THE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER (ODELL)

Believe in God…IN ME…also,” John 14:1
 
In the previous lesson, we made this statement: “Let us proceed to THE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER, in which is found a description of Gospel faith.” Also, “Lord willing…we hope to dive deeper still to identify the difference between the Gospel faith of the Father’s eternal children and the counterfeit faith of the reprobate.” It is to this difference we will speak of now.
 

we learn “the devils also believe, and tremble,"

COUNTERFEIT FAITH DESCRIBED: For this, we must first go to James 2:19 and Acts 8:20-23, wherein we discover two examples of counterfeit faith in the reprobate. First: “Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well: the devils also believe and tremble.” Second: Peter is speaking to Simon Magus who had earlier “believed” (Acts 8:13) Philips preaching “the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ,” verse 12. Simon was consequently baptized by Philip and apparently “continued with Philip” as a member of the first Baptist Church in Samaria. Verse 20 opens with the words “But Peter said unto him, thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought the gift of God may be purchased with money.” Verses 21-23 read as follows: “Thou hast neither part nor lot in the matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.”
 
In these two passages we learn “the devils also believe, and tremble,” and those who are still in the “gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity,” may believe and be baptized members of a Gospel Church. We further discover the reprobate sometimes sees the power and authority residing in truth when presented to men and that it will subject their reason to it in such a manner, they are brought to recognize it as truth. Simon Magus and Judas Iscariot are both examples of this type of belief. This is the faith of the reprobate! This is the faith a man may have and still go to Hell. This faith, though it will carry a man so far as to acknowledge the truth to be truth and may even carry him to believe there is a God, even “one God,” and yet never be brought to live in the truth, nor does it give them power from the truth to live answerable to the truth.
 
QUESTION: What is the difference between the faith of God’s elect as compared to the faith of the reprobate? The elect is in fact “changed,” just like we learned from II Cor. 3:18. The elect cannot remain as they have always been. As they are blessed to “behold…with open face…as in a glass…the glory of the Lord,” they “are changed” by Christ Himself Who is both the “FACE” and the “GLASS” in which the “glory of the Lord” is beheld! And not merely superficially changed, but rather “changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as BY THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD,” certainly not by anything of, by, or within themselves!
 
GOSPEL FAITH DESCRIBED: Gospel faith goes beyond believing there is only “one God”, and He is revealed to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Gospel faith has a real substance to it. It is the “substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” Heb. 11:1. Gospel faith is enjoyed by a child of God when GOD IN CHRIST comes supernaturally into him as “the light of men” (John 1:4-9) and opens his “understanding BEING ENLIGHTENED (Eph.1:18) so He may “know what is the hope of his calling, and what (is) the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe.” All this supernatural enlightenment is according to HIS MIGHTY POWER! When this gracious operation of God occurs, the soul finds itself resting upon Jesus Christ as He is revealed in Scripture to be, the all-sufficient Savior of sinners! The soul thus given eyes to see the SUFFICIENCY OF CHRIST TO MEET EVERY NEED that it has, carrying with it a consent of the will which gladly submits to the absolute Kingship of Jesus Christ. Consequently, that election union which was heretofore invisible in the child of God, becomes visible and Gospel faith becomes “the evidence of things not seen.”
 
TO CLOSE: When we started this series of messages, we set out to discover three things. First, THE MATTER SPOKEN OF. Second, THE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER. And Third, THE LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM MATTER wherein we hope to discover the real “substance” of Gospel faith.
 
“Where is your faith?” Where is the OBJECT of it? Where is the foundation for it to rest upon? Where and upon what “substance” does it stand upon? Where did it come from? How did you come to own it as your faith? In our text, Jesus exhorted us to “believe in God…IN ME…also.” And that, because He Himself is the only “way” of our life, the only “truth” of our life, and certainly the only “life” of our life, John 14:6. So, I ask you again: “Where is your faith?” If it is not in Him alone Who has said: “Without me, ye can do nothing,” John 15:5.
 
BENEDICTION: Heb. 13:20-21, “Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, WORKING IN YOU that which is well pleasing in His sight, THROUGH JESUS CHRIST; to WHOM BE GLORY FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN!”
 
Dan O’Dell, 

only a sinner and a debtor to mercy. 

Weslaco, TX. Jan. 27, 2024.