may grow thereby." So it's under the faithful preaching 
of the Word of God where we come to learn about the things of 
Christ and to come to learn these truths of the Gospel, the truths 
that we need to understand and internalize, and thereby, the 
more we know, the more our faith is strengthened, the more our 
faith grows. baptism as well is the confession list here as 
a means by which our faith grows. If you look at chapter 29 of 
baptism, Paragraph one here, it says, 
baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament ordained by Jesus 
Christ to be unto the party baptized. So baptism is for the person 
being baptized as a sign of his fellowship or his union with 
Christ in his death and resurrection, of his being engrafted into him, 
of his remission of sins, and of giving up into God through 
Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life. So we see 
that baptism there is for the party baptized as a means of 
strengthening their faith and understanding that when they 
understand what is signified in baptism, that union with Christ, 
that is a very good way to increase our faith. And then the Lord's 
Supper as well. Tonight, we hope to partake of 
the Lord's Supper, and in the sermon there, I wanna look in 
depth at what are we remembering when we come to the table? What 
are we remembering concerning Christ in the supper? And that's ultimately Galatians 
3, 13, that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having 
become a curse for us. So again, understanding these 
truths, our faith is increased. And then prayer as well, that's 
just sort of a given, a time of prayer with the Lord, that 
communion with Him is a means of growing our faith as well. 
And then the Confession says another means appointed by God. So our faith is to grow and increase 
and be strengthened. So that's paragraph one. Now 
paragraph two, we have the essence of faith here. What is saving 
faith? So first then it says here that 
a Christian believes to be true whatsoever is revealed in the 
word for the authority of God himself. So it's believing in 
the truths contained in the word of God. So believing that the 
content of the Bible is true, that it's not a mythical book 
like the world wants to tell us, but in fact it is the very 
word of God. So understanding the truths and 
believing the truths that are in there. But the important thing 
here is that it's saying, you know, for the authority of God 
himself. So you can see it's that change 
of attitude towards the Scriptures. The Confession adds a section 
here after that of what that change of attitude looks like. 
It says, and apprehendeth and excellency therein, above all 
other writings and all things in the world, as it bears forth 
the glory of God and his attributes, the excellency of Christ in his 
nature and offices, and the power and fullness of the Holy Spirit 
in his workings and operation." So it's the illuminating, regenerating 
power of the Holy Spirit that gives us faith and that changes 
our hearts. from hating God to loving God, 
it has direct relation to his word as well. Before, the word 
was stale, it was dead, whether we read it or not, but now we 
have this change of attitude towards the word, and suddenly 
we see the excellency that is in the word, and how it reveals 
the glory of God, the excellency of Christ, the power of the Holy 
Spirit. Then it says, so then having 
our hearts illuminated and understanding these truths of the word of God, 
then the confession says, and so is enabled to cast his soul 
upon the truth thus believed. So now understanding these truths, 
accepting them, realizing them for what they are, and then casting 
our soul on these truths that we believe here. So this is, 
we can see here sort of the three elements that the reformers often 
typically taught, the three parts of faith. I think we need to 
be a little bit careful with that. but what they call the notitia, which 
is the facts, the content, the confession says whatsoever is 
contained or whatsoever is revealed in the word of God, so that's 
the content, and then they have the assensus, meaning the assent 
to that, to those truth claims, the conviction of their truthfulness, 
so that's whereby it says a Christian believeth to be true. And then 
the Reformers had what they called the fiducia, which is that personal 
trust and reliance upon those truths. And then in the Confession 
we see that where it says, "...and is so unable to cast his soul 
upon the truth thus believed." And again, of course, this is 
When it comes to true faith, as we'll see at the end of the 
paragraph here, this is more in relation to the truth concerning 
Christ, that we cast our souls on there. Because if we think 
of whatever story it may be in the Old Testament, I just put 
down Queen Jezebel, she's thrown out of her window by three eunuchs 
to her death. Now, are we casting our soul 
upon that truth? We're not, because that truth, 
the reality of that truth, whether it happened or not, that has 
no relation to our standing before God. Yes, we need to believe 
it to be true, because our attitude towards the scriptures is one 
where we believe the truths that are in the scripture. That's 
part of faith, believing everything that's in the scripture, because 
of that change of attitude towards it, wrought by the Holy Spirit. 
But casting our souls upon that is, That is more in relation 
to the things of Christ. Like I said, the death of Jezebel 
has no relation to our standing before God, but the death of 
Christ has everything to do with our standing before God. Again, 
we'll get there in a minute when we get to the end of this paragraph. 
So, but as I mentioned, we do need to, when we look at that 
threefold distinction of faith, or threefold, not distinction, 
but parts of faith, You know, we do need to be careful with 
that. Oftentimes, the fiducia aspect of it, this personal trust 
and reliance, can tend toward mysticism and, you know, we just, 
or confusion, you know, like, do I really truly believe this? 
Do I not? There's just an aspect of confusion 
there. So we do need to be careful upon that. But again, as Machen 
said in that quote there, that, you know, reliance, confidence 
in a person, now this is in regards to Jesus Christ, it's more than 
intellectual assent to a series of propositions. So there is 
that, there is more to it, you know, not just, you know, that 
we don't just believe that Jesus died, but there's that, you know, 
there's more to it of, you know, personal trust and reliance in 
that. But again, we don't wanna mysticize 
that, and I hope I do explain that more clearly in a minute 
here. And then the confession gives 
us another paragraph here with a change of response by the believer 
to the word of God. So it sort of gives us a change 
of attitude in the first part, and now we have a change of response 
here. And it says, and also acteth differently upon that which each 
particular passage thereof containeth, yielding obedience to the commands, 
trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of 
God for this life and that which is to come. So prior to the work 
of the Holy Spirit, we did the opposite. We rejected and disobeyed 
the commands. We sneered at or we ignored the 
threatenings there. We rejected the promises of God 
for this life and for that which is to come. So part of this working 
of the Holy Spirit in faith is a change of response to the scripture 
as well and the truths contained therein. So, now this, the first 
section of this paragraph then is, it's here to show us that 
true saving faith consists in accepting the Word of God as 
the Word of God. It does not mean that you need 
to understand And you need to know, and you need to fully be 
able to understand every truth contained in the Scripture, every 
truth claim that the Scripture makes, that you need to know, 
that you need to affirm, and you need to understand it. we don't have to worry that you 
might not be saved because you didn't know that two or three 
eunuchs cast Jezebel out of the window to her death. I hope that's 
clear. It's a change of attitude towards 
the Scripture, not a comprehensive knowledge of every truth of the 
Scripture. So that's kind of what we want 
to establish in this first section here, that it's not about knowing 
how many How many Israelites were in the 
tribe of Dan when they left Egypt? That number's in the Bible. When 
we find that number, we need to believe that. We shouldn't 
reject it. We don't need to know that number in order to be saved. 
Our salvation, as the Confession says, the principal acts of saving 
faith have immediate relation to Christ. So that's what I want 
us to understand in that first section. So we'll move on to 
that then. is that the essence proper here of saving faith. This is the most important statement 
in the paragraph. It's what distinguishes, as I 
said at the beginning, true faith and false faith. We don't need 
to, either you have true faith or you don't have faith at all. 
So it is a faith here that has immediate relation to Christ, 
a faith that accepts receives and rests upon him alone for 
justification, sanctification, and eternal life. So it's accepting, 
receiving, resting in Christ for our salvation. And it's that 
simple. And again, Machen here, Machen 
says, certainly at the bottom, which meaning, you know, what 
it boils down to, faith is a very simple thing. It simply means 
that abandoning the vain effort of earning one's way into God's 
presence, we accept the gift of salvation which Christ offers 
so full and free. So it's realizing and acknowledging 
we don't deserve eternal life, we can't earn eternal life, and 
we trust in Christ as the one who does deserve and who has 
earned eternal life and that he's offering it to us. So it is accepting the righteousness 
which God supplies in Christ, which is worthy of eternal life. 
So Christ is the object of saving faith. It's trusting in, it's 
what he has done, Christ and his work. And again, so if we 
want to look at those three parts of faith, the three elements of faith that 
the Reformers did, the notitia, the facts. So it's understanding 
the facts about the life, death, and resurrection, person of Jesus 
Christ, the Son of God. So it's understanding those facts. The essence is believing those 
facts to be true. And again, this is not having 
a full-blown understanding of all the doctrines contained in 
the Scripture and being able to articulate everything concerning 
the person of Christ, the work of Christ, those things. But 
it's a bare trusting in Him that our salvation comes from Him and not from us. 
It's that simple. And then we have the fiducia, 
which basically, again, it goes hand in hand with the first two 
here, that our faith is in the person and work of Jesus Christ. But again, it's more than just, 
yes, I believe that Christ died, that He did it for me, because 
there's an acceptance of that work for us on our behalf. So our faith is in Christ, it's 
receiving His work on our behalf. So that is what faith is, the 
true faith. versus however you want to classify all other faith 
that's out there, it is that my salvation is of Christ, or 
it's of me somehow. So if your salvation is of Christ, 
that's true faith. If you have something of yourself 
in there, that is not true faith. And again, now this is something 
that I wanted to bring out as well. When I was going through 
this, I came across a quote from Robert Shaw on this that I thought 
would speak to a lot of stuff that many of us are familiar 
with. Faith is not wondering, or maybe I should say prior to 
faith, we don't wonder if Christ did it for me. You know, it's 
faith is trusting that He did it, He did it for me. I think 
it's Spurgeon that says, you know, the moment you see, the 
moment you realize Christ is the Savior, trust in Him as your 
Savior. You know, so that's that true 
faith that, you know, so we don't need to wonder, you know, we 
see that Christ is the Savior, but we don't need to wonder if 
it was for me. Was it really my sin on the cross? 
How do I know if it was my sin that He was paying for? No, we 
trust that it was. Robert Shaw here. This faith 
does not proceed upon any previous knowledge which the sinner has 
of his election, nor upon any previous persuasion that Christ 
died intentionally for him more than for others. You can see 
he's sort of dealing with both sides. or the hyper-Calvinism side and 
the Arminian side, sir. So, you know, we don't need to 
have a previous knowledge of our election prior to faith. 
But we also don't need to know on the Arminian side that, you 
know, that Christ died for you and this, you know, telling people 
and having this... that Christ died intentionally 
for him more than for others. But rather it's that Christ died 
and that he offers that to all people, knowing that whoever 
comes will not perish but have everlasting life. Anyways, let 
me finish the quote from Shaw here. This faith does not proceed 
upon any previous knowledge which the sinner has of his election, 
nor upon any previous persuasion that Christ died intentionally 
for him more than for others. For it is impossible to come 
to the knowledge of these things prior to believing. But it proceeds, 
so faith proceeds solely upon the free, unlimited offer and 
promise of the gospel to the chief of sinners. So we come 
because Christ tells us to come. We don't need to wonder, was 
it for me? All those things, we just come. Our warrant of 
faith is Christ himself saying, come unto me. And again, the 
confession just says it best here. It's accepting, receiving, 
and resting on Christ alone for our justification. You know, 
that in order to be just with God, we need our sins paid for 
and a righteousness that fulfills the requirements of the law. 
And Christ supplies both of those things through his work as our 
mediator. So it's trusting Christ for those 
things. And again, now I want to point 
out something else as well in here, is that notice how our 
affections and our emotions are not part are not part of faith. It doesn't mean that faith and 
coming to a knowledge of these truths is not going to produce 
emotions, but our emotions are not of the essence of faith. 
We don't need to, if we're examining ourselves, we don't need to examine 
ourselves for certain emotions. Are we feeling this way? You 
know, that type of thing. We examine ourselves for, am 
I thinking that my salvation is something that I'm offering 
or something that Christ is offering to me? That's the difference. 
So, you know, emotions are not there. And I think, you know, 
John Piper is probably the, you know, he's the low-hanging fruit, 
as Pastor Butler would say, that we can pick on. in that, you 
know, Piper says saving faith is glad dependence, thankful 
trust, fervent admiration, pleased submission, contented resting, 
thrilled treasuring, heartfelt adoration. Well, that's, you 
know, all those feelings that are associated with that, you 
know, that's not part of faith. You know, if we say, well, do 
I have thrilled treasuring? Well, you're just, that's not 
of the essence of faith and we need to keep that away. And again, 
like I said, piper is the low-hanging fruit, but there's others that 
are a lot closer to us that are trying to smuggle in love for 
Christ and these types of feelings into as part of faith. We need 
to be very careful. We don't do that. Faith is Christ-ward, 
trusting in the work of Christ, the person of Christ, and the 
feelings will come from that, and those feelings may grow as 
more as we come to understand these things. We're gonna have 
more of those feelings, but that's not part of, they're not part of 
the essence of faith. Important to keep that distinction. 
And then also, neither is our faithfulness, or part of this, 
either, our obedience to God's law, or however you wanna determine 
faithfulness. There's a, something like New 
Perspective on Paul, for example, they're equating faith with faithfulness. So if we're justified by faith, 
and we have true faith, well that is our best obedience to 
God's law, and our life of obedience to him. You know, that's wrong. Faith is in Christ. It's trusting 
in Christ. It's not our works in any sort 
of way. So it's always important to keep 
that understanding. Then we have trusting in Christ 
for our justification. Obviously, that is what makes us right or not right with 
God. When we trust in Christ, we are 
justified. But then faith goes on and continues 
as it grows, trusting in Christ for our sanctification and our 
eternal life, as the Confession says here. We trust in Christ 
for the removal of the guilt of sin in our justification, 
but then we also trust in Christ for the removal of the reign 
or the power of sin in our lives. So we need to be We need to be 
careful to distinguish these two things. Again, when we trust 
in Christ for our justification, we are saved. We don't need to have come to 
a certain threshold of sanctification before we can have assurance 
that we're saved. It's not that. Trusting in Christ 
for our salvation, we are saved. But then our faith grows, it 
moves on, it continues on, and we trust in Christ for the sanctification 
part wherein our life is conformed to the image of Christ. John 
15 speaks of that very clearly. Jesus saying that I am the vine 
in that discourse there. John chapter 15. Look at verses 
one through five. Jesus says, I am the true vine, 
and my father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does 
not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit 
he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean 
because of the word which I have spoken to you. I think that verse 
is of utmost importance. because that has direct relation 
to our justification. We are already clean because 
of our faith in the Word of Christ and in Him. So we're already 
clean. But abide in me and I in you, 
as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in 
the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, 
you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in 
him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. If anyone 
does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered, 
and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they 
are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you 
will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. By 
this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so 
you will be my disciples." So the understanding there that 
our faith moves on from our justification to our sanctification, trusting 
in Christ, abiding in Christ for our sanctification, for our 
growth in grace and our growth in conformity to his image. So 
then our last paragraph here in Paragraph 3, here the distinctiveness 
of true faith. So this faith, although it be 
different in degrees. So again, that's an important 
to understand, that there's different degrees of faith. There's not 
a certain threshold of faith that needs to be met before it's 
considered true faith. But a small faith, simply just 
trusting in Christ, for salvation, not knowing all the ins and outs 
of all the doctrines, that faith is still a faith that saves. I think Pastor Butler used the 
illustration from the pulpit a couple months ago, I think 
from Alistair Begg, of the story of the thief on the cross. He comes to the gates of heaven, 
so to speak, and the angel says, why are you here? And he says, 
I don't know. Or why should I let you in? I 
don't know. And then he says, well, what do you mean you don't 
know? He says, well, I just don't know. And then the angel says, 
well, can you tell me about the doctrine of justification by 
faith alone? He's like, I've never heard of it. And then kind of 
goes on and at the end he says, well, why are you here? Why should I let you in? And 
then he says, because the man on the middle cross said I could 
come. And that's, you know, a small faith sometimes, that's all it 
is. The man on the middle cross said I could come. Christ said, 
come to me and you will be saved. And a small faith like that sometimes 
is, a small faith like that is a true faith when it's trusting 
in Christ for entrance into heaven. So again, when we talk about 
how faith and knowledge go hand in hand, like I said, it's important 
to understand. There's not a threshold of knowledge that we need to 
attain before our faith can be considered true saving faith. But confession distinguishes 
it from a from a common faith or a temporary faith. And we 
do see that in the Bible, like I mentioned at the beginning 
there. There's John 6, verse 66. From that time, many of his 
disciples went back. Disciples meaning they're just 
people who followed him, not restricted to the 12. Many went 
back and walked with him no more. So there had been this element 
of excitement among these disciples. a curiosity, an attraction, you 
know, but what was missing was that element of true faith, you 
know, why they were trusting in him and accepting of him for 
their salvation. You know, that's the difference. 
It's for your salvation or not. And then, actually, in John 6, 
then the 12 remain with him. And Jesus says to the 12, do 
you also want to go away? But Simon Peter answered him, 
Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal 
life. Also, we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, 
the Son of the living God. And that's the difference right 
there. Knowing and believing that Christ 
has the words of eternal life, that he's the Son of God. the 
Messiah, the Christ, the Savior. So that's the difference there. So like I mentioned at the beginning, 
our wondering is our faith, trying to classify faith. It's just 
unnecessary. Is my faith, is it historical 
faith? Is it just a miraculous faith? No, it's either you believe 
and you're trusting in Christ for your salvation or you're 
not. That is the difference between the two. you know, that trusting 
in Christ for our salvation, for our entrance into heaven, 
our being made right with God, you know, that is the true faith, 
and that faith is what will persevere to the end here, that it says 
here. Yet, you know, yet it gets the 
victory. So it's a faith that is a gift of God. You know, if God gives you that, 
if God gifts you something for your salvation, when we understand, 
you know, that's God working in salvation, He's not gonna 
take that And again, the classic verse on this is Philippians 
1.6. He who has begun a good work in you will complete it 
until the day of Christ. 1 Peter 1.5. Who are kept by 
the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed 
at the last time. So faith may wax and wane as 
well. It says it may be assaulted or 
assailed, sorry, and weakened. So there may not be this continual 
growth from a small faith to a good faith. Not a good faith, 
sorry, that's the wrong word. A larger faith, a stronger faith. 
it may wax and wane, it may come through, be it the attacks of 
the devil, be it our sin, we fall into sin, and the devil's 
logic is, there's no way you can be saved, if you did something 
like that, Our faith may be assaulted and weakened through that, or 
living in unrepentant sin, perhaps. Those are things that will weaken 
our faith, but yet, at the end, it gets the victory, the Confession 
says, meaning it perseveres unto the end, unto eternal life. But then it also says here that 
it grows into assurance in many. So first it gives us the provision 
here that not everyone will have assurance of faith, it says many. 
And there may be those who never in their whole life have an assurance 
that they are saved. But we've seen that there's ways 
to grow in our faith, that we are to grow in our grace and 
knowledge. So we should employ the means 
that the confession gives us here. Particularly if we're struggling 
with assurance, we don't say, well, then just go get baptized 
or go partake of the Lord's table. That's your best method. We need to obviously use common 
sense here and use the other means that God has given, primarily 
the public means of grace and private, of course, in prayer, 
but the preaching of the Word and prayer. So if you're struggling, 
come to church and be under the preaching of the Word and internalize 
these things, and hopefully that is part of the means of our faith 
growing and then growing into that assurance. But again, it's 
important to understand, assurance is not of the essence of faith. 
Faith is not Again, when we understand faith as trusting in Christ for 
our salvation, having that assurance of that, am I really doing this, 
is not part of that faith. It is distinct from that. So 
we don't have to have a measure of assurance in order to have 
true faith. But many do have that assurance, 
and that is, again, as a result of, by God's grace, using the 
means of that faith growing, we can have that. assurance that 
yes we indeed we are we are in Christ and we we will be saved 
you know because of our our faith is is strong based on the understanding 
the promises of God's word So, and just in conclusion then, 
understanding faith is a gift of God because it proceeds from 
the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. So we are reformed, 
we understand that we're Calvinistic, we understand that God is working, 
faith is a gift of God. It comes from the Holy Spirit 
working that change in our hearts. But then we are to examine ourselves. And Paul tells the Corinthians 
to examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. So again, 
what is the test of true faith? Do I have the right emotions 
toward God? Am I thrilled? Whatever the language of Piper 
there, do I have these right emotions? But it's not wondering, 
am I only Is it maybe I've just believed Jesus, you know, the 
historical facts, whatever it may be? No, it's rather, you 
know, do I trust in him for my salvation or not? You know, my 
entrance into heaven, is it based on something I'm providing or 
something that God is providing to us? You know, my works or 
his work? And that's the difference. You 
know, think of that man on the middle cross, you know, or the 
thief on the cross. The man in the middle said, I 
could come. Christ says, come. Because he's because he's done 
it all for us and that is that is our that is the difference 
there You know my work or his work, which one are you trusting 
in so let us let us close in prayer Our Father in heaven, we do thank 
you for this time that we can have here. We thank you that 
your word is so clear, that your word is simple, and that you 
call us to come to you to receive a gift that you offer of the 
righteousness of Christ for our salvation. Lord, I pray that 
you would encourage us by this. I pray that our faith would be 
strengthened. I pray that you would would bless 
us as we as we continue to worship you together with uh with the 
saints here in in church we pray that that the the saints would 
be edified we pray that sinners would be saved and above all 
lord we pray that you would be glorified as we continue to to 
celebrate the the lord's day together with one another here 
we pray this all in christ's name amen All right, anyone have 
any questions or comments on this? Yes. Could you sum up faith 
by just a simple way of just saying that God gives you the 
grace to believe, faith to believe? So it's like a gift. He gives 
you that gift so that you can believe. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And again, we don't want to remove 
it from an act of the will of the Hymn. We still do believe 
in Christ, but yes, it is a gift of God. The Bible very clearly 
says that. It comes from God. The Holy Spirit 
draws which is the work of the spirit 
is doing that, so yes. Is that? Yeah, no, I mean, it's 
been very, very helpful for me with the confession, because 
I struggled a lot with assurance of salvation, and just going 
through these things, even though I've been to five or four, I've 
never gone through stuff like this, so it's been really helpful, 
and really not meaningful. Yeah, and that's the thing, I 
always say the more we can learn, Growing in grace and knowledge, 
you know, the Bible says knowledge is what builds up, builds our 
faith. So learning these things and understanding the workings 
of justification, all these things, that's just a means of building 
up our faith and strengthening it and helping us to understand 
what, you know, Yeah, that's a good cross-reference that covenant theology is found 
from the confession, and that even in a matter like this, it's 
supposed to be from the impact. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah, 
for sure. Next time I, it's not gonna be 
in two weeks now, the next confession study will be three weeks, in 
two weeks we have the word of deed guy coming, but I actually 
do want to go through covenant theology, I know it was back 
in January that Jim did it, But just, there's some aspects, and 
actually, I'm gonna use the whiteboard, do some diagramming. I think 
I did that in Armstrong, it was quite helpful. But yeah, showing 
the relation of faith in there, what is going on in the covenant 
of grace when it comes to faith. So that would be helpful as well.