Monday, October 15, 2012

Faith Part 3


Last week during Sunday School Steve played the video and spoke about grace and faith. As he was speaking I was reminded of the first message that I ever spoke at Diamond Ridge back 5 or six years ago in which I spoke on faith and what our responsibilities, as Christians, were regarding faith. So I began to really meditate on the subject of faith and realized that it can be difficult to wrap your head around. We see a lot of texts that seem to support that we have to do something to gain or strengthen our faith and we also see a lot of texts that seem to support that any faith we have is given to us by God. This may seem simple to some of you or all of you but this study really helped me to understand an area that we seem to take for granted. We talk about faith all the time, sometimes very flippantly. We sing songs about it, we hear it on TV, But do we really know what it is and what God says about it?  I want to take some time today to look at some of these passages and perhaps you will learn something new today or be reminded of something you already knew or even just to gain a deeper understanding.

Let’s start with some basics.

Dictionary definition…Faith is the persuasion of the mind that a statement is true.

          We have been told that there is a tropical storm out in the Gulf. None of us have seen it other than on TV and yet we all believe that it is true. We have faith in the weatherman’s statements. That is a very generic form of faith but is still an accurate definition.

A biblical definition of faith, although I don’t think that this is exhaustive definition is found in Hebrews chapter 11verse 1.

Heb 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

            This, of course, goes into a lot more detail of the faith we are talking about today. If we look at Robertson’s word pictures, which really helps me to understand some of the confusing Greek translations, we will see part of this verse broke down and it will give us a better understanding to the intentions of the writer. I have summarized it a bit. The original gives the Greek phrases that I can’t pronounce. If you would like it all in the original I can give you the web site.

            “The assurance of things hoped for”…This phrase is related to standing or being held firm under something, such as a contract or a promise. This was common in business documents as the guarantee of transactions. In essence “Biblical Faith is the title-deed of things hoped for” It is the contract, the guarantee that what He has said is true. It is God persuading us that His statements are true. We now have the ability to believe.

                    

            That is what the video and Steve spoke about last week. That the faith we have to believe has to come from God. We do not have the ability on our own to believe. By grace we are given the faith to believe, and because we believe we are now saved.

Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Eph 2:9  not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

 

            The text is very clear here that grace and faith are not our own doing. Some commentaries vary on this text and say that grace is God’s part and the faith is our part but I disagree. Verse 9 would not be accurate if that were the case. One could boast and say that because he mustered up enough faith that that is how he was saved. Then our salvation would be based on our works of faith. That is still works. I found this statement but am not sure who made it.

 

“God justifies the believing man, not for the worthiness of his belief, but for the worthiness of Him in whom he believes”

 

          Let’s look at some more passages that seem to support that our faith comes from God and not from us.

 

Rom 12:3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

 

1Co 12:7  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

1Co 12:8  For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit,

1Co 12:9  to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,

1Co 12:10  to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

1Co 12:11  All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

 

Heb 12:2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

 

 

            There are other references but these seemed to be the most obvious that our faith does not come from us but from God.

            But remember at the beginning I said there seemed to be a lot of text that say that I have to work for my faith. That faith would seem to be my responsibility not Gods. That that quote that I said earlier may be true and Grace is God’s part and faith is our part. Is there any validity to that scripturally?

            We are going to look at some other scriptures that may seem to be contradictory to everything we just read. Let’s start with…

 

1Th 5:6  So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.

1Th 5:7  For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.

1Th 5:8  But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

 

It would appear as though we have to “put on the breastplate of faith” as part of our being alert and sober.

 

Luk 22:31  "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat,

Luk 22:32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers."

If our faith is given to us by God and not “under our control” than how could Peter’s faith fail? Why would Jesus need to pray for Peter’s faith?

 

1Pe 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1Pe 1:4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

1Pe 1:5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1Pe 1:6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,

1Pe 1:7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1Pe 1:8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,

 

Why would we have a test of our faith if we have no control of our faith? Is God being tested when our faith is being tested? I think not.

 

1Co 16:13  Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

1Co 16:14  Let all that you do be done in love.

Again, we are called to stand firm in the faith.

We have seen scripture that seems to prove that God is in control of our faith and we have seen scripture that seems to prove that we faith is works based.

I want us to look at another scripture and this is the scripture that I based my Diamond Ridge message on back 5 or 6 years ago.

 

Mat 17:14  And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him,

Mat 17:15  said, "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water.

Mat 17:16  And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him."

Mat 17:17  And Jesus answered, "O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me."

Mat 17:18  And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.

Mat 17:19  Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?"

Mat 17:20  He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."

Mat 17:21  [But this kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting.]

 

 

Luk 17:5  The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"

Luk 17:6  And the Lord said, "If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

 

I have heard these texts preached on in the past and it is almost always explained as faith the size of a mustard seed. But the text doesn’t say it that way, nor does any translation that I could find. All translations that I researched were faith like or as a mustard seed. There is a huge difference in the size of a mustard seed and like a mustard seed. Let me try to give you the picture of what God has given me to help me understand faith and what is God’s responsibility and what is my responsibility.

          The mustard seed is one of the tiniest seeds that there are and yet it becomes one of the largest plants in the garden rivaling that of a small tree. The mustard seed does not choose where it will be planted.

          Much like we don’t choose to have faith. God decides where He will plant the seeds and where He will not. I don’t understand how He makes those decisions and question them sometimes. But He does plant the seed in those that He calls chosen.

 

Eph 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

Eph 1:4  even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love

Eph 1:5  he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

Eph 1:6  to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Eph 1:7  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

Eph 1:8  which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight

Eph 1:9  making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ

Eph 1:10  as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Eph 1:11  In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

Eph 1:12  so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

Eph 1:13  In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

Eph 1:14  who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

 

I would like you to consider how much faith does a seed have? When a seed is planted it knows nothing else of what to do than to grow. It does not have its own agenda. We planted tomato seeds in our back yard and not one of them decided it didn’t want to be a tomato and grew up as a watermelon. It just began to grow into what it was intended to be. If we allowed the seed of faith that has been placed in us to grow as God intended it to do then it would become one of the largest plants in our garden. If we had faith LIKE a mustard seed we would not question and complain about the circumstances that God has placed us in but we would glorify Him in those circumstances.

          But if God chose to place a seed of faith in us then there is nothing that we can do to dig that seed up. If it has been planted by God than it is immovable, therefore verifying the first part of this message which was that God gives us the faith that we have and it is not from us. Question answered we can all go now. Not quite.

 

 

1Ti 1:18  This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,

1Ti 1:19  holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith,

 

Apparently we are able to make a shipwreck of our faith. I at times in my life have.

          Let’s go back to our mustard seed…

                   That seed of faith that God has placed in us we have deemed immovable but we can see here that we can make a shipwreck out of it. As our tomatoes started to grow they were attacked by some leaf eating bug that all but destroyed our tomatoes. So we got some bug killer dust and put that on it and they were okay for a while but then they started to wilt and die and we found out from Ed that we needed to fertilize them and we did and they started to look real good and even got a little terrible looking mutated tomato out of it. But then it just seemed to stop growing and I realized that the bushes were way too big for the pot that I had them in so we transplanted them into a bigger pot and they started growing and producing again.

          Well there is our faith. No matter what I did it was still a tomato plant, dead or alive it was still a tomato and nothing would change that. But it took grooming and care before it became anything of any use.

          This is where the other part of our faith coming from us comes from. God gives us the faith but we are responsible to nurture and grow that faith to become useful to Him. We are to water our seed with the Word of God. We are to protect our faith with fellowship. We are to exercise our faith with prayer.

Rom 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

 

Eph 6:16  In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;

Rom 4:20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,

 

 

Heb 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

1Jn 5:4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

It is our faith given to us by God ( our salvation ) Our hope of Glory

 

 

2Pe 1:3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,

2Pe 1:4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

1Pe 1:9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

 

 

JFB…

By faith alone we are sure of eternal things that they ARE: but by hope we are confident that WE SHALL HAVE them. All hope presupposes faith

 

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