Without Faith, it is impossible to please Him
(Message delivered by Pastor at the True Life Church 10.30 am Service, Mar 5, 06)
Text: Heb. 11:6
Nearly a hundred years ago, my grandfather was pastor of a small English Presbyterian Church in Upper Serangoon, under the direction of the English Presbyterian Mission. All Chinese Pastors were paid by the English Presbyterian Mission and every month when my grandfather went to get his salary he would bring me along. As for myself I am now 86 years and not far away from him. My grandfather preached that we must believe in order to be saved. I sat in the congregation, week after week. I disagreed in my heart and offered good works instead. I needed to do something good for how can salvation be so easily obtained?
Believe and be saved, said my grandfather again. And suddenly I woke up to hear the word believe from many other declarations in the Bible, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. Paul in Rom. 10:9 said, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus (believing outwardly that He died on the cross to pay the penalty of your sins), and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”. We are going to the Holy Land in less than a week’s time. We shall visit the Empty Tomb and when we believe that our Lord arose from the dead, as I believe all will believe, we will be saved. This is just one blessing of visiting the Holy Land.
We must not only believe Jesus rising from the dead to be saved. You will be surprised on what other things of our Lord we must also believe. We must believe also that our Lord was born of the Virgin (Isa. 7:14) and that He was conceived of the Holy Ghost (Matt. 1:20).
As you come to church week after week you have always thought, like me before, you have to do something good for God to be saved. Not do something good but rather believing in Jesus is the point. Doesn’t this new awakening relieve us from that heavy burden that was not there?
But the Bible says also, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is (God), and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Heb. 11:6). Our faith in God must include all that God is and in all things showing ourselves a pattern of good works according to Titus 2:7 which is Paul speaking again. Our faith in God must believe that He gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works (Titus 2:14).
Our faith in God must be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work (Titus 3:1).
Our faith in God must be careful to maintain good works (Titus 3:8).
And finally, according to Titus who exhorts us, Let us learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful (Titus 3:14).
On one hand the Bible teaches us that we are saved simply by believing. On the other hand we are told to be saved we must maintain good works. Both are right. Now what we say in the following is the test of good works.
James 2:14-26 says, “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”
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THE GOSPEL OF LIFE: Chapter XIX
John 19:14-16
By What Clock?
During the Japanese occupation of Singapore the Lion City was called Syonan. Under the new Imperial government the people had to keep two times: Synon time, as well as Tokyo time!
During the time of Christ, the Jews were under Roman rule. There was the Jewish way of reckoning time as well as the Roman way.
The Jews count their hours from 6 am to 6 pm as they do to this day insofar as the Sabbath is concerned. The Romans, from Midnight to Noon.
Now if we read the clock in the Synoptic Gospels and the clock in John’s Gospel, we will discover that the former go by the Jewish clock and the latter by the Roman clock. Thus John 19:14 tells us it was about the sixth hour that Pilate said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” The sixth hour here is 6 am. About 6 am could be 6.10 or 6.15 am. This would fit into Mark’s account which says Jesus was crucified the third hour (Jewish) or 9 am.
Another difficulty about the time element is the phrase, “preparation of the passover” in John 19:14, and “eat the passover” in John 18:28. Did not our Lord and the disciples keep the passover the previous night? According to these verses it seems John had made a serious mistake. Not at all! Dr. David Smith says, “The phrase ‘eat the passover’ denoted not merely participation in the Paschal Supper (Passover meal) which they had already celebrated the previous night, but participation in all the business of Holy Week, especially the feast of thanksgiving (chagigah) on the afternoon of the day succeeding the Supper. Hence their refusal to enter the Praetorium (judgment hall) that morning. The defilement thus contracted would have continued until the evening, and thereby they would be excluded from the feast of the thanksgiving in the afternoon.
As to ‘preparation of the Passover’, the word ‘preparation’ here does not mean ‘make ready’ for the Passover feast but rather make preparation for the Sabbath which begins Friday 6 pm (of the Passover week). Thus at the close of the narrative of the Crucifixion Matthew says of the next day that followed the preparation to be Saturday, or the hightide of the Jewish Sabbath. Mark puts it more clearly in 15:42, “And now when the even (evening) was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath . . .” This is some time before Friday 6 pm. It has got nothing to do with making ready for the Passover Supper which had occurred already.
John 19:17-22
The King of the Jews
While the Synoptic Gospels generally mention the inscription over Jesus’ head, it is John who gives us the fullest wording. The main point of the inscription is The King of the Jews.
Who is the King of the Jews? Surely not this Nazarene, this Jesus whom the Jews had delivered to be executed! The Jews were looking for the Messiah, the anointed King of their own aspirations, one to deliver them from the Romans. To write “Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews” was a great insult to the Jewish national spirit. But wasn’t this the charge the Jews had brought to gain Roman sympathy? In wording the inscription as above, we see Pilate paying the Jews back in their own coin. When requested to reword “This is Jesus of Nazareth who said I am the King of the Jews”, Pilate, smiling gleefully up his sleeves, flatly refused! Sweet revenge! What Pilate had written, while it offended the Jews, greatly pleased God! Pilate was merely restating the Truth he had unconsciously imbibed from Jesus’ own testimony. Did He not royally stand before him a King, and further declared to him He was King? King of kings, and King of the Jews in that He is the Greater Son of David, and will one day return to judge this earth sitting on His father’s throne? Jesus indeed is King of the Jews! How we wish our Jewish friends will discover this truth and come, bow down before Him, and be saved!
Every Christmas message is a special message to the Jews, to Israel in her throes of fighting for survival in the hostile Arab world.
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” (Isaiah 9:6, 7)
This despised nobody from Nazareth will one day so astonish the Jews as their King and the whole world as their Judge. And until the King of the Jews who is Prince of Peace returns to earth, there shall be no peace. Presidents and Prime Ministers, take note!
YPF Combined Bible Study with Berean B-P Church, Feb 25, 06
