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Smyrna Christian Church -- Lee Delbridge, Minister
910 Concord Road SE -- Smyrna, Georgia 30080 -- 770.435.1723
www.SmyrnaChristianChurch.org

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The Faith That Makes A Difference
Part III

Your faith does make a difference in your life and it will make a difference in your eternity! Make sure you understand this sermon if you never understand anything else. We are talking about “The Faith That Makes A Difference.” Your faith will make the difference in where you spend eternity. You best make sure you understand what saving faith really is. I am going to make a statement and then use Bible passages to prove that the statement is true. Read, study and understand the following statement:

“Faith is a motive for action but the primary meaning of saving faith is trust in Jesus and in what He has done for you.”

What Jesus did for you is what saves you -- not what you do in response to Jesus. Saving faith is trusting in the atoning work of Jesus. Make sure you are not putting your faith in your faith or in your obedience or in your sincerity or in your church work. Put your faith in Jesus and what He did for you!

1. THE STORY OF ABRAHAM TEACHES THAT
   • Genesis 15:6 - Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
     • God promised Abraham in his old age that he would have a son
     • Abraham believed God
     • God reckoned (credited) to his account righteousness
   • Romans 4:3-5 - For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,
     • Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness
     • “Justify” means that God treats us “just-as-if” we never sinned
     • Notice that it is the faith that is credited as righteousness -- it is not our works of righteousness
   • Saving faith is trusting in Jesus and in what He has done for you
   
   
2. THE APOSTLE PAUL TAUGHT THAT
   • Philippians 3:8-9 - More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
     • Notice that the “righteousness” did not come from obeying the Law
     • The righteousness that saves comes from God and is on the basis of faith
   • Romans 9:30-32 - What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,
     • The Gentiles attained the righteousness that saves because they accepted it by faith
     • The Jews did not attain the righteousness that saves because they were trying to attain it by works
   • Saving faith is trusting in Jesus and in what He has done for you
   
   
3. THE GOSPEL TEACHES THAT
   • Romans 1:16-17 - For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”
     • The Gospel (the story of Jesus) is the power of God for salvation -- it is not our works or our obedience that saves us
     • This righteousness of God comes by faith -- trusting in Jesus and what He did for us
   • II Corinthians 5:21 - He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
     • God puts the sins of those who have faith in Jesus on Jesus.
     • God puts the righteousness of Jesus on those who have faith in Jesus (imputed righteousness)
   • Saving faith is trusting in Jesus and in what He has done for you

Your faith will make the difference in where you spend eternity. Make sure you understand what saving faith really is. Saving faith is trusting (depending upon, relying upon) in Jesus and in what He has done for you. Saving faith is not trusting in the fact that you have faith -- it is trusting in Jesus and what He did for you. The strength of faith is in the object of that faith. Faith is trust. Faith in to rely upon. Faith is to depend upon. Jesus lived a perfect life and died for our sins. Saving faith is to trust in Jesus and in what He has done for you. You should trust in that alone for your salvation. Are you trusting Jesus alone for your salvation?

Other Scriptures to study: Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8-10; Romans 3:21-24, 6:23; Titus 3:5

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