Faith & Repentance ~ Gifts from Almighty God

The faith that brings a sinner to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for all salvation and the repentance by which that same believing sinner turns away from himself, his dead works and idolatry, are both gifts of
God’s grace, goodness, and power given to all His people by the Holy Spirit and from the Lord Jesus Christ by Whose righteousness he has been justified. 

Many today. who claim to be “Christians,” erroneously think that faith and repentance are acts of man’s “free-will” decision as
if man, even as fallen in and by Adam into sin and spiritual death and depravity, retains a spark of goodness by which he has the ability to choose that which is good and right when it comes to salvation. 

But God’s Word tells us otherwise – “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (I Corinthians 2:14; cf. John 6:44; Romans 3:10-12). 

God’s Word tells us that even faith to believe in Christ is not of ourselves but the gift of God and comes by the power of the Holy Spirit in new birth (John 1:12-13; Eph. 2:8-10). The reason it is important, and even necessary that we see this truth is that God in Christ must have ALL the glory in our salvation, and we must be left with no room to glory in ourselves –

“That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the
Lord” (I Corinthians 1:31). 

—preacher Bill Parker of Eager Avenue Grace church located in Albany, Georgia USA

 Sermon Audio link to follow:  

https://www.sermonaudio.com/broadcasters/reignofgrace/

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