GENUINE SAVING FAITH

By Curtis Pugh

Published in the Berea Baptist Banner February 5, 1990.

“But without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh

to god must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him” (Heb. 11:6).

Our Scripture text is clear—if a person would please God, he or

she must have faith. However, let us ask some questions: (1) Is all
faith the same? (2) Are there more kinds of faith than one? (3) Do all
‘believers’ have the same kind of faith? (4) Will just any kind of faith
please God? (5) What is the source of true faith?
Now the word ‘faith’ in our Bibles can refer to doc-trine— what we
call objective faith—the things most surely believed among us. The
word ‘faith’ can and does some-times refer to confidence or trust—
what we call subjec-tive faith—that belief in the Person of the Son of
God.
Our text refers to the second usage of the word and it is of this
subjective ‘faith’ or confidence and trust in the Person of Christ that I
wish to speak. A careful study of the Bible indicates clearly that not
every one who ‘believed’ on the Lord Jesus was saved, though all the
saved do genuinely believe on Him. For instance, in John 2:23-25 we
find that “many believed in his name when they saw the miracles
which he did.” However, we are told that “Jesus did not com-mit
himself unto them” since He knew their true con-dition— that is, that
they were not truly regenerate ones. Their interest in Christ was a
miracle worker, a King who could heal their bodies, relieve their
suffering, res-urrect their dead and keep them well fed. They thought
they had found a spiritual gravy train—welfare state where they would
be always cared for. These folk be-lieved the popular, but unbiblical
prosperity doctrine before Kenneth and Kenneth and their brother
Orval ever preached it!
Similarly, in John 8:30-59 we find “many believed on him” (v. 30),
and yet our Lord told the same crowd “ye seek to kill me” twice (v. 37
& 40) and further told them “ye believe me not.” Finally we read of
these same “many” who “believed on him” taking up stones with
which to kill Him (v. 59). Had He not worked a miracle and gone
through the midst of them, )or simi-larly demonstrated His power) no
doubt they would have murdered Him. (Note that the miracle of
escape which He worked did not make believers of them!)
I conclude then that ‘there are belieers and there are believers.’ If
one tries to argue that these were true be-lievers who fell away into
unbelief and though they were once saved, finally lost their salvation,
I answer that this is a poor argument and not substained by the
context at all, especially in as much as the portion in John 2 indi-
cates that these were never saved at all, even though they “believed.”
Christ does point out in John 8:31 that the kind of faith possessed
by the regnerate is not a ‘once upon a time faith,’ but rather a ‘once
for all time’ kind of faith. Many would base their salvation on a long-
past moment of faith who have no faith today. On the authority of the
Word of God, I say that if you have no faith in Christ today, you had
no moment of faith in the past.
Whatever may have happened to you, whatever you “got” 40
years ago, or 4 years ago, or 4 months ago, if you have not continued
in confidence and trust in Christ until the present moment, you didn’t
‘get it!’ (Now the grammer may be lacking in that and the terms may
sound Arminian, but Jesus said, “. . .If ye continue in my work, then
are ye my disciples indeed” ( John 8:31).
As one old preacher said, If you can quit, quit!
Evidently not everyone who believes, “believe to the saving of the
soul” (Heb. 10:39). The Bible teaches and Baptists believe that those
whom the Holy Ghost regenerates persevere to the end!
While there may be more than these, let us consider four views
popular in our day concerning faith. I be-lieve these are
representative of the views held by vari-ous groups claiming to be
Christians, some of them even claiming to be Baptists!

1. The Universal View:

This is the view which says that faith is resident in all men, saved
and unsaved alike. Frankly, I had never heard anyone espouse this
view until a few years ago when I heard a Baptist (?) preacher preach
this from Romans 12:3. His proof was the phrase “as God hath dealt
to every man the measure of faith.” He failed to see, or refused to see
that the “every man” of the phrase “as God hath dealt to every man”
is the same “every man” as in the phrase “to every man that is among
you.” [What the verse teaches is that God has dealt faith to every
true Christian!] He maintained that every child of Adam possessed
faith. His reasoning seemed to be something akin to this: All men
have faith. Whether you are saved or not depends on whether you
place your (natural, inborn) faith in Christ or whether you trust in
yourself, your works, your riches, your reli-gion, your own goodness,
etc.
This message was preached before about a thousand people,
many of whom were Baptist preachers, or so they said. It seems that
I was the only person there up-set about such nonsense. I gave the
fellow who preached this message a Scripture: II Thess. 3:2, “. . .for
all men have not faith.” He never answered me.

2. The Miracle View:

This view teaches that saving faith is produced by seeing or
experiencing miracles. Pentecostals and Charismatics often hold this
new. They maintain that miracles are yet present among the Lord’s
people and that these miracles are necessary to produce faith so that
folk can be saved. So we have stories circulated about a man blind in
one eye, whose eyeball had been removed, but who could
miraculously read with that “eye,” either with or without his glass eye
inserted in its socket. Or they tell us about an airplane pilot who
crashed his small plane in the Artic and who knew he would freeze
un-less God did a miracle as his legs were broken. Sure enough, he
awoke the next morning quite warm, but feeling a heaviness upon
him. Soon a large polar bear raised himself off the pilot and went and
fetched him a sack lunch containing a roast beef sandwich—not a hot
roast beef sandwich, but a sandwich nevertheless. (Now even though
I live in the Yukon, I haven’t learned much about polar bears yet, but I
believe in the above situa-tion, the bear would be more likely to have
lunch rather than to bring it!)
I hope you have never had the ‘privilege’ of being in a preaching
meeting or watching T.V. when such sto-ries as these are told. They
are genuine—genuine stories that is—and were told by folks who
believe that miracles produce faith. Those who repeat such stories
may or may not have good intentions, but their goal is to cause
people to have faith in God and they think to do it by telling of the
miracles (?)
 The “certain rich man” in Luke 16:19-31 held to this view and after
he found out that nothing could be done to ease his torment in the
flames of everlasting punishment, asked that Lazarus the beggar be
sent to his brethren saying that “if one went unto them from the dead,
they will repent” (v. 30). He was informed that if men have not faith to
believe the Bible, “neither will they be persuaded, though one rose
from the dead” (v. 31). GOD’S WORD TEACHES THAT MIRACLES
DO NOT PRODUCE FAITH!

3. The Word-Only view:

This is the view of the “easy believe-ism” crowd. All we need do,
according to those who espouse this view, is preach the Word
powerfully, positively and attrac-tively enough and people will believe,
walk the aisle and be saved. What we need is a “dynamic young
evan-gelist” or an “ex-dope addict” or an “ex-gangster” or an “ex-
stripper” who has “found Christ” and they can “reach the lost.”
Among the more intellecutal (?) current fad of ‘Bible teachers’ this
is expressed as being able to “effectively communicate the gospel” or
some other such high-sounding expressions. (Usually these fellows
are ‘Dr. So and So and have a radio\TV counseling ministry.’)
Of course this crowd is into the numbers game quite heavily. They
boast and publish in their papers etc., the number of ‘nickels and
noses’ they have corralled. The preacher with the biggest Sunday
school, the most im- mersions, etc., is the biggest success according
to their way of thinking. They are completely “success oriented” and if
they are not getting the prescribed number to sign the card or shake
the preacher’s hand, or walk the aisle, or invite Jesus into their heart,
or whatever their current requirement for salvation happens to be, the
fault, they think, must be with the preacher. Get a bet-ter preacher or
get a better method!
Preachers beware! What you win ‘em with is what it will take to
keep ‘em. If you win folks with the Word of God, the Word will keep
them. If you win them with Hollywood methods, it will take Hollywood
methods to keep them, and you cannot compete with Hollywood. (All
it takes is for a bigger ‘Hollywooder’ than you to come down the pike
and guess where your folk will be!) At first this view would seem to
magnify the Word, but as I have pointed out, since not all who hear
the preached Word are saved, in reality the power is in the person
preaching the Word. This is why schools and conferences to improve
methods and maintain enthusi-asm are necessary.
I have devoted considerable time and space to this view as it is
quite popular among some who are labeled Baptists. Let it be seen
that the Word alone will not con-vert the sinner—will not produce
faith!

4. The Scriptural View

The correct view, I believe, is that for genuine re-pentance and
faith to be produced, not only must the Word be preached, but the
Holy Ghost must operate in regeneration.
The old New Hampshire Baptist Confession says un-der the
heading “VII. Grace In Regeneration,” that “We believe that in order
to be saved, sinners must be re-generated, or born again. . .that it is
effected in a man-ner above our comprehension by the power of the
Holy Ghost in connection with divine truth, . . .”
Romans 10:17 is sometimes used to try and refute this truth since
it says, “So then faith cometh by hear-ing, and hearing by the word of
God.” However, the context (verses 18-20 especially) sets forth the
truth that God worked in some by the Holy Ghost and was “found of
them that sought me not”—the Gentiles. God elects some and works
in them, regenerates them, and they hear the Word and believe!
Thus in Acts 3:16 such faith is said to be “the faith which is by
him.” In Acts 14:27 God is said to have “opened the door of faith unto
the Gentiles.” Galatians 5:22 states that faith is a part of the truth of
the Spirit. Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace are ye saved through
faith; and that (faith) is the gift of God” (brackets mine). Thus
Hebrews 4:2 says that the Word “preached did not profit them, not
being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”
Peter addressed his second letter (II Peter 1:1) “to them THAT
HAVE OBTAINED like precious faith with us through the
righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” The kind of faith
required to please God MUST BE OBTAINED—it cannot be ‘home-
made,’ Genuine faith is the product of God. The Scripture says that
Christ “hath brought life and im-mortality to light through the gospel”
(II Tim. 1:10). The preached gospel, when believed, brings to light
what God has done within the sinner!
A well known leader in the Christian education move-ment, though
himself admittedly a “Christian human-ist” once said, “men believe
what they are predisposed to believe.” I doubt that he knew what he
was saying, but he was exactly right. The unsaved man acts accord-
ing to his depraved unregenerate intellect, emotions and will and
therefore rejects the gospel of Christ. The elect of God, being
predisposed by the workings of the Holy Ghost in regeneration,
believes the gospel and trusts savingly in Christ.
Why even the God-called, properly authorized, Bap-tist Church
ordained preacher is shut up to this fact: pray all he will, live clean all
he may, study all he can, and preach his hardest and best, weeping
inwardly and even outwardly, yet if God be not pleased to regenerate
his hearers, they will not savingly believe! The greatest preacher alive
cannot produce faith to save himself and he cannot produce it in
others either!
Christian, humbly worship and thankfully praise God that He has
worked faith in you! Had He not chosen to do so you would be as
unbelieving as Judas Iscariot! Oh, how these truths should cause us
to admire and adore our Lord for His grace and electing love.
Lost friend, do you see that you too, as the old preach-ers used to
say, are shut up to Holy Ghost regenera-tion? As much as you might
like the preacher and want to please others, you cannot believe
savingly until God enables you by sovereignly regenerating you. You
are cast upon Him to do it if He will!
Do you see it then? There is nothing, NOTHING AT ALL that you
can DO to save yourself! Your works cannot save you for the best of
them are as filthy rags (Isa. 64:6). Your prayers cannot save you, for
“How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?” (Rom.
10:14) and you are not a believer. Only Christ can save you!
This is the delight of Christ, for He said that He came “not to call
the righteous, but sinners to repen-tance” (Mark 2:17). See yourself
as helpless and hope-less unless Christ saves you! See that you
deserve Hell and that God would be perfectly righteous to send you
there at whatever time He chooses!
Sinner, do you, can you, see yourself thus lost? That is the lack
today. Everyone wants to ‘be saved and go to Heaven,’ but no one is
lost! If you are lost there is hope for you, for Christ saves lost sinners.
Seek Him!