Automatic Transcript Generated:
Speaker 1:
Alright, so Dennis is asking, according to Acts 16:31 and many other passages, we are saved at the very moment we express faith and only faith in Jesus Christ. That being true, how on earth do preachers teach that if there is no evidence of faith? In their view, your faith is dead. We are completely saved before we ever step foot, ever step on foot in the Christian life. Your fruit bearing or works or another good works, how can that have a bearing on your salvation when we are already saved?
Speaker 2
Dennis, thank you for this question because I know this is something that lots of people struggle with. And for me, for a long time, I struggled because I was relying on what other people trying to say and their explanations for how civic works. And it was really confusing everybody’s explanations until I read the Bible for myself and really gets so much more clear there. So I hope I’m about to show you will really make that clear for you as well. So first it’s important to understand how things work. You have truth. And as Jesus says, the truth is like a straight gate and narrows the way. And Satan tries to put these ditches on every side of truth. And when it comes to salvation, what does it take to be saved? There’s kind of two main ditches that most people fall in. One is we’re saved by works. And then the other ditch is if you believe in God, you could do whatever you want because we’re under grace and you’re saved. What’s that middle path? And that’s what we’re going to talk about, the straight and narrow path of truth. Now, that verse that you quoted in Acts chapter 16, let’s give a little bit of background, a little context here.
Speaker 2
So we have Paul and Silas. They’re in prison in the city of Philippi and there’s this giant earthquake. And as often happens in these stories, in Axle, the gates open, the prisoners are let loose with their chains. And for the poor jailkeeper, this is like the worst thing that could ever happen. I mean, his job is over. He has one job to do, let’s keep these guys in prison. And he thinks they’re all gone and his life is over. So he’s about to commit suicide. And Paul shouts and says, no, don’t worry, we’re all here still. And that’s where we pick up with Acts 16, verse 29. And it reads, then he, the keeper of the inn, called for a light, ran in and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, sir, what must I do to be saved? So they just literally saved his life. And now he’s asking him, what should I really do to be truly saved? And so they said to him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household. So what did they say to be saved.
Speaker 2
You must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it’s pointing here. I want to note this little nuance, Dennis. You might have inadvertently used it, but there’s some Christians that really believe this expression of faith. So expression of faith is still different than truly having faith. And a lot of people think if they give some incantation, say the magical words, proof they’re saved. But if that’s the case, then that will be salvation by works when we really believe, it’s salvation by faith. Here, if we look at the text again, verse 31, it says, so they said believe on Jesus Christ. So they’re not saying actually just say something, you actually truly must believe. And now the important question here becomes what is true faith or what does it mean to truly believe? And it’s important to understand that belief is not just an action. It is more of a state of being. Just like to live is kind of an action, but it really more is being alive. It’s the state. So to live is an action, but it’s more of a state of being. Same thing with faith and believing. And as a state of being, faith must be maintained
Speaker 2
You must continue to maintain that belief. If we stop living, we become dead. Same thing with your faith. If you stop really, truly having this faith, your faith becomes dead. And there’s a verse spot on to this. This is James two starting at verse 17. And James writes thus also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is no there is. Sorry. You believe that there is one God. You do. Well, even the demons believe and tremble. But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? So what is James saying here? Right, so faith, a lot of people also think faith is just believing God exists, and he outright debunks that right. Satan knows the demons know that God exists, but we also know their faith is going to be destruction. So what must be in our faith to know it’s real, legit faith. And James says it’s got to have works. That’s that’s the sign, the indicator of true legitimate faith that leads to salvation.
Speaker 2
It’s not the works that saves. But if you really have the faith by which you are saved, you will be doing these work. And I mean, just think back to see our video we made on Galatians. We walked through pretty much the whole chapter of Galatians and Paul’s talk about how the law is there with a schoolmaster trying to help us learn how to keep law and become more how God wants us to be ultimately loving. And even if we’re not under the law anymore, we’re still being led by the Spirit to keep the law, to keep the law of faith or the law of love. And we do it by faith. And this is an expression of our faith. And look at this verse from Galatians five six. It says, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love. Faith working through love. That’s what avails. That’s the faith that matters. That is what really leads to salvation. Faith working through love. And what’s that? Love. Why is love so significant? Again, because all of God’s law, all of his commands, everything, even God’s character, the way he wants us to be, it all converges on this concept of love.
Speaker 2
God wants us to be love, as he is love in his image. And then his law is there to help us understand what love looks like. And then it’s the Spirit working within us that helps us bear the fruit, all sorts of fruit of the Spirit, the first of which is love. And the only real faith will manifest itself in love. We made another video where we’re talking about how a husband did not love his wife. And we pretty much can judge that he doesn’t know Christ, because if he knew Christ really believed in Christ, his faith will be reflecting love to others, especially his wife, we would presume. So John 1415 it says, if you love me, keep my commandments. This is what Jesus says if you love out of expression of love, you will keep his commands. So to love God means we must know God. You must have the relationship with God, and God is love. As John writes in his letter, one John 416, it says, and we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in Him.
Speaker 2
And even Jesus talked about how we need to abide in him is the vine and we are the branches. And if we are disconnected from that vine, we will wilt and die, and we will not bear fruit. Jesus, he says in John, the Gospel of John again, that we should bear fruit. And what is that fruit? That fruit includes love. So this is how we get to all this. And now let’s go back real quick to act 16. Let’s test what we were from this verse, whether all they said is true. Will we see actual acts? Will we see the faith of this jailkeeper expressing itself in acts of love? Does he have true faith that he truly believed? Acts 16, verse 32 says Then they, Paul and Silas spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he, the keeper of the prison, took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. They’ve been abused, whipped, not being tended to. So now the jail keeper washes their stripes and immediately he and his family were baptized. Now, when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them, and he rejoiced having believed in God with all his household.
Speaker 2
So we see that works here are proving that he truly has that faith. And even he rejoiced right. Having joy is the fruit of the spirit. So faith without works is dead. If you’re not really loving, not because you have to, but because you want to. If you don’t have that, you don’t have true faith. And you really should then question whether you have a relationship with God that saves. This is how it all comes together. This is the New Testament, and this is how you really balance it and make sense of works versus faith. It comes together so beautifully across all the books of the Bible. So we have some comments. Wendy would like to read them.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Speaker 1
Kalil first and welcome. Sean, great to have you here. Okay.
Speaker 2
Maybe you should do Khalil first.
Speaker 1
Yeah, let’s take care of and then come back to Sean for the question. Okay, so Khalil is saying, incredible. May God can oh, that was, I think, Kishan’s testimony, actually.
Speaker 2
Yes.
Speaker 1
In James, Too this Works is about living a life portraying the fruits of the spirits and not anything magical as what some people think about works.
Speaker 2
Yeah, that’s a good way of putting it. All right, Tina, did you have anything you want to add too about no.
Speaker 3
I think that was spot on.
Speaker 2
All right.
Speaker 3
Very good. I’m really excited to see Sean. EMS.
Speaker 2
Yeah. Welcome back, because I think you are a faithful person. Join us just about every time last season, too.
Speaker 3
Yeah. Thank you so much, Sean, for joining us again and sharing your beautiful testimony with us here. Can we get Sean Ms comments back up?
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Speaker 3
Where he says Amen, and then he says about six months ago.
Speaker 1
Yeah, here we go. Okay, so Shaunna is saying, about six months ago, I asked for advice here since I suffered greatly from panic disorder and depression. However, I am back in college, and God uses my testimony to let others know the greatness of God. Hallelujah. And thank you, Bible. Ask for your amazing ministry from Kohong, South Korea.
Speaker 2
Wow. Praise God. We’re so glad to hear about what sounds like real healing there and that you’re able to use that for good. That’s a good example of how God takes our struggles, our challenges, and then can turn it into judo move, where he then turns it into something actually weaponized against Satan. I love it.
Speaker 3
Amen. Exactly. And there’s so many things that are like that in life and nature. I feel like God speaks to us in nature like that, too. Like a seed has to be broken in order to bring forth life. There’s so many things like that where things have to be broken or crushed or struggle or like a butterfly coming out of its cocoon, it has to struggle, because if it doesn’t, it will never fly. Because if it doesn’t struggle, it can’t push enough of its blood or whatever juices inside of it to get to all of its limbs and wings, and it can’t fly. So same thing with our brother here. God allows you to go to this struggle, but he’s using it for God’s glory. And you can look back on that and say, if God can get me through that, he can get me through anything. And I serve a mighty and a powerful God. So thank you so much much, our brother, for that, for sharing. Amen.
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In His Service
BibleAsk Team
