I am reminded of the fable about the mother bear, who told her cub, when he asked which foot he should put forward first when he began to walk: The mother said ?shut up and walk?! Another story is about a man who stretched a cable across Niagara Falls and rolled a wheel barrow across above the falls. When he had made the trip across and back, he asked a man if he believed he could do it again and when the man said he believed (had faith), the man told him to ?get in the wheelbarrow. Only if the man would get into the wheelbarrow and ride across that thin wire above the falls would he have true faith!
We, as professing Christians, all talk of having faith in Jesus Christ, but do we really? Lots of people study faith and learn Hebrews 11:1, which says ?Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen?. Yes, we study faith, and analyze faith, and sing about our faith, but most never actually make that leap of faith. Our faith is strong enough to bring us to church occasionally, to cause us to give up most sin, to even cause us to speak the name of Jesus occasionally but when sickness or death or other problems arise we seem to shed our faith and look for help in other places.
For the person who has true saving faith, Jesus is all they need, because they trust Jesus and what God has said in His Word the Bible and what Jesus has done for them, to the point that come hell or high water they will not be dismayed or lose the joy of their salvation. They know for sure that faith will not always get them what they want, but it will always get them what they need, and what God wants them to have. It is said of Hudson Taylor, the evangelist, that he worked hard to develop faith, until he stopped looking at his faith and learned to rest in the Faithful One. Faith begins by our letting go and stretching out on the promises of God as we obey Christ and submit our lives to Him?.not by taking deep breaths and clenching our fists and resolving to trust or bust. Faith comes with God?s Grace and both are the gift of God in salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9).
We are told by the Bible, the inerrant, inspired Word of God, that ?Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word? (Romans 10:17). We have to be careful when we read, or sit under the preaching of the Word that what we hear is the truth of the Word of God; because Jesus said ?If you continue in My Word, then are you My disciples indeed and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free? (John 8:30-32). It is the truth of the Word of God, not necessarily the truth as some preacher likes to preach it, and not always the truth as presented by some denominational Sunday school lesson. That is not to say that all preaching is not the truth; however what I am saying is that unless you have read the Bible and understood it in context, you have no way of knowing whether what you hear is the truth or not.
How particular is God about Faith? The answer is that God is very, very particular about faith and He will not recognize anything other than true saving faith which He Himself plants in a person in salvation. God tells us that Faith is not ignorant, but knowledgably in Romans 10:17, which says that ?Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God?. God tells us that faith is alive and active in the person who has saving faith, Romans 1:17 tells us that ?The Just or those who have been justified by faith will live by faith? (See Romans 5:1-5). God tells us that we walk by Faith not by sight (2nd Corinthians 5:7). Faith has always been the key to true salvation, because Abraham was saved by his faith, as evidenced by His trust in God (Romans 4:13-24; Galatians 3:6).
Faith was predestined by God for those who would ever be saved, before the foundation of the world (Acts 13:48; Ephesians 1:4). Faith brings with it much battle armor; and among that armor is the shield of faith, wherewith we are able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked (Ephesians 6:16). God tells us that our hearts are purified by faith and that we are sanctified by faith (Acts 15:9; Acts 26:18). God also warns us that whatever is not of faith is sin, so if your faith is true saving faith, everything you do whether you think it is good or not is sin (Romans 14:23). Of Course, those are just a few of the aspects of saving faith, and it becomes important that we mention that none of these are options to the person who is saved, they everyone apply and you can judge your own faith by carefully comparing your faith to these scriptural benchmarks.
We mentioned before that we walk by faith and not by sight. Sight is not faith, hearing is not faith, and feelings are not faith; but believing and trusting and resting in Jesus when we neither see, hear, or feel, that is faith! A.W. Tozer once said that ?Faith, as the Apostle Paul saw it, was a living, flaming thing leading to surrender and obedience to the commandments of Christ??.that flies in the face of those who, in our day, down play anything that would take self down and lift up Jesus. We are servants, slaves if you will, to the word and will of God in Christ (Romans 6:15); because faith and obedience are bound up in the same package. He that obeys God trusts God, and he that trusts God obeys God. He that is without faith is without works and he that is without works is without faith (John 14:21-24; James 2:14-20).
It seems to me that we have preached and believed the power out of salvation and faith in God. We are long on talk and short on obedience. So many in our day, say that they believe in Christ, and have faith; but they are always unsure of their final end, they doubt much of what is part of the Christian?s life and they are anxious about almost everything, that is a signal that their faith is not true saving faith. George Mueller said that ?The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety?; and Martin Luther said ?Faith is a living, daring confidence in God?s grace, so sure and certain that man could stake his life on it a thousand times.?
Do you have that kind of faith, or is your faith?. a faith in your faith? That?s pretty much the direction most preaching in our day points out. We like to preach about faith and tell people that that?s how to be saved; and not only is that shallow preaching, it is not the truth. We are saved by GRACE, through FAITH in Christ Jesus. We are saved because we come to a gracious and merciful God who has given His One and Only Son Jesus Christ to pay our sin debt. God?s grace is a gift, as is faith in His Son and faith is the vehicle which gets us to God. We must give up our desire to ?decide to be saved? and cast ourselves on Christ and His work alone to save us. If you are saved, it was not because you decided to be saved, it was because God decided to save you; and brought you to a state of mind that would cause you to run to the cross.
As John Calvin said, ?Faith is a steady and certain knowledge of the Divine benevolence toward us, which, being founded on the truth of the gratuitous promise in Christ is both revealed to our minds, and confirmed to our hearts, by the Holy Spirit. John Wesley said, ?Justifying faith implies, not only a divine evidence or conviction that ?God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself,? but a sure trust and confidence that Christ died for my sins, that He loved me and gave Himself for me, (Galatians 2:20).The truly saved person should be a satisfied, trusting, assured, and positive person. They know that God has supernaturally done a work in them and that they are that new creature that we read about in 2nd Corinthians 5:17. Even in times of trouble and when worldly things seem to want to compress us into something other than what God wants us to be, we remain sure and confident of the outcome because the Holy Spirit which lives in us is giving us the desire and the power to resist all worldly lusts. We were saved by Grace through Faith in Christ, and we have been instructed by God?s Word the Bible, that Grace not only saves us but that Grace then becomes our teacher; and it teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and teaches us to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world (Titus 2:11-12).
True Christians have a hunger and thirst for the truth and for the Word of God because that is where their strength comes from. There is no such thing as a true Christian who does not desire the knowledge of God and that comes from the Bible and no where else. Even simple people who find it hard to read the language of the Bible will find someone that can help them to understand it for themselves; and if God is at work in that person they ?will? understand what God wants them to know. Can any of us ever know everything about God? Absolutely not, and we may not be able to understand all about God when we get to heaven but we will understand what we need to know, because God will see to that. An old preacher once aptly noted that ?Some things are for us to know, some things are not for us to know. Blessed is the man who learns early which is which. Most of our unhappiness is caused by not knowing what we should know and by trying to know what we are not to know?.
See Deuteronomy 29:29, which says, ?The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law?. The problem with our world is that we know too much or at least think that we know! We have been gospel hardened by pseudo-preachers who do not know for themselves but aspire to appear knowledgeable as they spew misinformation and heresy about the Word of God. In most instances the happiest Christians are young people who have not met too many Bible scholars. Most of us have heard so many varied ideas about God and His Word and Will that we have become gospel hardened and are confused. All of us have heard enough minutia about church and Christianity to sink the Titanic and much of what we have heard teaches us that really all Christianity is about is to learn how to perform some things that most people accept as being connected to the church.
True Christianity is not a performance, it is a supernatural experience. Oh, yes you can learn the mechanics that are involved in church work and you can talk a pretty good game as long as no one asks any question, however that does not make anyone a Christian. Christians are people who have been rebirthed by God in His Son Jesus Christ (God in the flesh) see Ephesians 2:10. Real Christians are New Creatures the moment that they are saved, and they have been indwelled by the Holy Spirit, had the old things passed away and all things made new. The true Christian has been to the Cross with Christ and the old creature was crucified with Christ and a new creature was resurrected just as Christ was resurrected on the third day (See Romans 6:1-14). This new creature is being caused to walk the way that God intended for His children to walk, just as Philippians 2:13 tells us God is working is us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
This new creature does not ask, like a bumper-sticker I saw on a car a while back, ?How much can I sin and still go to heaven?? True Christianity and the Christian does not have a question mark. We may not always know what will happen but we know that whatever happens, God is in control and He is working all things together for our good, because we love Him. The Christian was not the person that the old Comedian Fred Allen was speaking of when he jokingly said, ?Most of us spend the first six days of the week sowing wild oats; then we go to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure?. All Christians are a combination of Christ and themselves, we are in Him and He is in us, think about that. It is God that saves us and not we ourselves; however we are given responsibilities and a duty to God and that duty is to live and act like a Christian. If you find a person calling themselves a Christian but living for the devil you know that he does not belong to God.
Now, what is our responsibility when we find someone like we just spoke about, are we to correct them or would that just be too unloving to do? If we think like so many people who call themselves evangelicals today, we would perhaps just walk away as if that were none of our business, or we might lovingly and compromisingly say something to them. Most of us now days have bought into the idea that we have to be overly tolerant of every thing and every one that would not be good for the true Christian that had been snared in sin. Many have become so heavenly minded (in their own minds) that they would be no earthly good to a brother snared in sin. Certainly, we as Christians must be kind and gentle when we deal with an erring brother; however we must never allow our tolerance to extend to any verse or combination of verses that concern the gospel of Christ. We are to strive, or contend earnestly for The FAITH, which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude verse 3). That does not have any tolerance included in it. There are some things that Christians can pass by or even nod to when it does not involve the gospel but we never allow anyone to think we would agree with them when they are scripturally wrong.
In closing this lesson, I have to speak the truth about where we are as church people. The vast majority of church-members (sadly many preachers and seminary graduates) do not possess a proper knowledge of the Word of God. I will leave you with that fact
Until next time, this is brobob. 
