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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Only Faith, Part II; Obedience |
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Ephesians
2:8-9 Whitsunday May
31, 2009 Grace is God taking the initiative in our salvation. There are two parts to grace. First God deals with His man problem. Second, He deals with our God problem. God’s man problem is that we are criminals against His holy and good laws. Just as a criminal against human laws owes a “debt” to society, criminals against God’s Laws owe a “debt” to Him, and that debt is too horrible to even think about. Our crimes against God are called “sins” and God Himself paid our sin debt by bearing our sins in Himself and dying for them on the cross. Thus, He is able to pardon us, forgive our sins, and remember them no more. Our God problem is simply that we want to be our own gods. We want to do and think and feel what we want, even if God says it is wrong. This is the heart of all sin, and it is the heart of our problem with God. God deals with it by changing us in the very essence of our being. He causes us to begin to see the evil of sin, and to desire holiness and righteousness in our souls. He causes us to want God to be our God. Too much “preaching” and “evangelism” today talks only about fixing God’s man problem and ignores man’s God problem. It talks only about the forgiveness of our sins and ignores the transformation of our being that causes us to seek God and His righteousness as the priority of life. Faith is our response to the grace of God. Faith is the way we accept God’s gift of grace. As in grace, there are two parts of faith. First, there is the simple act of believing God. Notice I did not say faith is simply “believing in God.” There are many who believe in God, yet are devoid of faith. Faith is believing God. In other words, faith is simply trusting God. It is trusting in Him to do all that is necessary to forgive our sins and make us acceptable to Him. Faith trusts God to remove His problem with us, and to remove our problem with Him. But it is also to believe His Word as it is given in Scripture. Faith is to take God at His word in all things. This is what I mean by believing God. Abraham is the great biblical example, for the Bible says “Abraham believed God.” But the publican in Luke 18 is a wonderful example of this also, for he prayed the simple prayer, “Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner” and trusted God to do it. The second part of faith could be called, “faithfulness” or fidelity. James tells us faith without works is dead, meaning that if your belief in God does not move you to seek Him and obey Him, you have no real “faith” at all. Jesus Himself said that if we love Him we will keep His commandments. Let me give an example of what I am talking about. Does anyone here like dogs? Suppose a person tells you he loves dogs so much he had to build a kennel to house all of his pets, and he invites you to see them. You accept the invitation, and, arriving at his house, accompany him to his “kennel.” There you see diseased and malnourished dogs living in mud and filth, tied to stakes in an open field, without food, without water, and without shelter. What would you think about that man’s “love” of dogs? You might even seek legal action against him on grounds of neglect and cruelty. What are we to think, then, when a person professes to love God, but does not seek Him in prayer and worship, does not seek Him in the Scriptures, and gives very little effort or time to living like a Christian? Is He not neglecting God as surely as the other man neglected his dogs? Is he not showing that he does not love, but rather hates God? The truth is, there can be no faith without a corresponding godliness of life. Those who say they are Christ’s but whose lives are worldly and self-centered, who avoid church, or are part of a “church” that has seriously compromised the Bible, who make no use of the means of grace, who do not hunger for the Bible, who do not seek the fellowship of God’s people, or are unwilling to say “no” to sin in order to say “yes” to God, are simply deceiving themselves if they think they have faith in any form that pleases God. Allow me to state this as clearly and plainly as I know how to do, and please hear me, knowing that I speak only out of a sense of the calling of God and love for you, as one who must give an account of myself to God for the things I preach and the way I shepherd the Flock of God; there is no salvation without faith, and there is no faith without godliness. Godliness does not mean perfection. Godliness does not mean you never sin, or never battle with temptation. In fact, the godly person will battle temptation far more than the ungodly person, because the ungodly person doesn’t fight very hard. The ungodly person gives in. In fact, he embraces sin. He tries to convince himself and others that it isn’t sin. His logic says, “I want it, so it must be right.” The godly person fights against it. But, let’s be honest, we are miserable failures in our battle against temptation. Or, as the service of “Morning Prayer” puts it, we are “miserable offenders.” So I am not talking about godliness as the absence of sin. I am not saying godliness is the achievement of sinless perfection. I am talking about godliness as an orientation of life that places God on the Throne of your being and results in a visibly holy life. The Apostle Paul states this eloquently, saying, “For me to live is Christ.” Let us pray. Almighty God, grant to each one of us that faith which trusts in You alone to forgive our sins and transform our souls. We confess that we have sinned and cannot atone for our wrong doings. We confess that we are sinners and cannot change our essence. But You can. And so, we fly to The One who alone can do these things for us. Hear our prayer, o most merciful Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ who died to do this for us. Amen, The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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