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  WHERE DOES FAITH COME FROM
  by John Piper
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Summary: This sermon delves into the concept of faith as an act or
experience of the soul, emphasizing that faith originates within the
individual and is ultimately a gift from God. It explores the idea that
faith is not something we possess inherently but is bestowed upon us by
God's grace, highlighting the biblical perspective that all individuals
are sinners and dead in their trespasses and sins, with faith being a
divine gift that rules out boasting. The message underscores the
distinction between earning a wage through sin and receiving the gift of
eternal life through faith.

Topics: "Faith as a Gift", "Grace and Salvation"
Scripture References: Ephesians 2:8, Romans 6:23, 1 Corinthians 4:7

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves into the concept of faith as an act or experience of
the soul, emphasizing that faith originates within the individual and is
ultimately a gift from God. It explores the idea that faith is not
something we possess inherently but is bestowed upon us by God's grace,
highlighting the biblical perspective that all individuals are sinners
and dead in their trespasses and sins, with faith being a divine gift
that rules out boasting. The message underscores the distinction between
earning a wage through sin and receiving the gift of eternal life
through faith.

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CONTENT
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Faith is an act or an experience of the soul. It doesn't happen outside.
It happens in the soul, in you.

It's your act. And so, the first and obvious answer is faith comes from
you. It isn't coming from you.

It's not yours and you don't have faith. But when I ask the question,
where does it come from? I'm pushing this back further than that. I want
to ask the question, why you, if you have, a dead, spiritually dead,
spiritually blind unbeliever, one day were quickened to life and had
your eyes enabled to see Christ as compellingly real, whereas another
person, reading the same Bible, hearing the same message, didn't.

And the biblical answer to that, the ultimate biblical answer to that is
that you are, and I am, all of us are, sinners, dead in our trespasses
and sin, a veil lies upon our minds, and God, in His mercy, owing us
nothing, enabled some of you to see what you nor anybody didn't deserve.
You didn't deserve that. Nobody deserves it.

The ultimate answer to the question, where does faith come from, is that
it's a gift of God arising in the soul, Ephesians 2.8, by grace you have
been saved through faith. This is not your own doing, it is the gift of
God, which is why Paul says it rules out boasting. It's one of the
reasons, there are more.

You can't boast in a gift. If you boast in a gift as though you deserve
the gift, it's not a gift, it's a wage. The Bible clearly distinguishes
in Romans 6.23 the wages of sin and the gift of eternal life.

If you deserve, you get a wage. If you don't deserve, you get a gift.
Faith is a gift, 1 Corinthians 4.7. What do you have that you did not
receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not
receive it? You see, in Paul's mind, the relationship between boasting
and gifts, if you produce your faith, you can boast in it.

If it's a gift, you can't.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/GLbOeP6oxL8.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/john-piper/where-does-faith-come-from/
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