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“A False Sense of Security”    

(revised from 5/24/2013)

Romans 1:16-17… For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” (NKJV)

There is much in the Bible about faith. But there are two kinds of faith…faith in the Lord…and saving faith in the Lord. One is a false faith, which is a belief that one is saved from their sins…but only produces this belief in the mind of the unredeemed sinner…without any change of the heart. This kind of false faith is extremely dangerous…because a belief that you are going to heaven, when you are not a Christian in God’s eyes, will have eternal repercussions…with a separation from God forever…(Hell)

Saving faith is a gift from God, through saving faith alone in Jesus Christ…

Ephesians 2:8-9… For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. (NKJV)

(See note at the end for how God’s grace is received)

The opening scripture (along with what the Apostle Paul has penned in…Ephesians 2:8-9)…gives us two key pieces of what saving faith is all about. Understanding and obeying “the gospel of Christ”, is the Word that God uses to be able to lovingly provide His grace upon the new believer, through saving faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the fact that God must initiate this saving faith, by giving the unbeliever the will to understand that they are a sinner, that can in no way save themselves (John 6:44)…is seen in these words…“it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes,

I personally classify this false faith into 2 categories. First…the person who actually hears God’s Word (the gospel of Christ), and makes a decision based on hearing the gospel…to seek Jesus Christ to be their personal Lord and Savior. But there is only a mind change of the unredeemed sinner, with no heart change…as will occur with saving faith.

Jesus teaches us through His parable of the 4 soils, in…Matthew 13:1-23…&…Luke 8:4-15…&…Mark 4:1-20, that the first 3 soils (3 different circumstances for those that heard the gospel of Christ), did not produce a regenerated heart. Here is the link for all 3 of Jesus’ teaching through the “Parable of the Sower and/or Soils”… http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mat13:1-23,%20lu8:4-15,%20mk4:1-20&version=NKJV;KJV

I personally like Jesus’ parable, as recorded in…Matthew 13:1-23…the best. Jesus explains to His disciples about the purpose of His teaching in parables, in…

Matthew 13:13-15… “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; 15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’” (NKJV)

Jesus explained the meaning of the second and third soils in His parable…where people heard the Word, but for various reasons, they did not HEAR with ears to understand…Matthew 13:23… We see this, in…

Matthew 13:20-22… But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. 22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. (NKJV)

“Want to be” Christians, in both the 2nd and 3rd type soil situations…have made professions of faith in Jesus Christ. And in their minds, they may both believe they are now a Christian. Yet they have not understood with their hearts, as Jesus tells us in the scripture above…“Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them”…

Saving faith happens in the 4th fertile soil, when the gospel of Christ is heard and obeyed…and the new believer receives Christ into their hearts, through saving faith alone in Jesus Christ. (See note at the end for more on receiving God’s grace) The new child of God is rooted and grounded in the love of Christ…Ephesians 3:16-19…

Heavenly Father, I pray that You would draw in to Yourself (John 6:44) those in need of seeing, hearing, and obeying the truth from Your Word. I pray that Your living and powerful Word would cut right to the very core of the souls of those in need…Hebrews 4:12-13… I pray that the hearts and lives of all of us not walking in the Spirit, would turn…and be committed to living in Your will and Your ways…in Jesus’ most precious name and for His sake…Amen…

Blessings in Christ, bruce

P.S. Here is a link for this most important days writing, about how God’s grace is received to become a Christian in God’s eyes; through understanding and obeying the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, after first being drawn in by God…John 6:44… https://godsmanforever.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/gods-group-thoughts-for-7112013-the-truth-about-sin/