LOOKING TO PRAISE AND WORSHIP JESUS THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD. 18 No man has ever seen God at any time; the only unique Son, or the only begotten God, Who is in the bosom [in the intimate presence] of the Father, He has declared Him [He has revealed Him and brought Him out where He can be seen; He has interpreted Him and He has made Him known].

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Fruitless Faith - Spurgeon - an excerpt from sermon #3434

What James does mean, however, is this, no doubt, in brief and short, that while faith saves, it is faith of a certain kind. No man is saved by persuading himself that he is saved; nobody is saved by believing Jesus Christ died for him. That may be, or may not be, true in the sense in which he understands it. In a certain sense Christ died for all men, but since it is evident that many men are lost, Christ's dying for all men is not at all a ground upon which any man may hope to be saved. Christ died for some men in another sense, in a peculiar and special sense. No man has a right to believe that Christ peculiarly and specially died for him until he has an evidence of it in casting himself upon Christ, and trusting in Jesus, and bringing forth suitable works to evince the reality of his faith. The faith that saves is not a historical faith, not a faith that simply believes a creed and certain facts: I have no doubt devils are very orthodox; I do not know which church they belong to, though there are some in all churches; there was one in Christ's Church when he was on earth, for he said one was filled with devils; and there are some in all churches. Devils believe all the facts of revelation. I do not believe they have a doubt; they have suffered too much from the hand of God to doubt his existence! They have felt too much the terror of his wrath to doubt the righteousness of his government. They are stern believers, but they are not saved; and such a faith, if it be in us, will not, cannot, save us, but will remain to all intents and purposes a dead, inoperative faith. It is a faith which produces works which saves us; the works do not save us; but a faith which does not produce works is a faith that will only deceive, and cannot lead us into heaven...

18 Comments:

Blogger mark pierson said...

Spurgeon was in the Lordship camp.

December 13, 2006 11:10 AM

 
Blogger Baptist Girl said...

Amen Mark!

Matthew 13:10-11,16 10 And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" 11 He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 16 "But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear

1John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, [even] in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

James 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Cristina

December 13, 2006 12:09 PM

 
Blogger jazzycat said...

"It is a faith which produces works which saves us; the works do not save us; but a faith which does not produce works is a faith that will only deceive, and cannot lead us into heaven..."

Spurgeon put it together real well with this closing statement.

December 13, 2006 4:56 PM

 
Blogger Bhedr said...

BTW...I strongly and wholeheartedly agree with this statement> faith which does not produce works is a faith that will only deceive, and cannot lead us into heaven<

I still believe that the book of James is not an evangelistic book and is an epistle written to stir believers unto good works and to bear mature fruit. John 15 was for his disciples and James is as well. It will indeed expose the pretender but its intent is to wake believers up out of superficiality. That is the intent of the book.

I will agree that Spurgeon would be Lordship....but he still offered the gospel up freely and quite frankly joining camps did not seem to be his style. So I think he is misrepresented in that light by you.

December 13, 2006 9:44 PM

 
Blogger Bhedr said...

Of course I would never have said that to your face:-)

December 13, 2006 9:47 PM

 
Blogger mark pierson said...

I a front-load and a back-load the gospel, and mis-represent Spurgeon; and I do these on my good days. I also attend Mass on Sunday and own a beautiful Rosary chain which I pray over regularly. I wholly embrace any conclusions arrived at at Trent.

Ahhh, yes, "On the Road Again, Couldn't Wait to Get On the Road Again (to Rome)".

December 14, 2006 7:33 AM

 
Blogger mark pierson said...

"It is a faith which produces works which saves us; the works do not save us; but a faith which does not produce works is a faith that will only deceive, and cannot lead us into heaven..."

This is my problem with FGT, and why I think it is from the pit of Hell. It presents an unorthodox and deceptive faith, one that deceives people into believing they are saved who have not repented and taken Christ's yoke upon them to learn from Him. I regret the day that the demons wispered this garbage into Zane Hodges' ear. I regret the day that those same demons inspired men to teach that repentance is a mere change of mind.

Anyways, that is how I believe, so sue me.

December 14, 2006 12:33 PM

 
Blogger Bhedr said...

I agree that it is too weak if a change of direction does not occur but it is essentially a change of mind and a forsaking of sin in your attitude. I think it is important to cap it off there...but yes fruit should flow out from there and repentance truly occurs and is born from the blood that flows from Calvary. If that does not happen then something is surely wrong.

I will agree that there are falsehoods in Free grace theology and that men like Matthew are clearly heretics, but as far as Jodie. I believe she is a true seeker of biblical truth and will one day see some of these Calvinistic truths but essentially she sees that love flows more in us as the gift unwraps itself, but I am troubled by some hyper calvinistic viewpoints that are heretical and unhealthy as well. I don't understand why you don't see that they should be challenged as you challenge free grace theology.

Take care brother.,..jus trying to be honest about biblical truth.

Uncle!

Pardon me while I go get my hands casted.

December 14, 2006 11:05 PM

 
Blogger Matthew Celestine said...

Brian, why do you think I am an heretic?

December 15, 2006 1:28 PM

 
Blogger mark pierson said...

Matthew, I'm going to be honest here: I consider you a brother. I still pray for you on a regular basis. I am under the impression that you suffer with depressions, as also I do, sometimes very deep ones at that. I do not care that you have this cold demeanor towards me or that you think that my theology is so bad; I plain and simply pray for you 'cuz I care about your welfare. So sue me!

December 15, 2006 2:37 PM

 
Blogger Bhedr said...

I appreciate your heart Mark. I hope you are right.

December 15, 2006 4:01 PM

 
Blogger Matthew Celestine said...

Mark, that is nice to know.

I have not intentionally adopted a cold demeanour toward you.

I have not visited your blog much because I have not enjoyed some of the debates we have had on the subject of Calvinism. I appreciate that I can be harsh sometimes, but I have felt that you have not always shown the courtesy that I appreciate.

I have no unkindly feelings toward you.

Or Brian for that matter. May God bless you, Brian!

Every Blessing in Christ

Matthew

December 16, 2006 10:52 AM

 
Blogger Rose~ said...

Oh, my heart just feels so swollen reading this between Matthew and Mark. Honesty and love!

December 16, 2006 12:45 PM

 
Blogger Bhedr said...

I feel a need to offer a caveat of caution however Mark just as a brother and you can do with it what you wish or toss it into file 13 if you want. I am certainely not your keeper.

Consider also that love needs to be without dissimulation. And Matthew I have been very concerned by your position on things for some time. It is nothing against you personally and it is unfortunate that some other brothers and sisters in Christ do tolerate some of the excesses that you have extolled as being minor fluxes in theology. Again it is nothing personal. I know it is good to be nice but sometimes there is also a niceness and a sweetness that is a direct slap in the face of God. It is my hopes that both you and some that do not see the urgency of this Repent of it. There are other things that I have had to repent of recently so I do not say this with a sanctimonious view in mind.

I say this with a heavy heart. That is all I wish to say for now.

December 16, 2006 2:16 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

OK, I read a lot more than I comment - Roses'blog, Matthew's blog, etc, and I've read many an exchange between all of you. I just wanted to seek some clarification on what you've said here, Brian.

December 17, 2006 3:54 PM

 
Blogger Bhedr said...

Matthew chips away at the deity of Christ as being essential to ones salvific faith. He often makes the case that Mormons and other cults can believe in the same Jesus if they believe you don't need to work to get to heaven and even at one point said a few months ago that "Belief in God is not a condition for eternal life."

His reductionist views are not just theological snaffus they are dangerous, but as I said I don't really wish to hammer him anymore. I have done it once and it hurt. I shall leave it here and with all of you all and your consciences on this matter.

December 17, 2006 9:58 PM

 
Blogger Matthew Celestine said...

Brian, I did qualify the comment about belief in God by saying that if a person has rejected the revelation of God's existence in the world, they will almost certainly reject the offer of eternal life in Christ. I see no hope for the Atheist unless she comes to believe in God.

God Bless

Matthew

December 18, 2006 4:34 AM

 
Blogger Bhedr said...

I am not up to chasing ghosts and have grown tired of this type of clever dialogue. I want to believe the best for you and that Mark is right. There is hope for any of us regardless of the sin we struggle with desiring forgiveness. Spurgeon taught that this is what always lay at the heart of unbelief and I believe he is right about that. In fact the Bible makes it clear. If you are struggling with any particular sin wondering if God can forgive you...run to him and cast your care of that on him at the Cross where he bore the horror of our sin.

December 18, 2006 7:25 PM

 

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