Genuine Faith 5

True scriptural faith is always fixed in the person of the crucified and risen Christ of God.  Saving faith believes and endorses sound doctrine, it accepts the truths of the Gospel, but genuine faith mainly concerns itself with the person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and its essence lies in reliance upon Jesus Himself. You must believe the Scriptures and the doctrines of Grace, but you also must trust in the living God, Jesus Christ.  To know Him is life eternal.  Place all your reliance on Him, and not in the saints or Mary.

Believe now that Jesus is willing and able to save your sinful soul - this faith will effectually save your soul from the guilt, filth, and love of sin.  Rest in Jesus Christ, He is God, and the Savior of sinners.  He bled, suffered, died, buried, and rose from the dead.  Let all your trust be stayed on Him alone.  Bring all your help from Him, His wounds are your only shelter, His blood your only plea, make Him your only confidence, and you are a saved soul.  Your transgressions are forgiven you for His name's sake, and you are accepted in the Beloved.  You have so badly played the fool with your soul, but heinous sins like yours can be blotted out, your spiritual diseases can be cured, the devil can be cast out of you, Jesus' precious blood has power enough to take away your sins forever.

There is no boundary to the merits and virtue of His atoning sacrifice on Calvary's tree.  He is able save sinners to the uttermost - Jesus bore your sins in His own body on the tree, cast yourself on Him for rest.  This is genuine Faith.  Your sins are ingrained in your very nature.  You are vexed and tormented with fears of death and the wrath to come.  A little hell called Sin burns within your mind, heart, and soul.  There is no way for you to rid yourself of your sins but through faith in Jesus Himself.  Look to His head crowned with thorns for you, mark the blood dripping from His brow, mark His sacred face more marred than any man, marred with your griefs and stained with our sins, fix your eyes on Him.  Survey His hands, His feet fastened to the Cross for your guilt.  Believe on the Son of God bleeding for sinners.

I am a sinner indeed, so He bled for me.  Lord Jesus, I believe in You to save me from my sins.  A love for Jesus makes your sins exceeding sinful.  We discover the filthiness, the abomination, the detestable ingratitude of our past conduct at the foot of the Cross.  Memories of peculiarly heinous sins become very vivid to our conscience when we see dying in our place.  I doubt and despair of myself all the time, but I will never doubt my Lord Jesus Christ.  Doubts of Jesus are the worst enemies of your soul.  Remember - this is the point to arrive at - there is no deficiency in the merit of Christ, no lack of power in His precious blood, no unwillingness in Christ's heart to save a sinner, all the hindrances lie in our own unbelief.  There is the main point.

Trust Jesus pleading, His blood will cleanse you, lean with your soul on Him fully and entirely.  Lord Jesus, I believe, only help my unbelief.  Only the blood of Christ can cure your love for sins.  Think much of Jesus throughout your day.  God in the glory of His person, dwelling among sinful men, working out a perfect Righteousness for us, dying a felon's death upon the Cross in the sinner's place, think of Him buried and then rising from the dead, no more to die, alive forevermore, ascending into Heaven and sitting at the right hand of the Father, always pleading the merit of His atoning blood.

Study Jesus very closely in the Bible, feed your soul on Him, seek His presence, make Him the bread and water of your soul.  Go directly to Him at the foot of the Cross, view His Blood, and He will make your peace with God through His Blood.  Faith is trusting in Christ's abilities and not your own.  Direct all your entreaties and pleas to Jesus, appeal to the great Lord of Heaven Himself.  He is all you really need, make your appeal directly to Jesus. At the Cross, Jesus bled away His very life for your sins.

If the Holy Ghost has made you aware of your sins, and you realize your inability and true condition in the sight of God, and you sense your need for divine pardon by His Blood, come now to Christ without delay.  If you are struggling against a vicious and vile habit, if you are carried right away by evil impulses, if you have a wicked bent towards evil, if you sin carries you away life a leaf in the wind, come to Christ Jesus now for help and strength and healing.  By His stripes you can be healed of your sinful tendencies and propensities.

Sin is in your bones, your very nature is foul and corrupt and in need of the Savior's power to save.  You love sin and go after it greedily, sin's habits are firmly fixed in your thoughts, words, and deeds.  You have wandered from your Creator from your youth.  It is second nature for you to violate God's word.  At this moment, your past life, your secret sins, your natural corruptions, your inherited vices, your evil frame of mind, your gravitation to darkness, your obsessions with idolatries, your sinful daily routine, have grown very strong upon you and you cannot escape them in your way.  You are spiritually dead, and only Christ can give you life.  Only God can make you a new creature within.

Lord Jesus, help me out of my unbelief.  Unbelief is the greatest of all sins, the most terrible stumblingblock, the chief hindrance to any man obtaining eternal life.  Your unbelief in Christ Himself is your main problem.  Christ can easily write "settled in full" at the bottom of your long account of sins, if you will only trust your soul to Him.  Faith itself is the gift of God.  None but God can give us the least particle of real living Faith. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and a token of the New Birth. Lose the whole world and gain the Savior.  Let your eyes be to Jesus, let your longings be for Jesus, let your hopes be centered on Jesus.  Help Lord Jesus, give me Your Faith, drive away my unbelief with your presence and love.  Trust your soul in the hands of the Son of God.  He is able to deliver and pardon you.

A doctor naturally looks for and seeks to heal the sick.  Your sinfulness is the only qualification for the Gospel Medicine.  Your sin and vileness are the symptoms the doctor looks for.  Jesus is mighty to save any sinner.  Jesus offered up Himself as the great atoning sacrifice for human sin.  God Himself became incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.  Great sin, great pardon, great Salvation, Great Savior.  Only Christ's death can kill your unbelief.  Seek His pardoning mercy.  No one is too bad to be saved. Repent of your unbelief, trust to Christ here and now.  Think much of His blood, trust to His blood.  Whatever you do not get, be sure to get Faith.  Exercise faith in the living Savior.  If you try to save your own soul, you will lose it.  Commit your soul into Jesus' hands, this very moment, have done with trying to save yourself, once and for all.

Jesus always abides faithfully, always divine, always omnipotent to help and succor, always overflowing with lovingkindness, ready and willing to receive lost sinners.  Come to Calvary and see for yourself.