New Salem Baptist Church

The Signs of Genuine Faith

Part Two

Scripture reading: Matthew 7:21-23

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22             On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23         And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ ^[1]

Our Lord said that many would be self-deceived, thinking that they belonged to him when, in actuality, they do not. Since this is true of many of those who claim to follow Christ, we ought to be sure about our faith. Is it saving faith or just a said faith?

The Scriptures reveal certain signs that demonstrate true faith. Last week we considered two of those.

[1.] A person who has been born again will understand the gospel and be able to articulate it to others, this is because an inability to explain something reflects a defect in a person’s knowledge, that is, a lack of understanding.

Last week we saw, from the Parable of the Sower, that if there is a lack of understanding then the devil comes and steals what was sown in a person’s heart.

[2.] A person who has experienced salvation will love the Bible. They will read it and meditate upon it. They will:

• Delight in his word
• Long for his word
• Find enjoyment in his word
• Have an intense desire for understanding
• will cling to God’s word.
• will run to it!
•  will trust it
•  will see it as precious
•  see it as sweet
• rest in knowing that it sustains them!
•  are revived by God’s word!

Hence, if one lacks either of these things, understanding of the gospel or love for God’s word that manifests itself in abiding in it, then they have not been born again, unless there is just a short, temporary straggling away from the word. Any follower of Christ can, for a short time, fall by the wayside. But if one’s life is characterized by an indifference or lack of desire for his word, then this means that they have not been regenerated.

Let us consider three more signs of genuine faith.

[3.] Genuine faith is made known when we keep God’s commandments. We saw from our Lord’s words that it is those who do not follow His commandments that show that they were never known by the Lord (Mat 7). The apostle John reaffirms this truth from the positive side.

3          And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. ^[2]

John here echoes not only the words of our Lord in Matthew 7:21-23, but also his words in the same discourse when he said, “You shall know them by their fruits” (7:16-20). A person’s life reflects what is really in their heart. If a person loves their sin more than the One who they claim is their Lord then they reveal the absence of divine life within them.

I often meet people who are living in sin for extended periods of time. I mean, for years. They are either living with their boyfriend or girlfriend or they are drunkards or take illicit drugs or refuse to work (yes! That is a sin.) Yet, they think that they are Christians because they said some kind of a prayer as a teenager and someone then told them that they were “saved.” What a deception! One can be delivered from any of these sins if they believe and repent, but practicing these sins, or any sin, is the evidence that the apostle gives that shows a person does not truly know the Lord.

An important part of the New Covenant, promised hundreds of years before Christ even came, is that the members of the covenant would walk in God’s laws by His power (Ezek 36:26-27; Jer 32:40).

Those who practice sin do not belong to Christ regardless of what they think they know. The apostle is explicit about this.

            Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, ^[3]

A child of God will take sin seriously and will also take measures to flee from sin. A man was in a field looking down at the ground. He noticed a spider and a grasshopper much bigger than the spider nearby. The grasshopper walked towards the spider and must have seen it. For he reached out with one of his feelers and touched the spider probably to determine what it was. Quick as a flash, out went one of the spiders legs, and when he had withdrawn it a web had been attached to the antennae of the grasshopper. Instead of jumping away, as he might easily have done, the grasshopper reached out with his other antennae with the same result – another web line attached. Then it reached out with a leg as if to push the spider away. But the spider just attached another web this time to the grasshopper’s leg. The insect seemed to realize it was getting into trouble and tried to get away. Yet, ever time he raised an appendage to move the spider just attached another web to it. Finally, the spider jumped on the grasshopper and started rolling him over and over, coating him with his web. The grasshopper was bound and helpless and the spider made a meal of him. This is the way sin is. Being overtaken by sin starts with just a feeler. “I wonder what it is like to…” But, once sin is tasted, there arises an attachment to it. The attachments grow stronger until one is covered and controlled by sin.

Those belonging to Christ will fear sin and flee from it. Those who do not fall into the spider’s trap and are devoured.

Keeping God’s commandments is the second condition that brings assurance.

[4.] We must be actively involved in a local church as evidence that we have saving faith. This condition may seem strange to us in the Western world. But it is only because we are so independently minded. In America we have an even greater sense of individual independence than in Europe. Yet, it is not simply cultural differences that determine whether this is true or not. It is attested by the beloved apostle John.

19      They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. ^[4]

Here the apostle makes it clear that when some leave the church it reveals that they were never truly part of God’s covenant people. I believe that this truth is related to the one about loving the brothers and sisters.

I will put it plainly. If you are not regularly meeting with a local church (not just on a membership roll somewhere) then you have no assurance of your salvation. I will go even further. If you are not regularly meeting with a local church then you likely do not belong to Christ at all despite your feelings to the contrary and despite the bad teaching that you may have received in the past.

The fourth condition that brings assurance is meeting with and being active in a local church. Really, this is just the natural outgrowth of loving the brothers and sisters, which is our fifth sign.

[5.] Loving the brothers and sisters reveals if our faith is genuine. The apostle John had experience with false Christians. He reveals things about them that displays their profession was not in line with what they really were. Besides not following God’s commandments the other characteristic that he observed was that they did not love the brothers and sisters.

   If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21          And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. ^[5]

Just as there are many unbelievers who will never admit to hating God (even to themselves) when they actually do, there are many who profess belief but will never admit to hating anyone. But actions speak louder than words. How you speak about others reveals whether you love them or not.

John says that if we do not love the brothers and sisters then we do not love God though we may think that we do.

He says, “whoever loves God must also love his brother” (or sister).

The apostle thought that this was so important that he repeats himself in his second letter.

And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. 6         And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. ^[6]

This was a commandment that the apostles received from the beginning – from the Lord Jesus. In verse 6 he writes that we should walk in all his commandments but then he writes, “this is the commandment…you should walk in it.” The commandment is that we love one another! Do you see what he is saying? We should walk in all the commandments but there is one commandment above all that we must walk in – that we love one another!

If we are not loving all the brothers and sisters, not just the ones that are easy to love (some are not so easy to love!), then we have no assurance that we truly belong to Christ.

[Conclusion] We have seen five signs of genuine faith. There are more than these five, such as fearing God for example (Rev. 19:5; Jude 12; I Peter 1:17; Heb. 4:1; Phil. 2:12; 2 Cor. 7:1; Romans 3:18; Luke 12:1-5; Matthew 10:26-28) and the love of God, but I have selected these because they are easy to discern. It is actually easy for a person to think they love God when they do not really.

So, the five signs are:

• understanding the gospel and being able to articulate it to others,
• loving the Bible, reading it and meditating upon it often,
• keeping God’s commandments,
• being actively involved in a local church, and
• loving the brothers and sisters.

What do we do if we learn that one or more of these characteristics are not manifested in our lives?

First, allow me to tell you what we ought not to do. We ought not to think, “Oh, I’m missing numbers 2 and 3 in my life! So, I will start reading the Bible more and I will try harder to keep God’s commandments.” That kind of thinking is nothing less than salvation by works, which is unacceptable to the Lord. We cannot do things and then expect that we have demonstrated signs of the new birth.

These signs naturally accompany regeneration because a person’s heart is changed by the Lord and these things flow out. Thus, if these things are lacking (except temporarily) in a person’s life then that person can know that they have not been born again.

Instead of just adding some of these things to your life, we do two things. 

First, we ensure that we fully understand the gospel. One ought to meditate on God’s word and ask for understanding. These verses ought to be considered:

• Luke 14:26-35
• Romans 3:10-26, especially considering how verses 10-13 apply to yourself.
• Ephesians 2:1-10

Secondly, we ought to simply ask the Lord to transform our hearts.

Both Jesus (Luke 11;13) and the apostle James (James 4:2) tell us that we do not have because we do not ask! Plead with the Lord to transform your heart and do not stop asking until he does!

“Lord, save those who have heard or read this message and who have not yet been born from above. Amen.”