In an article entitled God Lite, theologian James R. Edwards traces how “The more we obey God, the more real God becomes to us and the greater our love grows. And the more we love God, the more we become like God. It is like a good marriage: People who love their spouses want to please them; and if they do not want to please their spouses, they can hardly talk of loving them. Edwards then shows the way in which obedience is not a penalty levied on faith. It is the strength of faith. The Bible absolutely will not separate faith and obedience, as though obedience were some kind of inheritance tax that God levies on the free gift of salvation. God cannot separate them and still offer salvation. There is something about love that is no longer love apart from obedience. Dietrich Bonhoeffer kept saying this in The Cost of Discipleship: 'Only those who obey can believe, and only those who believe can obey.
It is true that God doesn’t separate “faith and obedience” A coin has two sides, in the same way obedience is the other side of faith. Both faith and obedience go hand in hand, one can not exist without the other. Last week we looked at two main components one is obedience and other is faith without which God would not have blessed Abraham. We focused a lot on Abraham’s unwavering faith in God and touched only a little on the other very important component of obedience. Today we will learn about what faith is not? What faith is? How can we grow faith and how faith demands obedience, and also look at a few examples where people took bold steps of faith and experienced rewards of their faith through obedience.
All the heroes of faith that we read about in Hebrews 11th chapter not only had faith but demonstrated their belief in God by taking bold steps of faith. They were commended and rewarded for their faith and obedience. Let’s look at Hebrews 11:1-7.
I. UNDERSTANDING BIBLICAL FAITH
What is faith and how do we grow in it? Is faith squeezing your eyes shut and believing with everything in you that Santa Claus and the tooth fairy is real? I know I may be upsetting some by saying this but no matter how hard you believe Santa Claus will never be real. On the other hand God is real and he exists whether or not you believe in Him. His existence and power does not depend on how much faith we have. What is biblical faith and how do we understand it?
I deliberately said, “Biblical Faith” because people can have faith in any one and any thing, including their dogs but that won’t get them anywhere. It would be helpful to know what biblical faith is not in order to understand what it really is. Loren Cunningham the author of Daring to live on the edge explains, “The faith of the Bible is not wishful thinking, it’s not based on wanting your selfish desires so badly that you somehow get “faith” and get them. Neither is it some concentration of your mental or spiritual powers to get something you want.” It is not a blind leap of faith as Soren Kierkegaard popularized. If you do a blind jump you will fall and break your legs. It is not even “positive thinking, or altering your behavior” as some councilors suggest, though they may be helpful to overcome certain chronic patterns and conditions.
II. WHAT IS BIBLICAL FAITH?
The Bible says faith is, “Being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”(Heb 11:1). Faith is the substance of what we hope for and the conviction of what we do not see. Buell Kazee the famous country singer turned pastor said, “Faith is not trusting God to get something; faith is trusting God when there seems to be nothing left. When everything is gone with no hope of restoration and when there is nothing on which to base your faith; then can you still trust God? Biblical faith is taking God at his word. Believing that He will never fail us.
The biblical faith is completely letting ourselves go into the safest and the most powerful hands of God. Let me illustrate, “This morning, said the minister, I'm going to speak on the relationship between fact and faith. It is a fact that you are sitting here in the sanctuary. It is also a fact that I am standing here speaking. But it is faith that makes me believe that you might be listening to what I have to say. A man took his first plane ride, reluctantly. He didn't want to go at all, but was finally persuaded to try it. Fearful, he got in the plane. The pilot took off, circled the field and returned safely. Someone asked the uneasy rider, well, now that wasn't so bad, was it? How did you like it? The man replied, I'll tell you this much. I never did put my full weight down in that thing! Faith means putting our full weight down on God. Faith is not just believing that God exists. It is actually anchoring ourselves to that God. God commends us for this faith.
III. HOW DOES FAITH GROW?
Faith doesn’t depend on what you say are think but it depends on what God has to say. According to Romans 10:17, “Faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” Faith is based on what God has to say to you personally through His written word (logos). That is why it is so important that we take a daily dose of vitamin “F” which is faith by reading and meditating and waiting to hear what God is saying to us while making crucial decisions pertaining to important matters.
I can not tell how many times God spoke to me through his word when I was making crucial decisions. Long time ago, God spoke to me through Ecclesiastes 1: 18, “For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief” I took this as God’s spoken word for me. As a result after my graduation I joined YWAM and went on to serve God full time. What applies for one may not apply for another, each one must get their direction from the Lord.
God speaks to us personally, as a family and corporately as a Church. Whatever he says never contradicts his written word. If some one says, “God told me to divorce my wife and marry my secretary.” Obviously that is not from God because the scripture says, “God hates divorce” if he hates divorce then why would he encourage people to do it? When we take certain steps thinking that God spoke to us, without checking with the scripture, we can move in presumption which can not only hurts us but also those who love us and depend on us.
IV. HOW DOES FAITH WORK?
Biblical faith requires action on your part. It is not passive. The apostle James calls passivity a dead faith. In James 2:17, 21-22 we read, “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead… Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together. Whenever we read words like, “hear” or “listen” especially when they are coming from God or his prophets or the apostles they always demanded action. In our text we read, by faith Able offered a better sacrifice, Enoch walked with God and Noah built an ark, these all are actions. Christ went to an extent saying the foolish will hear his word but never take any action but the wise will hear and act upon them. He encouraged his disciples and followers not just to be hearers but the doers of His word.
How does this workout practically? Loren Cunningham offers three simple principles to remember when we live by faith. They are: “Knowing, Obeying, and Trusting,” Let me explain, First of all before any thing we need to know what God wants us to do (based on His word).Secondly, we must obey whatever He shows us to do, and thirdly we trust Him to do what we can not do, in His way and in His time.” The whole chapter of Hebrew eleven is all about the ordinary men and women who coupled their faith with bold steps of action and they were commended not only for their faith but more so for their obedience to God’s revealed will.
V. BOLD STEPS OF FAITH
The Bible has a lot of stories of those who took bold steps of faith. I would like to recall two familiar stories. One is of an army officer with an incurable decease and the other one is of a feeble and frightened army facing the impenetrable walls of their enemy’s city. Both these stories emphasize the importance of adding bold steps to our faith. Remember the story of the army officer named Naaman found in 2 Kings 5?
Naaman was the captain of the army of the king of Aram. He was a valiant warrior but he was a leper. Advised by a Jewish servant girl he goes to Elisha for healing. Elisha sends a message saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh shall be restored to you and you shall be clean.” In a rage Naaman goes back to his country thinking that the rivers in his country were much better than the dirty Jordan river. This time the servants urged him to return to Samaria and obey the instructions of Elisha. So he comes back and dips himself one time, nothing happened, second time, third time and a sixth time nothing happened but when he dipped himself on the seventh time a great miracle happened, according to the word of Elisha, his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean.
In the other story of the walls of Jericho, the Israelite army marched six days silently around the city and on the seventh day they marched seven times. Upon the command of Joshua they blew the trumpet and shouted, the powerful walls of Jericho came tumbling down as a pack of cards. What lessons can we learn from these stories? We are to swallow our human pride, and trust that God could make us well.
The principles in both these stories are that our faith must be active, and as we take the bold steps of faith and obey God’s instructions fully. He will do the impossible. How can we take bold steps of faith in a highly skeptic and pluralistic world? What does living by faith look like in a 9 to 5 world? May I give you a few practical suggestions which might help you to take bold steps in your journey of faith? Firstly, be absolutely convinced that God exists, that He is Almighty and he rewards those who earnestly seek Him. He knows the plans he has for you. His plans are for your welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.(Jeremiah 29:11),
Secondly, Be affirmed in the fact that he is a good and loving father and wants to give the best for his children. Does it mean that everything will always go well for us? Not necessarily! According to Romans 8:28, “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Be affirmed that God is for you and not against you. Thirdly, be continually encouraged in your faith, especially when things get tough and you feel like quitting. Be encouraged in the fact that you can rely on His promises, for no mater how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”
Finally as you take bold steps in your journey of faith be committed to give him praise. “Though the cherry trees don't blossom and the strawberries don't ripen, Though the apples are worm-eaten and the wheat fields stunted, Though the sheep pens are sheepless and the cattle barns empty, I'm singing joyful praise to God. I'm turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God. Counting on God's Rule to prevail, I take heart and gain strength. I run like a deer. I feel like I'm king of the mountain!(Habakkuk 3:17, The Message)
Remember, your father in heaven owns the cattle on a thousand hills and is able to take care of all your needs so without doubt and anxiety by faith boldly journey on! Amen
Christianity Today, April 29, 1991, 30.
Buell Kazee, Faith Is the Victory (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1983), 149.
