Our Bible passage, introduction to Sunday 8th November service and hymns are below.
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Our principal verses are:
Gal 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
1Jn 5:9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.
1Jn 5:10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
1Jn 5:11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
1Jn 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
By Faith In Christ Jesus
All the great and precious promises of divine love and everlasting joy given to God’s elect are given ‘in Christ Jesus’. God’s people are blessed ‘with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ’. Outside of Christ God is a consuming fire and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God without a Saviour. If we are Christ’s then all God’s goodness, mercy and the full forgiveness of all our sins is God’s free gift of grace to us. It is our inheritance ‘in him’ in whom we have been chosen ‘before the foundation of the world’ (Ephesians 1:4).
‘I am persuaded’
But how do we know if we are Christ’s? How can we discover if we belong to Him and are ‘in Christ Jesus’? Can an individual truly know if he, or she, is a partaker and heir of God’s blessings in Christ? Yes! It is not a secret. The Apostle John tells in 1 John 4:13. He writes, ‘Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit’. Paul identifies the Holy Ghost as, ‘the spirit of faith’ in 2 Corinthians 4:13. The coming of the Spirit into a sinner’s life is called the new birth. This is the beginning of faith in the life of a child of God by which we know we are Christ’s.
Children by faith
Faith is God’s gift to His children. Our verse tells us, we ‘are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus’. Faith in Christ Jesus is a spiritual grace. It is a work of God the Holy Spirit in the soul of a man or a woman which enables a sinner to hope, trust and believe in the person of Christ and in the doctrines of the Gospel. Faith is believing in the promises of God, especially those promises revealed to men in the person of Jesus Christ and accruing to Christ’s church by merit of His successful work of redemption.
Objective truth
Our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, has revealed Himself as God who forgives sin. He cleanses sinners and gives eternal life to His adopted family in Jesus Christ. Peace with God and an acceptable holiness, courtesy of God’s own righteousness, have been secured for God’s chosen people at the cross; purchased by Christ’s atoning death. Exercising faith upon the death and resurrection of Christ means believing what God has said concerning Christ’s sacrifice. It means trusting what God has done to accomplish His people’s salvation.
Trusting God’s faithfulness
Trusting God is called faith because it first of all gives credit to the truthfulness of the revelation of God. It believes His gospel, receives His word and rests upon His testimony in Scripture. Second, it relies upon God’s faithfulness, upon God Himself, to faithfully fulfil what He has said. This is important. All our hopes, trust and confidence is in God. It is founded upon God’s truth, character, nature and faithfulness. Faith believes God when He says of a sinner, ‘Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom’ (Job 33:24).
The promise of life
Faith trusts the Promiser for the promises. The greater the promise the greater is He who promised. In this world we rightly accept and believe the word and witness of honest men. How much more should we trust the witness of God, who cannot lie but is faithful in all His ways? John writes, ‘this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son … God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life (1 John 5:10-12). If we will not believe this witness we make God a liar!
Saved and kept
God’s gift of faith, given by the spirit of faith, is itself saving faith and keeping faith. Peter tells us of those ‘who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation’ (1 Peter 1:5). It is the faith of Christ, the faith of which Jesus Christ is both ‘author and finisher’. Christ is the source and object of holy, precious faith. The faith of Christ is spiritual faith because it is given by the Spirit, received in the spirit of man, believes spiritual things and obtains spiritual blessings.
Pleasing to God
The writer to the Hebrews tells us ‘that without faith it is impossible to please God’ (11:6). All who truly and sincerely believe in the Lord Jesus Christ do so because God has gifted and enabled faith in our lives. All who believe God’s testimony concerning His son will be saved, all who reject God’s testimony will be lost. Hebrews 10:23 says, ‘Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;).
Amen
Hymn 243
Hoping on the Ground of Eternal Adoption. Gal. 4. 5
J. Stevens 11s
1
Great Father of glory, how rich is thy grace!
What wonderful love is displayed in thy face!
In Jesus thy image with brightness we view,
And hope to be formed to that likeness anew.
2
By favour adopted, thy sons we appear,
And led by thy Spirit, we boldly draw near;
In Jesus belovèd, and washed in his blood,
With hope we adore at the footstool of God.
3
The man who is blessèd with hope in the cross,
Is freed from the bondage of guilt and the curse;
The blood of his Surety by faith he reviews,
While hope in that fountain his spirit renews.
4
The world knows us not; but in this we rejoice,
To God we’re no strangers, but objects of choice.
His love from eternity gave us a home,
Where now we are hoping in safety to come.
5
Arrayed in obedience, all wrought by the Lamb,
By Christ our Jehovah, the ancient I AM;
With boldness we journey, while Christ leads us on,
And hope soon in glory to praise the Three-One.
Hymn 234
Difference and Degrees of Faith. Gal. 3. 25-27
J. Hart 8.6.8.
1
He that believeth Christ the Lord,
Who shed for man his blood,
By giving credence to his word,
Exalts the truth of God;
So far he’s right, but let him know,
Farther than this he yet must go.
2
He that believes on Jesus Christ,
Has a much better faith.
His Prophet now becomes his Priest,
And saves him by his death;
By Christ he finds his sins forgiven,
And Christ has made him heir of heaven.
3
But he that into Christ believes,
What a rich faith has he!
In Christ he moves, and acts, and lives
From self and bondage free;
He has the Father and the Son,
For Christ and he are now but one.
4
Till we attain to this rich faith,
Though safe, we are not sound;
Though we are saved from guilt and wrath,
Perfection is not found.
Lord, make our union closer yet,
And let the marriage be complete.
God gives His people whom He has chosen and saved faith to believe their interest and union in the Lord Jesus Christ. We do not get saved by trusting in Christ. Rather, God givers faith to believe to all those who are chosen in christ, redeemed by Christ and united to Christ. Faith is the means by which these blessings are revealed to us and enjoyed by us. Salvation is of the Lord!