Faith — Listen and Understand
A note on the audio: This lesson's audio is a sermon recording in Korean. The notes below are in English, but pressing play will play Korean speech.
1. Faith Is the Hand That Receives Grace
Reading Romans 9:30-32, the message introduces the theme of receiving God's righteousness by faith rather than by works. The speaker recalls first realizing the importance of faith while learning the gospel.
The Images of a Pipeline and a Hand
The speaker compares faith to a pipeline through which water flows and to a vessel and hand that receive grace. The message explains that even when God's grace, salvation, and promises have already been given, people do not enjoy them in their lives unless they receive them by faith. It connects Hebrews 11:1-2 with this comparison.
The message mentions occasions when Jesus spoke of faith while healing the sick and Matthew 13:58, where he did not do many mighty works because people did not believe. This does not mean faith is a human ability that produces miracles. It is an interpretation the speaker offers to explain the importance of trust that receives God's grace.
The speaker then connects Romans 1:16 and Romans 5:2, explaining that the gospel is God's power for salvation to believers and that people enter the place of grace through faith.
An Experience of Prayer During the School Years
The speaker recalls first hearing a short but serious explanation about speaking in tongues from a teacher during the school years, then praying out of a desire to know more fully that God is alive. The speaker testifies to experiencing an answer later while praying alone. These notes do not reproduce identifying details about the school, class size, teacher, or church, and they do not present this experience as objective proof that must occur in the same way for everyone or as a standard of salvation.
The message explains that even when people hear the same message, indifference or rejection may keep them from responding in faith. Faith moves when a person opens their heart, receives God's word as true, and asks. The speaker connects this personal experience to the point that faith is a channel through which an unseen promise is received as a reality in life.
2. Hear the Word and Look to the Faithful Lord
Faith That Arises from Hearing the Word of Christ
Centered on Romans 10:17, the message explains that faith comes from hearing. The speaker stresses that saving faith is not general religious knowledge, but arises from hearing and receiving the word of Christ concerning Jesus' cross and resurrection.
The speaker says that even a person who has attended church for a long time or lived conscientiously may find it difficult for faith to grow if they hold tightly to their own righteousness and do not open their heart before the gospel. Rather than condemning any particular person, this point is recorded as the message's exhortation to lay down self-sufficiency and acknowledge one's need for the gospel.
The message recalls seeing repentance and the change of salvation occur as the word of the gospel continued to be proclaimed and people listened with open hearts. It also urges church leaders to learn the gospel and be able to explain it to others so that the joy of life may continue within the community.
Faith Grows by Looking to the Faithful God
The message distinguishes small faith from great faith and explains that faith grows not by forcing repeated certainty, but by looking to the God who is worthy of trust. The speaker says that just as trust between people grows as they know one another, faith is strengthened as people experience God's faithfulness and constancy.
The speaker supposes that Abraham may have come to know God and grow in trust even before God's call. This is not a chronology stated directly in the biblical text, but an interpretation offered by the speaker to explain the process of growth in faith.
The message then explains that David's faith grew as he experienced God as refuge and strength amid threats and hardship, connecting that movement with the confession in Psalm 23:1-6. It urges listeners to look to and trust the faithful God rather than becoming discouraged by looking only at circumstances.
Referring to Hebrews 11:6, the speaker says that those who come to God must believe that he exists and responds to those who seek him. Growth in faith is not denying hardship, but coming to know more deeply who God is within it.
3. True Faith Moves Your Life
The second part of the message begins by reading Romans 3:25 and Romans 3:27. The speaker presents again the principle that salvation is given not through human works or boasting, but through faith in Jesus Christ.
A Question About Faith That Remains as Knowledge
The speaker introduces the case of a person with a long faith tradition who experienced great fear and confusion when facing serious illness. These notes do not reproduce the person's gender, role, baptizer, church, region, family faith history, age, or length of time. Nor do they generalize fear in the face of illness as a decisive diagnosis of whether someone is saved.
Through this case, the message asks whether faith that a person says they know in their mind is the same as trust that moves their choices in life. The speaker's words are very firm, but these notes do not determine a person's state of salvation because of a particular emotion in crisis; they record only the message's point of self-examination.
Abraham's Faith Expressed in Obedience
Citing Hebrews 11:8, the message explains that Abraham obeyed God's call without knowing where he was going. It emphasizes that true faith is not an impulse that ignores reason and planning, but trust that moves in reliance on God's faithfulness when his word is heard.
Through Hebrews 11:17, it then explains that Abraham held on to God's promise even before the most difficult test. The speaker does not say Abraham had no fear or inner conflict, but describes faith leading him toward obedience amid that conflict.
A Testimony of Taking Hold of Faith Again in Discouragement
The speaker recalls trying to resolve a financial conflict in the community during early ministry, only to meet misunderstanding and resistance and become deeply discouraged. These notes omit identifying details such as the year, location, other parties, amounts, and honorarium.
The speaker testifies to hearing a hymn at a gathering, receiving comfort to move forward in faith even when circumstances did not change, and finding strength again. The hymn lyrics quoted in the message are not reproduced here. The speaker uses this personal experience to explain faith not as an idea, but as trust that moves a person again amid discouragement.
4. Salvation Is Received Through Faith
The Way of Faith, Not Works
Centered on Romans 3:21-22, the message explains that God's righteousness is given to those who believe in Jesus Christ, rather than through an attempt to achieve righteousness by the law and one's own strength. Its point is that the law of faith is not a technique by which people accomplish salvation, but the principle of receiving God's salvation.
Connecting 1 John 5:4-5, the speaker says that faith in Jesus as the Son of God becomes strength to overcome the world even amid suffering. This is recorded not as a guarantee that believers' difficulties disappear, but as an exhortation concerning strength to hold to God's will rather than simply following circumstances.
The speaker recalls experiencing weeping, gratitude, and joy when believing the gospel of Jesus' cross, and then clearly says that each person's emotional experience of salvation can be different. These notes do not make the speaker's intense emotional experience a standard every believer must follow.
The Holy Spirit's Seal and New Life
Citing Ephesians 1:13, the message explains that those who hear and believe the gospel of salvation are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. The speaker interprets this as the work of new birth: the Holy Spirit dwells within a person and brings to life, with the resurrection life that raised Jesus, the spirit that had been dead in sin.
The message explains that the Holy Spirit brings awareness of sin, opens the door to repentance, enables understanding of the gospel, and leads people into the relationship of children who call God Father. This is attributed to the speaker's theological explanation and does not present a particular intensity of emotion or form of experience as the only evidence of salvation.
5. Repent and Live in Reliance on Jesus
Faith That Moves Together with Repentance
The message explains that true faith moves together with repentance. Repentance is turning from a life where one's own will has been master, receiving Jesus as Lord, and relying on him. The speaker urges listeners not merely to repeat that they believe in words, but to acknowledge their sin and limits and call on the name of Jesus.
The source lecture contains forceful language that determines the audience's salvation status and warns of hell. These notes do not reproduce that fear-inducing language; they record the central point that the speaker called for a change in life's direction and practical trust in Jesus.
A Life That Relies on Christ at Every Moment
Explaining Galatians 2:19-20, the message interprets being dead to the law as the end of trying to fulfill God's will by one's own strength. It says that believers now live not by their own strength alone, but by faith in the Son of God, who loved them and gave himself for them.
The speaker presents asking Jesus for help and wisdom upon waking, while praying, and whenever difficulties arise at work and home as training in faith. Faith is not an attitude that denies weakness, but one that acknowledges it and relies on Christ in every area of life.
Finally, referring again to Hebrews 11:6, the speaker urges listeners to come forward believing that God exists and responds to those who seek him. The message says that this unit was added to help people who find it difficult to receive the gospel's promise as their own, and closes by asking those who have learned to be able to explain faith to others in their own words.