The only thing that God asks of you and me is faith. Faith is more than intellectual assent. It includes that, but it is also personal trust in God. Faith does, however, rest upon knowledge.

Romans 10:17  "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."

The only condition of salvation is faith  -  it is to believe God.  It rests upon one foundation: the integrity of God.

We believe Him.

We take Him at His Word; we believe in God.

Hebrews 11:6   "He who comes to God  must believe that He is,  and that He is a rewarder  of those  who diligently seek Him."

It is the same illustration we have everywhere in the Word of God that "saving faith" is mentioned. It is always used with a preposition, either the preposition eis, "into,"  or  the preposition epi,  which means "upon."

To be saved means to put your trust either "into" or  "upon" Christ.

You can stand next to a  chair from now until judgment day and say, 

"I believe  this chair will hold me up,"

FAITH IS NOT EXERCISED UNTIL YOU SIT IN IT.

TRUST YOUR WHOLE WEIGHT TO IT  -  BELIEVE INTO IT  -  OR BELIEVE UPON IT.

WHEN YOU DO THAT THE CHAIR IS HOLDING YOU UP.

AT THIS MOMENT YOU CAN SAY YOU BELIEVE IN CHRIST.

But how do you believe in Christ?

James 2:19  "You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!"

The demons believe and tremble, but they are not saved.

Is this faith?

And among some Bible-believing folks in our day it has become just sort of a little intellectual assent to something.

Dear reader that is not salvation.

It is not until we come and trust ourselves to Jesus Christ  that we are 100 percent saved.

FAITH ALONE SAVES.

What about repentance?

Don’t we need to repent?

To repent  means "to change your mind."

And all the repentance God asks for is in the word believe.

The New Testament,  salvation is made a matter of believing.

John 3:16  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

Paul and Silas said to that Philippian jailer:

Acts 16:31   "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved."

There are more than a hundred passages in the New Testament that make salvation dependent on believing and  believing alone.

In the Gospel of John and in the Epistle to the Romans, it is faith and faith alone.

Repentance is not there.

"But," somebody says, "isn’t repentance necessary?"

Yes, it is.

But it is included in saving faith.

The apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonian believers,

1 Thessalonians 1:9   "For they themselves shew of us  what manner of entering in  we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols  to serve the living and true God."

When the apostle Paul came to Thessalonica, he found the people worshiping idols.

He even found an idol  to the ‘unknown God.’

These people worshiped  every kind of god  and they were  afraid they would miss one out.

So they put up an idol to an unknown god.

The apostle Paul said to them that he is going to tell them about the unknown God.

AND THAT GOD IS THE LIVING AND TRUE GOD.

Then these people heard about Christ.

They heard that He would save them from sin, and they turned to God.

But when they turned to God, they turned from idols.

And when they turned from idols, that was repentance  -  it means they changed their minds and that is in faith.

You could not turn to Jesus Christ in faith without turning from something.

This is the reason I keep repeating that these people today whose lives have not been changed,  although they say they trust Christ, are deceiving themselves.

The apostle James makes it very clear:

James 2:18  "Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works."

In other words,  "I want to see something,"  James says.

He is not talking to them now about being saved by works. He is saying that  we are  saved by faith, but the faith  which turns to Christ turns from something, so  repentance  is there.  And we need lots more of it today.

Repentance  is not just shedding tears nor  just being sorry.

Repentance means a change of mind.

It means right-about-face and turning to God.

When we turn to God,   we certainly  turn from something.

Believe me, people will know when you have been converted because your manner of life changes.

And if it does not change,  there is something radically wrong.

Repentance is a Word that is primarily in the New Testament, and it is used for believers.

When our Lord wrote to the seven churches of Asia Minor (Revelation, chapters 2 and 3),  He used the word repent frequently.

And that is His message  to every  church in our day:

"Repent." is  His message to every believer:

This is something that we as believers need to do a great deal more of, since repentance is changing our minds and our direction about sin and indifference.

How many of us are really convicted about being cold and indifferent?

Are you satisfied to keep going along in an indifferent way?

Are you satisfied to be a nominal Christian in these difficult days?

Are you satisfied doing nothing for God?

The Lord Jesus says,

"Turn around, and start in the other direction."

His message to the church in Ephesus was  "Remember."

Do you remember when you were converted?

Do you remember what a thrill it was?

Most Gracious Loving Abba Father,  Please restore to me the thrill I once had when I was born-again.  Help me to remember just what it meant to me to be saved for all eternity.  Thank you for keeping me Father  and for leading me and guiding me for all the past years.  Help me to love You more dearly Father  and serve You more fervently.  I ask this prayer in your precious name Lord Jesus.

O Jesus, Thou art standing
Outside the fast-closed door,
In lowly patience waiting
To pass the threshold o'er:
Shame on us, Christian brothers,
His name and sign who bear,
O shame, thrice shame upon us,
To keep Him standing there!

O Jesus, Thou art knocking;
And lo! that hand is scarred,
And thorns Thy brow encircle,
And tears Thy face have marred:
O love that passeth knowledge,
So patiently to wait!
O sin that hath no equal,
So fast to bar the gate!

O Jesus, Thou art pleading
In accents meek and low,
"I died for you, My children,
And will ye treat Me so?"
O Lord, with shame and sorrow
We open now the door;
Dear Saviour, enter, enter,
And leave us nevermore!

May I say,   there needs to be repentance  for the sinner,

but there is repentance for the believer also.

The believer needs to do a great deal of repenting.

We need to see more tears in church than we are seeing today.

We  need to see more of these cold hearts of believers stirred and  sorry and  turning to God with a full purpose  of  a  new obedience to Him.

Oh how we need to repent!

John 3:36   "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

The Lord Jesus says,

"He who believes in the Son has" -  what kind of life?

Everlasting life.

There is actually no difference between salvation and the security of the believer, because the only kind of salvation God is offering and has ever offered is an eternal salvation.

Look at the great high priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus when He is  praying to His Father:

John 17:2   "As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh,  that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him."

Listen to what He says in this prayer.  Because  He knew that you and I would be considering it, He gave an explanation of eternal life:

John 17:3   "And this is life eternal,  that they might know Thee the only true God,  and Jesus Christ,  whom Thou hast sent."

What kind of life is it?

Eternal.   This is eternal life.  Life in Himself.

The true believer is  secure in Christ Jesus.

It may have other aspects,  but we do know  that there is one thing  that is true:

God is only giving eternal life to those who are saved.

I  recognize that there are objections,  but I do believe  that those who are truly born-again can never ever be unborn-again.

When the Lord Jesus answered the religious rulers, His enemies.

They had challenged Him when they said,

"If You are the Christ,  tell us plainly."

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish."

If they ever perished,  our Lord would be wrong.

John 10:28–30   "Neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.  My Father,  who has given them to Me,  is greater than all;  and no one  is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.  I  and My Father are one."

The Lord Jesus  Christ says,

"No created thing can take them out of My hand, no created thing can take them out of My Father’s hand."

These are the two hands of Deity.

No one can ever get to the sheep  that  are  in  those hands.

"I give them eternal life and they shall never perish."

Nothing can snatch them out of My hand.

That is a tremendous statement,  it is an audacious statement!

PRAYERFULLY MEDITATE ON: 

This poor father felt like the disciples did when our Lord Jesus asked them if they were going to leave Him as others had, and they said,

"To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life" (John 6:68).

But this father was shaken when he first came, and he had a right to be shaken. He said, "Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit…. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not."

He came with high hopes and a  great expectancy, he thought something would be done for his boy,  but nothing was done.

The Lord Jesus had just come down from the mountain and the father had come directly to Him.

Listen to what the Lord Jesus says,

"Bring him to Me."

And the father brought his son to the Lord Jesus.

Then the Lord Jesus asked him,

"How long has this been happening to him?"

And the father said,

"Often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him."

Listen to this dad’s heart cry,

"But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us."

That father had suffered with his son.

What touched that boy touched him.

His life was wrapped up in that boy.

He was pleading for help.  "Help us!"

And that poor father needed help too,  as we shall see.

Notice that he said,  "If You can do anything" -  now don’t blame him for saying that. After all, the disciples of Jesus had failed.  He had been disappointed.  And after all,  he had heard the scribes ridiculing Jesus  and  criticizing Him.  Criticism will dilute the work of the Spirit.  So he was not sure.

"I came here and I thought I would get help.  If You can do anything - even just a little - have compassion on us  and  help us!"

Notice the answer of the Lord Jesus:

Mark 9:23  "Jesus said unto him,  If  thou canst believe,  all things are possible to him that believeth."

This to me is one of the most wonderful verses in the Scriptures.

Jesus said to him,  "If you can believe"  -  but the word  believe  does not appear in our better manuscripts.

It was put there by the translators to smooth it out.

It does smooth it out,  no question,  but it makes us miss the point.

The answer of Jesus should read:

"If you can, all things are possible to him who believes."

In order to try to get a correct translation of this verse,  I suppose we have to examine  fifteen translations.

When I checked the Revised Standard Version, thinking that here was their opportunity to really show their scholarship,  there was none.

This is a difficult passage of Scripture  so we must have somebody to interpret,  we need the Holy Spirit to open our eyes.

The Lord Jesus said,  and it is  most wonderful  "if you can  -  all things are possible  to you who believes."

Our Lord, seizing on this father’s cry for help, said in substance,

"The thing that interests Me is you. If you can, I can."

And if you want to smooth it all the way out,

Dr. M. R. Vincent gives this,

"If thou canst, all things can be"  -  if you can.

Do you see dear reader, our Lord is limited by the father’s lack of faith. That’s the only thing in the world that can limit God  -  lack of faith.

And the interesting thing is that the father had caught the point.

Oh, this father understood what our Lord was saying, and "immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.’"

The boy is demon possessed and the father doesn’t have faith.

"If you can."  The  "if" belongs to you,  brother; if you can believe,  the child can be healed.

This father knew he was weak, and he knew that he was as sick as his boy was.

The Lord Jesus had to bring him to belief in Christ.

Jesus is saying, "The if is not with Me; the if is with you.  If you can believe, I can heal your son."

And the father said,

"I believe You" - then he looked at that poor, helpless, incurable boy and cried, "Help Thou mine unbelief."

And, my friend, the minute that father was cured, the son was cured.

Isn’t that wonderful?

The minute the father came into faith in Christ, his boy was cured.

You see,  the Bible does not say that we have juvenile delinquency.

The trouble is with the parent.

Jesus met the need of that father,  and the father believed;  when he did, the boy was healed.

Someone has said, "Train up a child in the way he should go  -  and go that way yourself!"

The father did this.  He came in faith to Christ.

There are some times when the fate of the child lies in the faith of the father.  …"Lord,  I   believe;   help   Thou mine unbelief!"

Ephesians 3:1-2   "For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward."

THE DISPENSATION  -  ECONOMY  -  OF THE GRACE OF GOD  WHICH IS GIVEN  TO  US.

Paul speaks of his present condition as a prisoner.

He became a prisoner because he took the gospel to the Gentiles.

The Gentiles are accorded new  privileges,  which he has enumerated in the preceding chapter.

Those who were afar off,  strangers, without hope, and without God,  are now brought in  through Christ.

Because of all that,  Paul is going to pray for them.

But before he gets to his prayer,  he digresses to speak of the mystery.

Then he picks up his thought again in verse 14.

"For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles…. bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Everything between verses 1 and 14 is a parenthesis,  a digression.

Before he comes to his prayer,  he is going to talk about the mystery.

"If so be"  marks the beginning of the parenthesis.

It is on the supposition that "ye have heard of the economy  (or dispensation)  of the grace of God  which is given me to you."

Paul is speaking of the divine plan  and arrangement  by which God had called and sent him to the Gentiles.

As compared to the other apostles,  Paul’s ministry was different and special.

Galatians 2:7   "But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter."

The message was not different,  but the ones to whom the message was to be given were different people in a different category.

Paul went to the Gentiles and told them,

"You have been afar off, and now you can be brought in through Christ."

 Peter went to his own people (Israel) and said,

 Acts 4:12 "… there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

The apostle Paul said to the gentile, Philippian jailor,

Acts 16:31 "… Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."

Both Peter and Paul had the same message, although it was to two different groups of people.

THERE WAS NOW A BRAND NEW THING TAKING PLACE.

IT WAS A DIFFERENT ECONOMY OR  DISPENSATION FROM WHAT THEY HAD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

When Paul had been a Pharisee and lived by the Law,  he never went out to preach to the Gentiles  - he was under a different economy.

Now Paul was under a new economy, and he was a missionary to the Gentiles.

This does not mean that God’s method of salvation had changed.

No man was saved by keeping the Law, but  by bringing a bloody sacrifice  when he saw  that he had come short of the glory of God.

That sacrifice pointed to Christ.

Ephesians 3:3–4   "How that by revelation  He made known unto me  the mystery; (as I wrote afore in a few words,  Whereby, when ye read,  ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ."

Paul said the mystery had been made known to him,  he was the only one who knew it.  However,  in verse 5  Paul makes it clear that all the apostles knew it.

That "revelation" began with Paul’s conversion when Christ informed him that when he persecuted the church he was actually persecuting Him.

The church is the body of Christ.

Paul learned that God was doing something new.

A church had come into existence on the Day of Pentecost.

"The mystery,"  the divine secret,  was something  not revealed in the Old Testament and therefore unknown to man.

It was  revealed in the New Testament.

And we today are "stewards of the mysteries of God."

We are to give out the message.

The gospel is not something to be kept in  secret;  it is the good news that is to be shouted from the housetops.

Paul uses the word mystery earlier in this epistle.

He explains what the mystery is.

The mystery is that Christ is risen and is the Head of a new body made up of Jews and Gentiles and of all tribes and peoples of the earth.

This was not revealed in the Old Testament.

The apostle Paul put it like this:

Romans 16:25   "Now to Him  that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel,  and the preaching of Jesus Christ,  according to the revelation of the mystery,  which was kept secret  since the world began."

Paul says it again in

Colossians 1:26, "Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints."

I would say that those who insist that the church is back in the Old Testament are more or less usurping the place of the Lord. They are telling something the Lord Himself didn’t tell. They act as if they know something God didn’t know.

Mystery means that it was not revealed in the Old Testament.

And since He didn’t reveal it, it isn’t there.

This last revelation was superior to the Old Testament dispensation and  came from One who is superior to angels, we are to pay particular attention to the warning. The responsibility is now greater.

Neglect in any area of life is tragic, but in the spiritual realm,  hearing the gospel message and doing nothing about it is infinitely more tragic.

What must I do to be lost?

Nothing!

What must I do to be saved?

We are given the answer in

Acts 16:31 "…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved…."

You and I belong to a lost human family.

We are not on trial.

God does not have the world on trial.

All are sinners in God's sight.

Today  -  the day of God's grace,

God  is saving  some   -  those who will turn to Christ.

The rest are already lost.

That is their natural condition.

Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ?

Are you willing to believe on Him and trust Him as your personal Saviour?

WILL YOU MAKE A CONSCIOUS DECISION TO RECEIVE CHRIST?

Redemption! oh, wonderful story -
Glad message for you and for me:
That Jesus has purchased our pardon,
And paid all the debt on the tree.

Refrain:
Believe it, O sinner, believe it;
Receive the glad message - 'tis true;
Trust now in the crucified Saviour,
Salvation He offers to you.

From death unto life He has brought us,
And made us by grace sons of God;
A fountain is opened for sinners:
Oh, wash and be cleansed in the blood!

No longer shall sin have dominion,
Tho' present to tempt and annoy;
For Christ, in His blessed redemption,
The power of sin shall destroy.

Accept now God's offer of mercy;
To Jesus, oh, hasten today;
For He will receive him that cometh,
And never will turn him away.

AMEN.

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THIS PAGE UPDATED:  15-4-2007.