FAITH
Faith in the New Testament, has at least three distinct
meanings. First, the act of the soul in appropriating the
benefits of the promises of God to its individual needs.
Of this faith Jesus spoke to the woman mentioned in Luke
7:50, and said, "Thy faith hath saved thee."
"Have faith in God." Peter also mentioned this
faith to the unbelieving multitude that had gathered in
Solomon's porch, greatly wondering at the manifestation of
the power of God through faith. "And his name through
faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see
and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him
this perfect soundness in the presence of you all."
Acts 3:16. By this faith we are justified (Rom. 5:1),
sanctified (Acts 26:18), kept (1 Pet. 1:5), and healed
(James 5:14, 15).
Secondly, faith means the doctrine
of the gospel. Paul in writing to the Philippians exhorts
them to strive together for the faith of the gospel. Jude
also speaks of the faith once delivered to the saints and
exhorts the children of God to earnestly contend for that
faith. The New Testament is the Christian's creed and
articles of faith. The New Testament is spoken of as faith
because it is a written expression of what the first
Christians believed. They did not believe it because it
was written, for they believed it before it had been
written. It was written because they believed it.
"These are written that we in turn might believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing,
we might have life through his name." The New
Testament is an expression of those principles of the
Christian religion first taught by Jesus Christ and
believed by His disciples and afterwards taught by the
disciples and believed by all who accepted Christ,
therefore called "the faith once delivered to the
saints." For this simple faith alone did the early
Christians contend and in striving for the faith of the
gospel they were exhorted to, and did, strive together.
Thirdly, there is a kind of faith
sometimes called historical faith. This kind have all who
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, whether they
have accepted Him as their personal Saviour or not. The
vilest of men often possess this faith, and even the
devils themselves believe and tremble. James 2:19. This
kind of faith is a dead faith, for "faith without
works is dead." It is not enough to believe that
Jesus tasted death for every man. In order to receive the
benefits of His glorious atonement, you must believe that
He died for you. Things that are dead do not move
themselves or anything else. So a dead faith is inactive
and does not move those who possess it to righteous acts,
but living faith inspires and animates those who possess
it to live in strict harmony with every principle of faith
laid down in the New Testament.
As dead faith is of little value
and is uninspiring to contemplate, I shall now call your
attention to the inspiring subject of living faith in God.
This faith every Christian must have, for "without
faith it is impossible to please God." Hebrews 11:6.
"Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Heb. 11:1. "Now faith is the assurance of things
hoped for, the proving of things not seen. For therein the
elders had witness borne to them." Heb. 11:1, 2.
Revised Version. "But faith is, of things hoped for,
a confidence, of facts a conviction, when they are not
seen. For thereby well attested were the elders." —Rotherham.
"Now faith is the persuasion of the things that are
in hope, as if they were in act; and it is the
manifestness of the things not seen. And for it the
ancients are well testified of."—Syriac. "But
faith is a basis of things hoped for, a conviction of
things unseen. For by this the ancients were
attested." —Emphatic Diaglott.
From the foregoing texts we learn
that faith is the persuasion, a confidence, the assurance,
a basis, of things for which we hope; the manifestness, a
conviction, or proving, of things unseen. We do not have
faith for those things which we see, yet the conviction
that the unseen things for which we believe are ours makes
them as real as if they were seen. "Now faith is the
persuasion of things that are in hope, as if they were in
act." A commentator on this subject says: "The
word which we translate 'substance' signifies
subsistence—that which becomes the foundation for
another thing to stand on—and the word which we
translate 'evidence' signifies such a conviction as is
produced in the mind by the demonstration of a problem;
after which demonstration no doubt can remain, because we
see from it that the thing is; that it cannot but be; and
that it cannot be otherwise than it is and is proved to
be." Without faith we have no ground work, no
substructure, no foundation, for things hoped for; without
it we have no evidence of things unseen. Seeing, then,
that faith is the foundation of our hopes, let us inquire
what is
THE FOUNDATION OF FAITH
The foundation of our faith is
composed of three stones—the character, the ability, and
the will, of the one in whom we believe. There are only
three just reasons to doubt any one. First, if a person is
or has been unfaithful or untruthful, our knowledge of his
perfidy or untruthfulness is a hindrance to our faith in
him, for faith is a dependence on the veracity of another,
and one is said to keep his promise inviolate when he
performs the promise upon which another relied. Secondly,
if a person is unable to perform what he promises, we
cannot depend upon him for the things we need. Thirdly
though a man has always been faithful and is able to
perform his every promise, still we cannot believe that he
will favor us unless we have his promise—the expression
of his will—for a man's power is exercised only in
accordance with his will.
Now, first of all, let us ask who
should be the object of our faith. "And Jesus
answering saith unto them, Have faith in God." Mark
11:22. Next, let us ask ourselves three questions: First,
is God's character such that we can rely upon it? Second,
is his ability such that we have no reason to doubt it?
Third. has he promised to supply all our needs? If we can
answer these three questions in the affirmative, then no
man has any reasons to doubt God.
First, let us examine His
character. "God is faithful, by whom ye were called
to the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord."
1 Cor. 1:9. God made a promise to Judah that the scepter
should not depart from his tribe nor a law giver from
between his feet until Shiloh should come. (Gen. 49:10.)
In exact fulfillment of this promise Shiloh, the Rest
giver, Jesus of Nazareth, came just about the time when
the scepter departed from Judah and the first foreign
prince—Herod the Great—ruled over Judea. God promised
Abraham that in his seed all nations of the earth should
be blessed. In the fulness of the times God sent forth His
Son to bless every one of us in turning us away from our
sins, and in him—the seed of Abraham—all nations are
blessed. God promised Noah that the world should no more
be destroyed by floods and as a token of His promise
placed His bow in the clouds. Ages have passed, men have
been unfaithful, and many times the wickedness of men has
come up as a stench in the nostrils of God, yet God has
been faithful to His promise, and the fountains of the
great deep have never again been broken up nor the windows
of heaven been opened to overwhelm unfaithful man in a
deluge. Who could doubt the faithfulness of one who has
kept His promise inviolate from generation to generation
and has proved Himself faithful even to all His enemies?
"If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he
cannot deny himself." 2 Tim. 2:13.
"Since the morn when time began,
Hath His Word ceased to prevail ?
Is the God of heaven weak as man,
Or can His promise fail ?
"Hath a mortal yet been found
Who hath trusted Him in vain?
Search the whole broad space of earth around.
And search it once again."
Secondly, let us inquire of the ability of
God. Should He make us a promise, is He able to fulfill
it? "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Matt.
28:18. "Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right
hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made
subject unto him." 1 Pet. 3:22. "I am he that
liveth and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore,
Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." Rev.
1:18. To Jesus Christ is given all power on earth, and
power over death, hell, and the grave. Yea, and all power
in heaven is given Him, for angels and powers and
principalities are made subject unto Him. He "is the
blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of
lords." Who, then can doubt the power of Him before
whom angels prostrate fall. Unnumbered worlds are at His
command. He measures the ocean in His hands and metes out
the heavens with a span. Look, doubting one, to the power
of His might! Look and live and doubt no more.
If you have considered what I have
set before you, you surely cannot doubt His faithfulness
and His ability to supply the needs of your soul or to
care for your body. So to lay the last stone of this
imperishable foundation and complete the triune rock of
our faith, let us answer the question, Is it His will to
save us and to raise us above every discouragement and
oppression of the devil ? A man's will is known only by
the expression of his promise; so if God promised victory,
we know it is His will to give victory.
1. His promise to save. "And
she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name
Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins."
Matt. 1:21. "Wherefore he is able also to save them
to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever
liveth to make intercession for them." Heb. 7:25.
"For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that
which was lost." Luke 19:10.
2. His promise to sanctify.
"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is
truth.... And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they
also might be sanctified through the truth." John
17:17, 19. "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might
sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without
the gate." Heb. 13:12. "For this is the will of
God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from
fornication: that every one of you should know how to
possess his vessel in sanctification and honor." 1
Thess. 4:3, 4. "And the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and
body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ." 2 Thess. 5 :23.
3. His promise to keep. "And
now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world,
and I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through shine own
name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one,
as we are . . . I pray not that thou shouldest take them
out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from
the evil." John 17:11, 15. "But the Lord is
faithful, who shall stablish you. and keep you from
evil." 2 Thess. 3:3. "Who are kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time." 1 Pet. 1:5. "Because thou
hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee
from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the
world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." Rev.
3:10. "Now unto him that is able to keep you from
falling, and to present you faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy." Jude 24. "For
the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I
am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and am
persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have
committed unto him against that day." 2 Tim. 1:12.
4. His promise to heal. "And
the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord
shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they
shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another,
and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The
effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth
much." James 1:15, 16. "And Jesus saith unto
him, I will come and heal him." Matt. 8:7. "Who
forgiveth all shine iniquities; who heareth all thy
diseases." Psa. 103:3. "And said, If thou wilt
diligently harken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and
wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give
ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will
put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought
upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that heareth
thee." Exodus 15:26.
5. His promise of an eternal
abiding place with Him. "In my Father's house are
many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I
go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto
myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." John
14:2, 3. "Then we which are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the
Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the
Lord." 1 Thess. 4:17. "For we know that if our
earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a
building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in
the heavens." 2 Cor. 5:1. "They shall hunger no
more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light
on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst
of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto
living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes." Rev. 7:16, 17.
"How firm a foundation, ye saints
of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can he say than to you he hath said,
Ye who unto Jesus for refuge have fled ?
"Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be
not dismayed;
For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid:
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.
' When through fiery trials thy pathway
shall lie,
My grace all sufficient shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not harm thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
"The soul that on Jesus cloth lean
for repose,
I will not, I will not, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no, never, no, never forsake."
Now, dear reader, if you are
doubting God, you are doing so without a cause and against
your reason and better judgment. Nothing can be more
unreasonable than to doubt one whose name is faithfulness
and truth, whose power is unlimited, and whose promise
reaches you. It is much easier to believe God than to
doubt Him, for we have all reasons to believe and not one
reason to doubt. Can you, will you, do you, firmly believe
Him for all that He has promised you? Faith is the road to
victory; doubting, the road to despair. Which way will you
go?
HINDRANCES TO FAITH
"For John came unto you in the
way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the
publicans and harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had
seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe
him." Matt. 21:32.
Some people try to believe who have
not repented, so that they might believe. Such is
impossible, and those who are thus striving to believe God
can never succeed. There are others who have repented many
times and are still repenting and yet do not—I shall not
say cannot—believe. When you have repented of all wrong,
forgiven all who have done aught against you, made
restitution to all men to the extent of your ability,
confessed that you are a sinner, and asked God's
forgiveness, you are then on believing ground. You have a
right to believe, you can believe, and nothing can hinder
you from believing if you will. Repenting over and over
again for the same offense will weaken your faith rather
than strengthen it. Repent full and heartily, once for
all; then believe God, live for Him, and doubt no more.
"How can ye believe, which
receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that
cometh from God only?" John 5 44. Those who seek
honor from men, pray, sing or preach to be heard of men
cannot exercise faith in God for God is the object of our
faith, and faith seeks only that honor which comes from
Him.
The habit of doubting is a
hindrance to faith. Those who have been in bondage to
doubts and accusations often have a hard struggle to
exercise faith for permanent victory; but by taking a
stand on the Word of God against doubts and accusations
such persons may be overcomers Even the mental habit of
doubting can, through faith in God, he completely erased,
and the soul once weak and faltering can be made strong in
the Lord and in the power of His might.
Trusting in emotions will cause one
to lose sight of God's Word and fail to trust in God's
promise, the only foundation for living faith. The glad
emotions of a Christian's heart are truly sweet; but in
order of time, faith comes before joy, for the joy of the
Lord is the joy of faith, and God gives us joy and peace
in believing. "Now the God of hope fill you with all
joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope,
through the power of the Holy Ghost." Romans 15 :13.
Right belief produces right
feeling, and wrong belief produces wrong feeling; for we
feel according to what we believe, whether what we believe
is true or false. A man who believes that he is right has
good feelings even though his belief is a deception. This
point is beautifully illustrated by an incident that I
once read. The only son of a sick mother was lost in a
forest. Sympathetic neighbors and friends volunteered to
search for the lost child. The night was chilly and cold,
and the mother thought only of the welfare of her child.
As time after time the news came that the search was
fruitless, the mother's pulse grew fainter and all could
see that her end was drawing near. Hour after hour the
weary night dragged by, and shorter and shorter grew the
breath of the dying mother as she worried about her lost
son. Finally, just before her end came the report,
"The boy is found and is safe and well in the strong
arms of a friend." At this joyful news the mother's
aching heart was gladdened, and with a smile on her face
she exclaimed, "My own dear boy is found," and
smiling, breathed her last. She died happy in the belief
that her boy had been found; but the report was a false
one, for several days afterward the boy was found dead.
To further illustrate this point
let me call your attention to the sorrow of Jacob. This
hoary headed father, grief stricken, was brought almost to
the grave in the firm belief that Joseph was dead, and yet
he was alive and the chief steward of Pharoah's house. Why
did Jacob grieve? Because he believed the report of
Joseph's envious brethren and saw the coat of many colors,
dyed, as he believed. with the life blood of his child.
How deceiving. then, are the circumstances of life! and
how dangerous to risk the salvation of our souls on
anything but the immutable Word of God!
We should not believe that we are
right because we feel the weight of trials. Feeling right
will make nobody right; but getting right, staying right,
and believing that you are right, will make you feel
right.
"Weeping may endure for a
night, but joy cometh in the morning." There can be
no victory without battle, so those who wish to have
spiritual victory must fight the good fight of faith.
Sometimes the sedge may seem hard and long, but the
greater the battle, the greater the victory.
Many have made shipwreck by
trusting in their emotions to the exclusion of God's Word.
The testimony of His Word is the strongest and surest
evidence to your soul. Why, then, should you seek to found
your experience on the emotions of the human heart? Our
feelings are, so to speak, a harp with many strings, on
which every circumstance of life may play a tune. Like the
tide ever rising and falling, they rise under the
influence of joy and prosperity, and fall before the winds
of disappointment and adversity.
The Christian's heart is not
altogether void of human emotions, yet his sadness is
sweetened and his rejoicing tempered by the balm of faith.
Your emotions may run as high as they will, only be
careful to keep them in the bounds of reason, but when
disappointments come and feelings fall, take care lest you
fall below the line of faith, for faith it is that helps
us to say, "Thy will be done."
The Bible is like a great cable let
down from God to man, one end of which is welded to
heaven's throne. If by faith you lay hold and keep hold of
the cable, one of three things must be done—God's throne
must be moved, the cable of His Word must break, or your
soul must receive the good that it seeks. If you have not
yet learned how to anchor your soul to the Word of God,
you should at once tie your spiritual bark to the
imperishable rock of truth by the eternal cable of faith.
Then, like a ship tied to an immovable rock, your soul may
rise on the wave crests of emotions, high in the
atmosphere of ecstatic joy, or sink to the deepest depths
of human despair, where angry billows threaten sudden
destruction or lingering woe; yet through all your anchor
is sure, bound by the cable of faith to the solid rock of
truth.
Walking by sight, or seeking signs,
is a hindrance to faith and endangers the soul to the
deceptions of the devil. The Jews sought for a sign, but
Jesus told them that no sign should be given them except
the sign of Jonah the prophet. It is dishonoring to God
and slanderous to His character to seek a sign when we
have His promise. Suppose you were to give me a promise
and I were to say to you, "I should like to have some
sign, some miracle performed, a dream, some extraordinary
impression or feeling of some kind, before I believe
you." If you are a truthful person, would you not
feel that I was doing you an injustice thus to question
your truthfulness? How, then, must He who cannot lie
regard it when you seek for some impression or ask to see
some sign before you will believe His Word?
You possibly do not like to be
called doubting Thomas, yet Thomas wished only to see the
prints in Jesus' hands and to feel the wound in His side
before believing. If you ask for some special emotion or
to see some sign before you believe that God's Word is
true, are you any better than doubting Thomas ? Salvation
has its joys, but it takes faith to receive and keep
salvation. So if you wish joy, you must have faith.
Completely trusting and obeying
God's Word is the only source of true and lasting joy. If
then, you refuse to take the first step toward the
Christian's joy, how can you expect to reach the goal? Do
you expect an effect without a cause? Do you expect wages
without labor? Do you expect favor from one whose word you
will not credit ?
Tradition and superstition are
enemies to faith. Many of us who have been taught all our
lives to trust in doctors and medicine find such teaching
a stubborn barrier to our faith when we first begin to
trust the Lord for healing of our bodies. In many other
ways the wrong teaching of our youth serves to weaken and
hinder our faith unless we take a firm stand on the
revealed Word of God. There is just one escape from the
strong hand of tradition and that is to believe that the
New Testament is in verity the Word of God. "Religion
[Christianity] is placed between two great rocks that are
equally dangerous to man and injurious to the Deity. I
mean impiety and superstition. The one from an affection
of free thinking, believes nothing; and the other, from a
blind weakness, believes all things."—Plutarch.
True Christian faith believes in God and His Word; but,
unlike superstition and ignorance, it does not believe all
things. It believes in the true and unchanging Word of
God, but has no faith in the performance of evil spirits,
old wives' fables, conjuring, powwowing, Christian
science, and such like.
"Ye ask, and receive not,
because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your
lusts." James 4:3. People sometimes ask and receive
not because they ask for a selfish purpose. Selfishness
and lust are inconsistent with the principles of Christian
faith and piety, and only the unselfish and pure can
exercise faith in God.
