Faithfulness of Abraham
Genesis 22:6-10
When we read about the faithfulness of Abraham when we should be
looking also at the faithfulness of God. God’s faithfulness to us is unending and we do not deserve
that kind of grace.
The time that Abraham is living is a dark world. We cannot even begin
to imagine the evil that existed at that time. Child sacrifice was common
practice in the region and Abraham acted in a way that was consistent with the
world outside. Even though he knew, that child sacrifice was an abomination to
God.
We also see the faithfulness of Isaac because nowhere in the text do we
see a struggle by Isaac to resist. This was a test by God and this sacrifice
was to the final test of ten to see how faithful Abraham was to God. How do we
understand that kind of faith? I cannot imagine being put to that kind of test
and how I would react. To get a better understanding of a rational faith I
found that CS Lewis puts words into an order that helps.
CS Lewis - But what I did not see then--and a good many people
do not see still--was this. I was assuming that if the human mind once accepts
a thing as true it will automatically go on regarding it as true, until some
real reason for reconsidering it turns up. In fact, I was assuming that the
human mind is completely ruled by reason. But that is not so. For example, my
reason is perfectly convinced by good evidence that anesthetics do not smother
me and that properly trained surgeons do not start operating until I am
unconscious. But that does not alter the fact that when they have me down on
the table and clap their horrible mask over my face, a mere childish panic
begins inside me. I start thinking I am going to choke, and I am afraid they
will start cutting me up before I am properly under. In other words, I lose my
faith in anesthetics. It is not reason that is taking away my faith; on the
contrary, my faith is based on reason. It is my imagination and emotions. The
battle is between faith and reason on one side and emotion and imagination on
the other.....
“Faith in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of
holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing
moods.”
It takes
courage to keep a strong faith.
“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of
every virtue at the testing point.” ― CSLewis
When I stop and think about all the times, I
have disappointed God with a weak faith, and then remember how He has been
faithful to me. You and I have a natural desire to be something other than what
God wants us to be. All through the Bible in story after story we hear of
people who God raises up to lead his people and how they in one way or another
mess up and have to start all over again. In Lamentations 3:22
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never
fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Reason tells
me that I don’t deserve the sacrifice that Jesus made. Furthermore, for what
reason does God not give up on you and me?
You may remember these words -- “Great is Thy
faithfulness,” O God my Father, There is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou
changest not, thy compassions, they fail not as Thou hast been Thou forever
wilt be.
One of my friends greeted me the other day with,
“I’m taking a poll on the reason us old guys are grumpy. What do you say?” I
didn’t think twice and replied, “Because we don’t care what other people think
and we are honest.” Later I thought about that answer and asked myself – “Why?”
Why am I different now compared to when I was younger?
Here is the link to this side note. When most of
us are trying to get ahead and survive, we are more diplomatic about our
relationships with others. As time goes by and have gone through many a crisis
that we think we can fix or solve, we learn that our trust in man and ourselves
cannot be relied upon and that God is the one who fixes things in time and our
faith grows.
In Isaiah, God wants
his people to fear him and not other kings or nations. He wants his people to
worship Him and not false gods. Again, the people disappoint him. In chapter 1
verse 3, God says, “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey his master’s manger,
but Israel does not know; my people do not understand.” In other words, God is
saying, “My people are stupid.”
God lead his people
out of Egypt to free them from slavery only to hear grumbling that they were
better off as slaves. He keeps them in the desert for forty years until the
older generation dies off and we think surely the following generation will get
it. God just keeps coming after us poking and prodding us, trying to get our
attention.
We all become slaves
to sin and to life. My faith tells me that I may not get all my questions
answered before God calls me home. However, I will have eternity sitting at the
feet of Jesus learning from the greatest teacher of all.
My faith tells me that
the only reason I am standing here today is that my faith is in that God saved
me and has brought me to this time and place in my life. It was God’s will that
I did not end this wonderful life that He has given me. Our purpose while on
this earth is to proclaim the beauty of life that God promises us and to the
world. God has been faithful to me and I in turn need to show my faithfulness
to Him. Faith is the foundation to loving God, worshipping God and living a
life that God wants us to live with virtue and prudence. Without this faith, my
world would be chaotic. Without God’s faith, the stars would fall from their
lofty heights; earth would fly off from its orbit into an unknown blackness.
We need to ask
ourselves the question: How does my faith reflect in my personal life and how
does my faith reflect to those around me and; in whose ability do I trust – man
or God?
Faith
and Fruit
A
Study of the book of James
Last week we studied
the Faith and courage of Abraham, Isaac and the God’s faith in his children.
Today we are going to
have a quick look at the book of James and see what he says about faith. Being
saved and being a follower of Christ is more than having faith and believing we
are saved by grace. Hopefully I can show that works is involved in this life of
being a servant of God. However, we must have the correct interpretation of
what is meant by works.
First let’s have an
overview of James and what he writes in the New Testament. James is believed to
be oldest brother of Jesus. James is a short book of five chapters. The first
chapter deals with the trials and maturity of a Christian. In the eighteenth
verse it says, By His own choice, He gave us a new birth by the message of
truth so that we would be the first fruits of His creatures. James goes on to
list the characteristics of a follower of Jesus.
In the second chapter,
James continues with the sin of favoritism. In verse eight the great
commandment is repeated, “Love you neighbor as your-self.” and then proceeds on
with Faith and Works. In verse 23 James says, “So the Scripture was fulfilled
that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness,
and he was called God’s friend. v. 24 You see that a man is justified by works
and not by faith alone.”
In the third chapter
James talks about controlling the tongue and the evil that comes from it. I
think verse one is key to understanding works: “Not many should become
teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment.” I
will explain later why this is key. The lesson in this chapter is that the
tongue can pollute the whole body and possibly exclude a Christian from
eternity with the Father in Heaven.
In chapter four we
learn about humility verses pride. I learned a long time ago that pride, in my
estimation, is the worst sin of all. Pride is a wall that prevents us from
communication with God the Father. I want you to take note that in verses
eleven through twelve, again we have some key thoughts in what is the meaning of
works. Verse eleven, don’t criticize one another, brothers. He who criticizes a
brother or judges his brother criticizes the law and judges the law. But if you
judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver
and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your
neighbor?” We need to understand that there are two ways of judging. Many will
use this as a hammer to excuse their behavior and criticize the Christian as
being self-righteous, bigoted, and so forth. We cannot judge someone’s
salvation, however, we can make judgments on someone’s behavior, to warn them
that this is unacceptable before God. We do this in love because we care about
that person. Too many people like to use this to rationalize their behavior and
it needs to be understood.
In chapter five, James
warns the rich to be fair in their hoarding of treasure by not being fair to
those who work for them. The wealth of the rich will not save them or buy their
way into eternity. He goes on in verse nine, with the theme of this message,
“Brothers, do not complain about one another, so that you will not be judged”.
So what is being said
with these examples of what good works are? The good news is that we are saved
by faith through our works. The bad news is that many Christians will not be
saved even though they claim salvation through grace. The reason for this can
be found in Matthew and has to do with the bearing of fruit. Chapter 7:16- 20
and chapter 12:33-37. (Read chap. 12 verses)
“By your words you
will be condemned.”
It appears that we can
do works by participating in every Bible study group, memorize a Bible verse
every week, participate in mission groups and go to church every Sunday, but if
we cannot control our tongues – the dead branches will be burned.
John 15:5,6
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He
who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you do nothing.
If anyone does not abide in Me he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and
they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”
Cultivation of grapes
is labor-intensive work. There are branches that bear fruit and there are
branches that do not bear fruit. The root has to provide nourishment to the
whole vine. The branches that do not bear fruit use precious water and
nutrients that could go to produce grapes or the fruit. Those branches need to
be pruned. After the harvest, the dead branches are gathered and burned.
Our tongues are the
key to eternal life. The great commandment is to love your neighbor as
yourself. That means that we cannot be saying bad things about our neighbor
behind their backs. If we are professing Christians teaching others about
Christ dying for our sins, we as teachers are more accountable. We should be
lifting our neighbor up by saying things that will encourage, to show we care.
It is our pride that causes us to talk badly about another person. A prideful
heart and a wicked tongue will bring nothing but despair into our own lives. We
need to love others more and love ourselves less.
Faith and the Disciples
John chapter 6
In this series
of study on faith, we have looked at Genesis and Abraham. We have looked at the
book of James and how faith is to be used in our behavior toward others. Today
I want to examine the book of John and how he connects faith his writings.
Not sure how
many of you are following world events, but what is happening in the Middle
East today is of great concern to me and the problems that confront humankind.
The United
States of America is a world leader because of system of government was built
on Judeo/Christian influence. The followers of Mohammed are split in their
understanding of what Islam is about and they involved in a bloody conflict.
Human nature is based on self-centeredness and each person has an issue that is
so different from their fellow man. In Muslim societies, their faith is based
in fear and in domination rather than in love. We come together as societies to
reflect some commonalities.
In thinking
about this, I am reminded of the followers of Jesus and more on the twelve
Disciples of Jesus. Here God placed among men his son to bring His people into
a closer relationship because of His love for us. However, the disciples in the
beginning had a weak faith and even though they liked what Jesus was saying, they
did not have a complete understanding of who He was. The woman at the well was
the first to really know who Jesus was. Those that followed Jesus were looking
and hearing the Messiah but could not believe it. They needed signs or miracles
to be performed. When Jesus did perform miracles, they still could not believe
as when Jesus fed the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish.
(Read John
6:22-59
For many
followers they could not understand the spiritual feeding that Jesus was
feeding them and in verse 66, it says, “from that moment many of His disciples
turned back and no longer accompanied Him”. The miracles were not enough and
they could not understand that Jesus was using metaphors to help them
understand that faith in what Jesus was saying to bring them to an eternal
relationship with God the Father.
Just prior to
the one of the most quoted passages in the Bible, John 3:16, verses 11 and 12,
Jesus is talking about faith. “Very truly
I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but
still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly
things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly
things?” Nicodemus is confused and his faith in Jesus is immature. Jesus is
saying that if you are having trouble believing what you are seeing, how can
you possible believe in what you cannot see?
Why is it so
hard for God’s children to have a complete faith? A child has that faith when
they feel pain or danger. They will seek one of their parents for healing and
protection not knowing why, just that it is real the safety they feel. There is
nothing logical about faith. Often times our logic and our faith conflict.
In Hebrews,
11:1-3 Only faith can guarantee the
blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of realities that are
unseen. It is for their faith that our ancestors are acknowledged. It is by
faith that we understand that the ages were created by a word from God so that
from the invisible the visible world came to be.
Faith
lacks any intellectual content. It is completely at odds with the rational
mind.
Faith is a light of such supreme
brilliance that it dazzles the mind and darkens all its visions of other
realities, but in the end when we become used to the new light, we gain a new
view of all reality transfigured and elevated in the light itself. Thomas Merton
It is
hard to describe faith to a person with a hard heart. It is only in our
brokenness and suffering that many come to belief. It is also hard for a person
of faith to have a real passion about his or her faith.
I
discovered a video on YouTube not long ago that I play often just to give me
courage about my own faith. It is a video of a small blonde German woman who
stood up against the secular church in Germany when they invited a Muslim
Mullah to give a prayer before a concert. Heidi Mund shouted from the balcony
about the blasphemy that was taking place in a church dedicated to Martin
Luther.
As I
talked about before, it takes courage to have faith and to stand for your
faith. A young Christian mother is standing up for her faith against the threat
of death by her Muslim captors. She is willing to die rather than renounce her
faith in Jesus Christ and God the Father. Having the faith of Marianne and
Heidi Mund is blazing faith that truly dazzles the mind. We should be of that
same faith rather than be dazzled by it.
What
dazzles me and increases my faith is the fingerprint of God that we witness
daily. When I see children playing, birds and flowers, feel the wind on my
face, the stars and moon, I know that God’s creation was not an accident, it is
too perfect.
When
we pray, we should pray with conviction and courage. I have heard some people
tell about praying to God for a miracle in their lives. They will pray, God if
you will do this, then I promise I will do that. I am not so sure that we can
barter with God. I do not think it is Biblical to begin with. We should pray
like we have faith that God will do His will and we will have courage and faith
enough to abide by His will.
2 Corinthians 6:3-13
3
We give
no opportunity for stumbling to anyone, so that the ministry will not be
blamed. 4But as God’s ministers, we
commend ourselves in everything:
by
great endurance, by afflictions,
by
hardship, by difficulties,
5by beatings, by
imprisonments,
by
riots, by labors,
by
sleepless nights, by times of hunger,
6by purity, by knowledge,
by
patience, by kindness,
by
the Holy Spirit, by sincere love,
7by the message of truth,
by
the power of God;
through
weapons of righteousness
on
the right hand and the left,
8through glory and
dishonor,
through
slander and good report;
as
deceivers yet true;
9as unknown yet recognized;
as
dying and look — we live;
as
being disciplined yet not killed;
10as grieving yet always
rejoicing;
as
poor yet enriching many;
as
having nothing yet possessing everything.
11We have spoken openly to
you, Corinthians; our heart has been opened wide. 12You are not limited by us,
but you are limited by your own affections. 13I speak as to my children. As a proper
response, you should also be open to us.
Faith in
the Battle with Life
A Look at
Noah
In my last message on faith in this four part series, we
have looked at faith from different people in the Bible discovering what faith
is and how people walked in their faith. When Jesus calls us out and asks us to
follow Him, like the woman at the well, Jesus seeks us and we respond by
allowing ourselves to enter into a spirit world that others avoid or dismiss.
We are asked to believe that Jesus was born of a virgin
birth, that somehow God impregnated Mary to bring Jesus into the human world so
that can believe how much God loves us.
We are asked to believe that Jesus died on a cross,
entombed and somehow was raised from the dead and on top of that, revisited the
disciples and then in front of their eyes, ascended into heaven.
Believing these things alone takes a lot of faith. We believe
in the unseen, the illogical and the unknown future events of the world.
Sometimes that is more faith than one can muster or have enough of.
Once we have entered the spirit world, others around us may
be confused as to what is happening. The only thing we can do is to become a
different person than we were before and demonstrate our faith by acting it and
letting others see the true peace that Jesus promised to bring the world. The
true peace that only God can bring.
Deuteronomy 31:5,6 The Lord will deliver them to you, and you must do to them all that I
have commanded you. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified
because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you
nor forsake you.
"By faith Noah, being warned of God of
things not yet seen, in holy fear, built an ark to save his family. By his
faith he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness that is
keeping with faith."—Hebrews 11:7
One of the examples of faith in the Bible is Noah. We talk about
extreme sports where athletes do dangerous things to show their capabilities;
in Noah, we see extreme faith again.
(Read Genesis 6:9-22)
Noah built an ark because God told him to. In that time,
the earth was very different from how we know the environment today. Some
believe that Noah was living in a desert because there was no rain. The people
laughed at Noah because he was building this great ship in a place that did not
rain. Because Noah was obedient and was faithful to God, he continued the labor
of building an engineering marvel.
To understand more about Noah’s faith, we have to look at
the time and circumstances he was building the ark. At the time before the
flood, the earth was a much different place. I do not believe it was a desert
at all. The land at that time was perfect and plants and animals lived among
the people were very different from the plants and animals we have today. We
are given clues in the OT how different an environment it was. It was so
different that it is logically hard to visualize such a place. However,
scientific discoveries have shown us evidence of how different the world was
before the flood, if only we have enough faith to believe.
In that time, there was no such thing as rain. Many
interpret this to mean that Noah was building his ark in the desert. On closer
examination of the scriptures, we find that there was a vault of water above
the sky. There was natural hydration of plant life through the dew of the
morning. Some speculate that the vault of water above the sky also protected
those living at that time and they lived as long as 900 years. After the flood,
the longevity of life dramatically shortened as the vault was released and
rains became the way of watering plant life. We can assume that rain was not the
norm before the flood because the first rainbow happened after the waters
receded as God’s promise that He would never cause this to happen again. The
vault was empty of all the water that caused the flood and now oceans separated
the landforms.
Now imagine that you were one of those who lived as
neighbors to Noah and his family. What would you be thinking? What is this
strange looking vessel that Noah is creating? There were no lakes and rivers to
float a boat let alone this gigantic ship that Noah was building. When Noah
talked about the coming flood, how could one even imagine such a thing if one
had not experienced rain? Surely, Noah was crazy!
Imagine if you were in Noah’s employment and Noah is
telling how to do certain tasks that no one had ever done before. You would
most likely think that you were completely wasting your time. It would be like
telling a soldier to go out and dig holes in the ground and then after
accomplishing the task, telling him to fill them back up again. CRAZY!
The thing that destroys our faith more than any other thing
is what others might say about what we do and say or how we express our faith
in God’s Holy Word. We worry that we may look foolish, worry that we are not
following what is accepted by the community that we live in. When we doubt what
God tells us to do, we allow Satan into our lives. Faith is knowing that God
loves us and wants us to be obedient to his instruction. .
C.H. Spurgeon, June 1, 1890
Noah’s Faith, Fear, Obedience and Salvation
(excerpt)
Noah believed through a hundred
and twenty solitary years! It was a long martyrdom. Our life is quite long enough for the trial of
faith. Even if a man lives to be eighty, and has sixty years of that life spent
in the exercise of faith, it is only by almighty grace that he holds out. Noah
lived two of our lives in this way. If a little flood had happened and moved
his ark a little, he would have had some evidence for his faith; but there was
no flood at all; and his ark lay high and dry for a century and a quarter! How
few could endure this! Yonder dear friend has been praying for the last six
months, and the Lord has not heard him, and he begins to doubt whether the Lord
does hear prayer at all. You are not much like Noah. You can hardly believe for
one hundred and twenty days. "Alas!" says one, "I have prayed
for my husband these twenty years!" It is a long time to wait; but what
would you do with a hundred added on to it? Years made Noah's faith more
mature, and not more feeble. This grey father of the age went on with his
preaching, went on with his intercession, and, without a doubt, waited for God
in his own time to justify his servant before the eyes of men.
G. K Chesterton was a great theologian in the late 1800 and
early 1900s. He says this about faith:
“It is
idle to talks always of the alternative of reason and faith.
Reason is
itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thought have
any relation to reality at all. If you are merely a skeptic, you must sooner or
later ask yourself the question, ‘Why should anything go right; even
observation and deduction? Why should not good logic be as misleading as bad
logic? They are both movements in the brain of a bewildered ape?’ The young
sceptic says, “I have a right to think for myself.’ But the old sceptic, the
complete sceptic, says, ‘I have not right to think for myself. I have no right
to think at all.’”
The point is that we have to believe that our own thoughts
and conclusions about what God is telling us through prayer and studying God’s
Word.
When we see by faith the invisible things of heaven, it has an
uplifting power, it has an attracting power, higher above the earth, nearer to
God all the time.
B. H. Carroll
“When I consider the
state of the world, the total obscurity enshrouding our personal destiny, and
my present imprisonment, our union—if it wasn’t frivolity, which it certainly
wasn’t—can only be a token of God’s grace and goodness, which summon us to
believe in him. We would have to be blind not to see that. When Jeremiah said,
in his people’s hour of direst need, that “houses and fields [and vineyards]
shall again be bought in this land,”* it was a token of confidence in the
future. That requires faith, and may God grant it to us daily. I don’t mean the
faith that flees the world, but the faith that endures in the world and loves
and remains true to that world in spite of all the hardships it brings us. Our
marriage must be a “yes” to God’s earth. It must strengthen our resolve to do
and accomplish something on earth. I fear that Christians who venture to stand
on earth on only one leg will stand in heaven on only one leg too.”
Excerpt From: Eric Metaxas. “Bonhoeffer.” iBooks. https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=370556049
Psalm 118:6-9 The
Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? The Lord
is with me; he is my helper. I look in triumph on my enemies. It is better to trust
in the Lord than to trust in humans. It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in princes.
