A. The story is told about an atheist who was spending a quiet day fishing when suddenly his boat was attacked by the Loch Ness monster.
1. In one easy move, the Loch Nest monster tossed the atheist and his boat into the air.
2. Then the beast opened its mouth and was ready to swallow the man right out of the air.
3. As the atheist sailed in the air toward the mouth of the monster, he cried out, “Oh, God, please help me!”
4. At once the entire scene froze in place with the man hanging in midair above the open mouth of the Loch Nest monster.
5. Then the booming voice of God came down from the clouds, saying to the atheist, “I thought you didn’t believe in me.”
6. The atheist replied, “Come on, God, give me a break. Until a minute ago, I didn’t believe in the Loch Ness monster either!”
B. Faith is a funny thing, isn’t it?
1. What is faith?
2. What do people really believe and believe in?
3. What should people really believe and believe in?
C. As you know, we are in a sermon series about the 7 ones that equal unity.
1. God wants His people to be unified and the 7 ones are the things that unite us.
2. So far in our series we have discussed the one body, the one Spirit, the one hope, and the one Lord.
3. Today, we are going to talk about the one faith.
D. While Ephesians 4:5 states very clearly that there is just one faith, we live in a world in which there appears to be many faiths.
1. The 12 major, classical religions of the world in alphabetical order are these: Baha’i, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto, Sikhism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism.
2. A popular belief that many people hold says: “There are many ways to God and all religions are equally valid.”
3. There’s also the false idea that all religions are basically the same.
4. Certainly, there are some similarities to the ethics and ideas of the assorted religions, but there are huge fundamental differences among these 12 religions about who God is, what God is like, what God is doing in time and history, in how God saves, and what God requires from people.
5. God could have provided many paths to God if that’s what God wanted, but that would certainly lead to a lot of confusion and it would make the sacrifice of Jesus unnecessary.
6. If people could be saved without the death of God’s own Son, then why would God offer that as one of the many paths to God? That doesn’t make sense.
E. Another absurd thing that people often say is: “It doesn’t really matter what you believe as long as you believe in something.”
1. Faith in faith is really nothing at all.
2. Faith in general has no power at all.
3. It’s not faith that moves mountains, its faith in a God who can move mountains that makes a difference.
4. So, there’s a big difference between faith in faith, and faith in God.
5. The object of our faith is way more important than the strength of our faith in that object.
6. For example, if I believe that a certain chair will hold me when I sit on it, the primary issue is the construction and quality of the chair – which is the object of my faith, not the amount of faith I might have in the chair.
a. Even if I believe very strongly that the chair will support me, if the chair is a broken-down piece of junk, then it will break if I try to sit on it.
b. My faith, even if it is ever so strong, will not make the chair good, if it is bad.
c. But if the chair is of quality construction, then it takes very little faith to sit comfortably and safely in it, and my faith in it had no bearing on its strength or weakness.
7. So, let me repeat, it is the quality of the object, not the quantity of my faith in the object, that is of primary importance.
F. With all this in mind, we must ask the question, what is this one faith that Paul says leads to unity?
1. I believe that this one faith is a reference to the whole body of truth that constitutes the Christian faith – the Christian faith is the one faith.
2. I believe it is the one faith that Jude wrote about in verse 3 of his little letter: Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share, I found it necessary to write, appealing to you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all. (Jude 1:3)
3. It is the one faith from which some fall away from, as Paul wrote: Now the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons… (1 Tim. 4:1)
4. Ultimately, there is one faith, because there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one baptism, and one God and Father.
5. There is one faith because there is one body of truth that has been revealed by God through the Spirit.
G. Our pluralistic and relativistic world has a real problem with us saying that there is only one faith.
1. People say it is intolerant and arrogant to say there is only one faith.
2. But it isn’t us who are saying there is only one faith, it is God saying it in His Word.
3. It was Jesus saying it when He declared: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn. 14:6) – How’s that for an exclusivist statement?
4. We are not being intolerant or arrogant to declare that truth is truth.
5. Let’s consider this argument for a moment: Is there an answer to 2 + 2?
a. Is the answer 4? Or can the answer also be 3 or 5, or all three (3, 4, 5)?
b. Is anyone being arrogant or intolerant to say that there is only one true answer to 2 + 2?
c. What if I believe in my heart that 2 + 2 = 7? What if I say that feels better to me?
d. Can I say that your truth is 2 + 2 = 4, but my truth is that 2 + 2 = 7?
6. There are absolutes and there are things that are absolutely true.
a. It is a false notion to say that there are no absolutes.
b. Actually, the statement “there are no absolutes,” is an absolute statement that by definition must be rejected.
7. Truth is truth – it isn’t arrogant or intolerant – it just is.
H. This one faith is faith in Jesus and He is certainly worthy of our faith.
1. Where does this one faith in Jesus come from? – we aren’t born with faith and we can’t manufacture it – the Bible tells us: So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ. (Rom. 10:17)
2. Or as the English Standard Version puts it: So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Rom. 10:17)
3. Our faith is a response to the Word of God that is proclaimed and heard through speech or reading.
4. If we want to have the one, true saving faith that unites us all in God, then we must all meet at the Bible, the Word of God, and go from there.
5. If something we believe or practice in our faith isn’t found in the Bible, then it isn’t from God and is not a part of the one faith.
6. The one true faith is built on the Word of God, not the thoughts or wisdom of human beings.
I. Hebrews chapter 11 is one of the best chapters in the Bible about faith.
1. The chapter starts with a definition of what faith is: Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. (Heb. 11:1, CSB)
a. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (ESV)
b. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (NKJV)
c. Faith, then, is the substance, confidence, reality and certainty, the very thing that makes us sure of what we hope for (the one hope).
2. There are people who say that they will not believe something unless they see it – they want indisputable evidence, but that kind of evidence takes away the need for faith.
a. God doesn’t expect us to have what some consider “blind” faith – a faith with no evidence at all.
b. God has given us enough evidence that we can believe, but not so much evidence that faith isn’t required or necessary.
c. The evidence that God has given that can bolster our faith includes things like: the creation around us, the evidence of God’s activity with Israel, and the testimony about Jesus as found in the Word of God especially, but also is found in secular history.
d. Thomas, the apostle, said that had to see the resurrected Jesus before he would believe, and Jesus showed Himself to Thomas, but then Jesus declared: “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” (Jn. 20:29)
e. Toward the conclusion of John’s Gospel about Jesus, he wrote: Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (Jn. 20:30-31)
3. Back in Hebrews 11, we notice that verse 6 emphasizes the importance of faith: Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Heb. 11:6)
a. Believing that God exists and believing that God rewards those who follow after God and obey Him is critical to being saved.
4. Throughout Hebrews 11, we read about men and women who put their trust in the promises of God and they waited to receive the things promised.
a. But this shows us that true faith never begins with us, but always begins with God and the promises of His Word – He is the reason to believe and our faith is in Him.
5. These people of faith operated by faith and not by sight, which is something the apostle Paul commands for us to do – to live by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7).
J. Let’s focus on the one faith in Jesus that saves us and unites us.
1. One day during Jesus’ ministry people asked Him a very important question, they asked: “What must we do to do the works God requires?” (Jn. 6:28)
a. Jesus answered: “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (Jn. 6:29)
b. Our most important task or activity is to put our trust in Jesus.
2. A couple of chapters later in the Gospel of John, Jesus told the crowd: “I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.” (Jn. 8:23-24)
a. Jesus’ words declare the importance of believing that Jesus is God’s Son and the only Savior of everyone.
3. In John 11, Jesus declared: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” (Jn. 11:25-26)
a. Jesus declared that He was the resurrection and the life even before He had died and was resurrected, and now that He has been resurrected, it is even easier to believe that because as the resurrection and the life, He gives abundant life and eternal life to all who believe in Him.
4. The most famous of all of Jesus’ statements in the Gospel of John is John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
5. The one faith that we must have is faith in Jesus.
a. The apostle John wrote his Gospel to help us to have that one faith in Jesus.
b. John wrote about something that he knew was true.
c. John had been with Jesus, had heard Him teach, and had watched Him perform miracles.
d. John had watched Jesus die, then saw Jesus come back to life and then saw Him ascend into heaven.
e. John lived his adult life as an apostle of Jesus and when he was an old man, he became a prisoner exiled on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. (Rev. 1:9)
K. This one, biblical, saving faith is more than just mental agreement to some facts – it’s more than just a belief we hold in our mind or heart.
1. The Bible tells us that the demons believe and tremble, but they don’t have a saving faith.
a. The demons know without a doubt that God the Father and Jesus the Son exist, but they don’t put their trust in Jesus and seek to obey Him. (James 2:19)
b. Mentally agreeing that God and Jesus exist is not enough, real faith calls for us to do something.
c. That’s why James wrote that “faith without deeds is dead.” (James 2:17)
d. You remember the classic Wendy’s commercial “Where’s the beef?” Well, where’s the faith? Where’s the deeds?
e. James wasn’t saying that the deeds of our faith save us, but the deeds of ourfaith reveal that our faith is true and real.
2. Once there was a missionary who was translating the New Testament into a tribal language and found that there was no word in that tribal language that was equivalent for the biblical concept of faith.
a. The missionary searched for a way to explain faith to them for months, then one day, he got an idea.
b. He sat on a chair and lifted his feet off the floor, putting his full weight on the chair, then asked the tribal man who was his translation helper what he was doing, the man replied, “You are leaning wholly on the chair.”
c. The missionary then had the words he needed to explain faith to the tribe.
de. Faith is something you lean wholly on, and so, the one faith that saves is the faith that leans wholly on Jesus.
3. Leaning wholly on Jesus will cause us initially to repent of our sins and turn to Jesus, to confess Jesus with our mouth and to be immersed in water for the forgiveness of our sins.
4. From then on, leaning wholly on Jesus must be lived out each day as we put our faith in Jesus in action as we walk in the Spirit and strive to be like Jesus in all that we think and do and say.
L. There are many things or people that we might put our faith in and we will be sorely disappointed.
1. Certain parachutes, or ladders, or ice on a lake, might not be worthy of our trust.
2. Certain investors, like Bernie Madoff; or certain preachers, like Jim Jones; or heads of state; like Adolph Hitler, were not worthy of people’s trust.
3. But Jesus is worthy of our trust; we can wholly lean on Him.
4. Jesus is the way and the truth and the life and no one gets to the Father except through Him.
5. Every true believer believes that the eternal God sent His eternal Son, who took on human flesh through the virgin birth.
a. This God-man lived a perfect life and offered Himself on the cross in the place of sinners, paying the debt we owe.
b. He was raised bodily from the dead, He ascended into heaven, and He is coming back to judge the world and to reign forever.
c. We are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus and not by works.
d. Our saving faith is expressed in repentance, confession, baptism, and a faithful life thereafter.
e. If a person does not believe these core truths of the Gospel of Jesus, then that person does not hold to the one faith and there is no salvation for them and there is no basis for unity with us.
K. I’m so thankful that the apostle Paul declared this important truth in 1 Timothy 2:4-6: Our God wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.
1. The one faith holds that Christ Jesus is that one mediator between us and God the Father.
2. I pray that everyone hearing my voice today with put their faith in Jesus and wholly lean on Him and Him alone.
3. Earlier in this sermon, I pointed out that this is what Jesus said is the most important thing for us to do: “The work of God is to believe in the one He has sent” – this is the one faith.
4. Do you have that one faith?
a. Are you leaning wholly on Jesus?
b. What do you need to do this week to better demonstrate your faith? (remember: faith without deeds is dead)
5. Sadly, far too many people claim to believe in Jesus, but you can’t tell it by how they live.
a. In fact, the people around them might be surprised to find out that they consider themselves followers of Jesus.
6. That’s the difference between believing in Jesus as Savior and believing in Him as Lord (as we talked about in last week’s sermon).
7. We must believe Jesus is the one Savior and Lord, and put our faith into action as we obey His commands and walk in His steps.
8. This is the one faith.
Resources:
• Ephesians and Philippians, Jay Lockhart and David Roper, Truth for Today Commentary, 2009.
• The Basis for Christian Unity, Steven Cole
https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-26-basis-christian-unity-ephesians-44-6
• Ephesians 4:4-6 Basis for Church Unity, http://www.abideinchrist.com/messages/eph4v4.html
• The Basis for Unity, Brent Kercheville, Westpalmbeachchurchofchrist.com
• There is One Faith, Sermon by Roger Hasselquist, SermonCentral.com
