Understanding the Depths of Saving Faith

The heart's involvement is crucial, as belief is not just an intellectual exercise but a heartfelt conviction. The heart's engagement signifies a transformation that includes conviction, repentance, and a sincere change of mind. Conviction is the powerful realization of truth that challenges and disturbs us, leading to repentance—a change of mind and heart. [00:02:27]

Conviction means that the truth has come to us with power. We not only become aware of it but it challenges us, disturbs us. It not only allows us to think in a passive and detached manner; we become engaged. We have the feeling that it is speaking to us directly and speaking to us as persons. [00:10:17]

Repentance means at any rate two main things and the first is that you change your mind. It means that's a Latin word which means think again. So it's obvious that the men whose heart is involved in this is a man who as I say under the conviction is not only made to think again and to think more seriously. [00:13:17]

No man can come to see that his whole relationship to God has been wrong, that his attitude to God has been wrong, that he's been rebellious, that he's brushed aside God's greatest act in giving His only begotten Son to the death of the cross, meant nothing to no man can suddenly realize that he's been guilty of all that without feeling intense sorry. [00:20:50]

There is no such thing as saving fear, a saving faith without an element of fear in it. I'm not postulating what I'm out of here, but I am saying that I cannot possibly regard a man as a Christian unless he's ever had this element of fear. Fear because he's sinned against God. [00:25:23]

The man begins to realize as he's never done the holiness of the Lord, the absolute character of its demands, and that he and all others are unrighteous and unworthy and unclean in some way or another and to some extent or another to some intensity or another he cries out to the Apostle Paul who shall deliver me from the body of this death. [00:27:59]

Saving faith is not a natural quality which everybody possesses. I've heard people teaching the truth about faith like this. They say everybody's got faith, everybody's born with faith. I remember the men using this illustration he was preaching in the provinces he'd come down from London I was in the meeting. [00:42:10]

Saving faith is something that is wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit of God. This natural man was supposed to have the gift of faith, how can he believe in the Son of God? He doesn't believe that he's a sinner, he doesn't know that he knows nothing about God, he's utterly opposed and antagonistic to the truth. [00:43:10]

Faith is the first active positive demonstration that the soul given that it is born again before a man can believe his heart must be changed. The natural heart is dead, rebellious, antagonistic regards all this is foolishness. It is only the man who has become spiritual who can believe these things, nobody else. [00:44:33]

With the heart man believeth unto righteousness. He's a new man and he's not only been aware of the truth he has felt its power it has changed and so he has gone through the steps of the stages which I've been trying to indicate on to God willing we'll continue with this next Friday night. [00:45:41]

We come unto thee once more and lift up our hearts in praise and in Thanksgiving and in humble acknowledgement that we are saved by grace and that not of ourselves it is the gift of God we acknowledge your God freely that it is all of grace we are aware of our unworthiness. [00:46:02]

We humbly thank thee and praise thy great and Holy Name that we are what we are solely by the grace of God thou hast indeed taken away the stony heart and given us a heart of flesh to know the antah lovely Lord it is my chief complaint that my love is weak and faint yet now they love the end a dog o for grace to love the boy. [00:47:22]