NOT BELIEVING IN VAIN

A very encouraging scripture for the glad tidings! But Paul was feeling the state of things there. He speaks about the glad tidings which he had announced – that was in the past. They had had the glad tidings announced to them, and he says, “which also ye received”. What he saw there was that it had gone in; but he says, then, ‘if it were received, it would be what you are standing in, what you are saved by’. He says, “unless . . . ye have believed in vain.”

Now, we can’t, just for convenience sake, remove that from the scriptures, because it is there; but the word ‘vain’ means what is empty – no results. And so, we can think of someone that you meet in the streets: you ask him, ‘Are you a believer in Christ, or in Mohammed, or . . .’ – I don’t know what else – ‘Buddha’, or something. He says, ‘No, I am a christian.’ But what we have to understand is that, in the day in which we are living, it is very, very easy for persons to say that. It is very easy to say that in absolute emptiness – in other words, he is saying, ‘I am associated with that group.’ That is as far as it goes. ‘I have heard those words; I have heard the gospel.’ I speak carefully, but you may say that he says, ‘I believe in Jesus and God, and so I am a christian.’ But do you recognise this, as James says in his epistle, ‘Do you believe that God is one?’ He says, ‘You do well’, but he says, ‘Even the demons believe that. Even the demons believe that there is only one God, and they tremble’ (Jas. 2 : 19). They know there is only one true God. Are they saved? No, they are not!

What we have to understand is that to merely believe that God exists, to merely believe that Jesus is the One He sent, means that you are coming very close; but if you stop there, you have stopped short; because you have to have accepted that He is the Saviour, and that you have a need, and that you need your sins forgiven. To just believe that God exists, and that Jesus was sent – even the demons believe that! The demons knew it. John, they knew that the Lord was the sent One – ‘Thou art the Holy One of God’ (Mark 1 : 24; Luke 4 : 34). They even said it! That didn’t save them. But do you see your need? You say, “Woe unto me! . . . I am undone,” Isa. 6 : 5. ‘The course that I am on, the way that I have lived, what I find in myself, means destruction for me!’ The demons don’t say that. A demon doesn’t say, ‘Woe unto me! I am finished! Is there any answer for me?’ You have to come to that. So we preach that what God is looking for from man is repentance, and faith in Christ. There has to be some judgment of what I find in myself, and see that what is in me is leading to destruction. I deserve death, and after that judgment (Heb. 9 : 27). But there is a Saviour in Christ; and you have faith in Him. Your faith is in Him, that He is the Son of God; but you have faith in His blood, too – faith that God is satisfied with that blood. It takes some faith, that you believe that His blood took away your sins. It is not whether you are satisfied with the blood, but that God looks on that blood and says, ‘Yes, you have trusted in that blood – your sins and your lawlessnesses I will never remember!’ (Heb. 10 : 17).

So, brethren, let us not believe in vain. Let us not hear the gospel, and say, ‘Yes, I think I am a christian. Yes, I think I am associated with these persons.’ Let it get in, and be convicted! I trust it can happen with each one here – think about this: have you believed in vain? Have you just heard the words, and said, ‘Yes, I think I will be a christian rather than a Muslim’, or something. Or, ‘I think this seems like a good idea.’ Or has this had penetration into you? – that you have recognised your need, and you have confessed to God, ‘I am a sinner, and I need salvation. I repent.’ Repentance means a change – have you been converted? As I said earlier, Paul was given a commission to turn persons – to present light to them, and turn them from darkness to light (Acts 26 : 17-18).

So have your eyes opened?! Have your eyes been opened?! Have you seen what you are? Or do you think that you can say, ‘I am a christian’, and carry on in exactly the same way, and think that God will say, ‘Yes, that is fine.’ He looks! That is what James says: he says, ‘You say you have faith’ – he says, ‘I, by my works, will show you my faith’ (Jas. 2 : 18). He says, “Faith without works is dead” (v. 20). You might say that is only as to what is current, or whether he can see a person is a christian, but he makes it as to your eternal salvation! He says, ‘You say you believe, but I have never, ever, ever seen a change in you! I have never, ever seen you do anything that is towards Christ. I have never, ever seen you judge yourself, and go in for God. And you tell me you have faith in Him?! I don’t believe it!’ That is what James says. That is Scripture. I am not trying to make us doubt our salvation – I want you to test your salvation, and consider: can you say, ‘Yes, when I received the word, and I came to it, what I came to is it smote me, and I said, ‘Woe unto me! What I find in myself is wrong, and I need a Saviour.’ And I have said, ‘Yes, I accept that what I find in myself stinks! And what I have done is abhorrent to God, and I need that taken away. And I believe the blood took that away, His death took the stink away, and His blood took my acts away – my abhorrent acts, and God doesn’t see them any more, and He doesn’t see the man any more.’ Aah, that is a saved person! That is a saved person! And that can never be undone! I assure you that that can never, ever be undone!

But our assurance comes in this, brethren – I do not want to assure with words today; I want you to find the assurance that belongs to believers – and that is in the reception of the Holy Spirit. As our beloved brother with us here has pressed upon us so many times: there is perhaps nothing more important for us to get hold of at this time, but to be sure that we have received the Spirit; because the Spirit is the consciousness of your sins forgiven, the assurance that your sins are forgiven. You are sealed with the Holy Spirit. By the mouth confession is made to salvation – “with the heart is believed to righteousness; and with the mouth confession made to salvation,” Rom. 10 : 10. That is true; but if you have done those two things, you still may not get the full assurance in yourself. I am not saying that those things aren’t vital, that they aren’t secure; but you might not know your security. But the seal of the Spirit lets you know that everything is certain.

I am not saying that a person that has not yet received the Spirit is not saved. I am not saying that. What I am saying is for you to know you are sealed, for you to have that assurance, what you want is to receive the Spirit; because then you have the witness within yourself.

You know, the water and the blood and the Spirit agree in one, and they have one witness (1 John 5 : 7-8). The water says that Christ died – John, that means that that man that stinks is gone. The water means that. ‘I believe in the water’: that means that that man is gone. You say, ‘But, yes, he popped up yesterday!’ You say, ‘Yes, but for God, he is gone, so I feel free with God.’ Then you say, ‘But what about the things I did?’ The blood covers that – there is a witness of the blood. But then, there is the witness of the Spirit within you. He witnesses in you that those things are gone. And part of the witness is that He sheds abroad the love of God in your heart (Rom. 5 :  5). How could God love you if those things weren’t gone? – both the stink and the acts that you have done, that are abhorrent to God, are gone. The Spirit gives you a sense of the love of God, and that you are forgiven, and He gives you the assurance that your sins and your lawlessnesses are never remembered ever again! And that is a fine day – when you have received the Spirit, and He is free in you. His work starts then. What He will do to any true believer is He will bring him to God.

I know it is through the work of Christ that we have been reconciled; but what the Spirit will do in you is that He will form what is of Christ, so that you are brought deeper and deeper into the consciousness of what your place is. That is what is related to privilege, but it will show, too, in your walk. It will show in your walk, and your walk will be so, that someone can say, ‘That is a christian.’ And God can look down from heaven, and say, ‘I find pleasure in that’, and that will give you joy, too.

Brethren, let us not stop short of what salvation is. Paul here was concerned: he had preached, he loved them; but he said, ‘What I see here is that, for some of you, it looks as if maybe it has been in vain; that you have just professed, and it hasn’t affected your life.’ Well, let it not be so with any one of us, brethren. May we be affected. These are glad tidings; they are toward you. The glad tidings are that God wants you in His presence, and He has provided the way. Do not neglect the way. In Christ’s name.