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June, 2024 (Vol.58-No.6) |
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Preached by Dr. Gene Scott on March 25, 1990 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 WE HAVE BEEN FORCUSING ON FAITH as we have looked at some of the miracles recorded in the Gospels. Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes, and He walked on water. He also cursed the leafy, fruitless fig tree, which symbolized a people who appeared to be something on the outside but bore no fruit. Before we go any further in our study, I need to make sure that people have a right understanding of the biblical definition of faith. Jesus asked His disciples, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” What is faith? Faith is an action, based upon belief, and sustained by confidence. The New Testament Greek word that expresses this idea is pistis, spelled using English letters. Its verbal form is pisteuo. Our English language has reduced the meaning of these rich New Testament words by making “faith” synonymous with “belief.” Belief involves the mind, whereas biblical faith always requires an action. The Bible declares that in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son. We read in Leviticus 23:4, “These are the feasts of the LORD…” The Hebrew word translated “feasts” literally means “set times.” Thus, we could translate this phrase, “These are the set times of the LORD.” The Old Testament feast days are prophetic symbols of things to come, and are among God’s many ways of demonstrating that He is in control. God allows a great deal of freedom and choices to be made in between His set times. But when each set time arrives, God “pulls the strings” to make things happen His way. In God’s prophetic timing, He revealed His Son, Jesus the Christ, when the Greek language ruled the then known world. God brought the Eternal Word into the tent of human flesh called Jesus of Nazareth, the Living Word. The Living Word became the spoken word, to be reduced down to the written word. By using the Greek language, God communicated His revelation with a precision that would not have been possible with many other languages. God appropriated these Greek words pistis and pisteuo and gave them His own exclusive meaning in the Bible. Biblical faith is more specifically defined as an action based upon God’s word, sustained by the confidence that He will do what He has promised to do. The Greek words pistis and pisteuo were robbed of their meaning when they were transplanted as “belief” and “to believe.” The devil has certainly capitalized on this poor translation, because most people now think that faith is merely an activity of the mind, something one only thinks and talks about. In today’s church, faith has become a commodity; it is something you can possess. People say “I have faith” and think they are saved because they have memorized a creed. There are churches that dispense faith like a product you can buy at a grocery store. To continue this ludicrous analogy, there are even “junk food” faith markets; you might get sick after eating it, but it is still fun chewing on it. The modern church world has ruined the definition of faith. Since faith involves an action, it requires a subject and an object. To express this in English, I need to coin some new words, which is why I say that the person who acts in faith is a faither who does the faithing. If I were a philosophy teacher in ancient Greece, before the New Testament was written, I could teach on the generic meaning of faith without any association to the things of God. I could define faith as any action based upon any belief and sustained by confidence. By this definition, no one can escape the activity of faithing and the responsibilities that go along with it. I would tell my students that one cannot exist without faith. I would say that the teacher’s job is to help you make intelligent choices about the object of your faith, in order that you can act with confidence on the right objects. Everyone who lives, breathes, and acts must find an object of faith. You are therefore, ipso facto, a faither who is faithing, and you have no choice in the matter. Your only choice is your object of faith. Let me give you a modern illustration of the meaning of these ancient Greek words for “faith.” I flew out of Phoenix this morning, with the sun brilliantly shining on the desert hills. Since I did an undergraduate major in geology, deserts have always been some of my favorite places, because they allow you to see the underlying geological makeup of the terrain. I watched as we flew over snowcapped peaks and dipped into the Los Angeles basin, which was covered with the morning fog and looked like a fluffy bed of cotton. I watched as the pilot switched off the aircraft’s automatic pilot and started making a turn into his final approach. There was a great deal of activity in the cockpit while the pilot and co-pilot were setting the electronic equipment, and I could see the changing image on the radar screen. Then we descended into the cloud cover and could not see anything outside. I carefully watched the pilot as he followed the artificial horizon, which is the instrument that indicated we were flying level. A pilot cannot rely on his senses in such a heavy cloud cover, because he can lose his sense of gravity and not know which direction is up. I started thinking to myself, “What if that instrument isn’t working?” Then I started to think about the air traffic controller and all the people who were flying into the Los Angeles area on a Sunday morning. We were coming into one of the nation’s busiest airports. To an air traffic controller, all of those people were represented by little blips on a screen. I realized that some anonymous man was sitting down there controlling my two pilots, and my life was in that man’s hands. What if he just had an argument with his wife or his girlfriend? What if he was distracted for a moment, while I was up there fully dependent upon him for my very life? I began to sweat. At that moment, I was practicing faith, although not as willingly as I might have on other occasions. I was helplessly dependent. Although my body was not specifically involved in an action at that moment, I had chosen to board that plane. My mind was certainly active, based on the belief that the people who manufactured the aircraft knew what they were doing, the electronics in the plane would work, the man in the tower was paying attention, and no one was headed straight toward us at five hundred miles an hour. There are so many things we take for granted every day, so many assumptions on which our lives depend. I had to confidently “hang my body” on the belief that all of the parts would operate properly and all of those dedicated personnel were alert and doing their job. It felt like the longest five minutes of my life! I still could not see anything outside the window but gray clouds. Faith is not easy for me. Thank God, we finally broke out of the clouds. I could see that the ground was far enough below us that if something went wrong, there was still time to do something about it. Most Christians’ idea of faith can be analogized to someone who goes to an airport lounge and looks out a window. He sees a plane taxi to the end of a runway and says, “There’s a plane about to take off, and I believe it will fly.” He might not even articulate the thought; he just takes for granted that it will take off. If he would stop and think about it, he might consider how horrible it would be if the plane were to crash. But the man is disengaged: he “believes” the plane will fly. That is not faith. You are not acting in faith until you actually board the plane, take your seat, and strap on the safety belt. And it is still an act of faith even if you are sweating and shaking and having to take pills for nausea. It is still an act of faith even if you are so afraid that you jump when someone in the seat behind you slams their tray table, and you cry out, “Oh! What was that!?” You boarded the aircraft. That is faith, by its oldest definition. You have “hung your body” on your belief, with some level of confidence, that the plane would get off the ground and eventually have a soft landing. No one ever boards a plane with the expectancy that it will not fly. You are acting in faith when you put your body on the line, regardless of your fears and doubts. What does that tell you about faith? You can still have faith even if fear and doubt are present. Fear and doubt do not eliminate faith, though they might weaken your faith a little. Too many Christians wait for God to eliminate all of their fears and doubts. They want an answer to all of their questions before they will act. To carry this analogy to its ludicrous extreme, they want to disassemble the plane on the runway, inspect it, put it back together again, and interview all the personnel. And when there are no uncertainties accompanying the act, then they might board the plane. But when they hear the first rattle, they will open the emergency exit and jump out before the exit slide has time to inflate! Again, if I were teaching on faith in its generic sense, I would say that you cannot choose not to act in faith. When you got out of bed this morning, you acted on a belief sustained by confidence in the laws of gravity. You acted in faith that your feet would stay on the floor. You never gave a second thought that there might be a risk of floating up to the ceiling. Regardless of what you did – whether it was turning off an alarm, answering a telephone, letting the dog out, putting on a pot of coffee, or going to the bathroom – you never wondered whether or not gravity would work. Most people exercise more faith every day than I did this morning on that plane. Give me credit: at least I did not try to get out of the plane! I was sitting by an exit door and could have pulled the handle, but I decided that remaining inside the aircraft was a safer alternative. I have defined the Greek word translated “faith” in its generic sense, but I have more to say about its biblical sense. Most of us in church today have already been acting like we “believe” that God exists, but Christ is formed in your heart by faith. God gives salvation only to people who trust Him. The alternative to salvation is eternal damnation; but tragically, many people choose the “exit door” because of their uncertainties. Knowledge helps faith, which is why I teach on God’s performance throughout the Bible. If you have not studied God’s word long enough to see His proven track record of keeping His word, you might be a little tentative and uncertain. God told the prophet Jeremiah, “I will hasten my word to perform it.” God keeps His word, even to His own hurt. As you expose yourself to God’s level of performance, you grow in your confidence. The Bible says, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” That is why it is important to study God’s word. Now, you might have acted in faith by driving to church today, probably with more risk than I experienced while flying in a jet. You practiced faith, in its generic sense, when you drove through an intersection expecting intelligent drivers to stop at red traffic lights, not even considering the possibility that some drivers might be colorblind. I was relieved when I got out of that jet and got into a car, which shows how foolish we can be. I felt safer at the wheel of a car while driving on the Los Angeles freeway than I did in the air with a professional pilot flying a plane with all its sophisticated instrumentation. That is foolishness: we naturally think we have a better chance of surviving when we are in control of the situation. Yet I guarantee that you will hear more about people involved in traffic accidents than you will about planes crashing. There is far more danger at every intersection than I had while I was worrying this morning for five minutes in the clouds. I have given the definition of faith in its generic sense as it was used in ancient Greece. I believe that God came along and said, “I like that word. I will make it Mine!” Ever since that time, the only kind of faith that matters to God is an action, based upon belief, and sustained by confidence in His promises. When God has promised something in His word, He will do it. Psalm 119:89 says, “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.” The faither acts with confidence on God’s word. God has separated the whole world into two kinds of people: those who act on a belief in His promises, and those who do not. That means any other kind of action is not biblical faith. I am not suggesting that every other kind of action is bad. Our other actions can be good or bad from man’s point of view. In the minds of those who are ignorant of God’s revelation, there may be differences in value between various objects of faith. But God will not give the rewards of faith to those who act on anything other than His word of promise. It is possible to have faith in yourself, faith in someone else, or faith in a creed. You only need to believe in something with enough confidence to sustain your action. But any actions that have something other than God’s word as their object do not qualify as saving faith. To return to my earlier illustration, I did not get any salvation “credit” from God for ultimately believing and having confidence that my pilots would bring us in for a safe landing. Similarly, you will not receive any measure of eternal life for having faith in yourself. Go ahead and take all the self-help courses that you want. Now, I do think that optimism is better than pessimism. There might be a law in the universe that you will get further in life if you look at a glass as half full instead of as half empty. Positive thinking might make you happier or it might make you money, but it simply will not save you. It will not bring God’s life into you, it will not put God’s power in you, it will not bring God’s favor, it will not bind God to keep His promises to you, nor will it give you eternal life. There is only one kind of faith that God approves. Faith in God’s word is the only thing that connects us to eternity. But we often postpone acting in faith because we think we can survive another day without God. We do not pay attention to His word. Some people think they can deal with God on their deathbed. There is a warning in Scripture that there comes a point where the smallest untrusting act will be the straw that breaks the divine back and He will not deal with us anymore. There are all kinds of things that people call “faith” that are not really faith. Likewise, there are many things that people call “the gospel” that are not really the gospel at all. The apostle Paul contended with this problem at Galatia. He wrote to the Galatians, saying, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another…But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” Faith in its generic sense is still a sound philosophical principle. It is still true that as you make your way through life, you must choose objects in which you can place your confidence and act accordingly. In one sense, faith is like a pair of glasses. There comes a point when you have to put on the glasses and see if they work in every area of your life. You will find out if they work by your experience. But do not confuse this generic meaning of faith with what God defines as faith. God changed the universe when He chose this word to use in His book. Faith is now defined as the saving act which brings God’s Spirit into us and places us in Christ forever. Again, faith is an action, based upon belief, and sustained by confidence that when God has said something, He will do it. That is why we looked at the apostle Peter in previous messages. Jesus was walking on the water, and Peter called out, “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.” Jesus said, “Come,” and by faith, Peter got out of the boat and walked a few steps on water toward Jesus. He was acting on God’s word in the revealed Christ incarnate. But then he saw the waves and the wind, and he took his eyes off Christ. He began to act based on what he could see instead of on his faith in Jesus’ word. So Peter started to sink, and he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out His hand and caught him, saying, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” Literally, Jesus called him, “O little-faith man.” I still marvel at what Peter’s “little faith” accomplished: it got him out of the boat and enabled him to walk a few steps on water before he started to sink. And he knew where to turn when he was sinking: he cried, “Lord, save me,” and the Lord saved him. The Lord took him by the hand, and together they walked on water back to the boat. But Jesus asked Peter, “Why did you doubt?” A more literal translation of Jesus’ question is “Why did you double-think?” or “Why did you think twice?” People in the world act on what they see here and now, and they are only confident in what they can confirm with their senses. As a faither, you make a decision to separate from the world and move into the realm of life eternal. You reach up through the fog of time, claim a promise of God, and say, “I will hang my life on it and buck the tide.” But when the wind and waves begin to buffet you, why do you ask yourself, “What am I doing out here putting myself in a position of risk?” Have you ever asked yourself, “How did I get into this mess?” Like a Laurel and Hardy routine, but with God being the One you blame, you say, “This is another fine mess You have gotten us into!” Why do you double-think? Even “little faith” can enable you to walk on water! In the lesson of the withered fig free, the tree represents many Christians whose leaves are waving in the wind. I have been to church conventions and seen the leaves flutter. This fig tree was supposed to put forth figs before the leaves. The leaves were supposed to be a signal that Jesus could expect to find fruit. He saw this tree afar off, with all its appearance of fruit-producing, and He became hungry. But when He arrived, there were no figs. In Mark’s account, Jesus said to the tree, “No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever.” The disciples came back later and noticed that the tree did not merely die: it was withered from the roots up. Jesus had taken the life out of it, and they were amazed. We read in Matthew 21:20-22, “And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away! Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” The King James Version ruined the translation by using the word “believing.” Once again, the Greek word is a form of Pisteuo. It does not mean merely thinking about something or allegiance to a creed; it means acting on God’s word. Talking about faith and being able to define it is not the same as actually practicing faith. Let’s read some of the alternative translations of this passage in The Word: The Bible from 26 Translations: The King James Version says, “And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying…” The New English Bible says, “The disciples were amazed at the sight…” William’s translation says that the disciples “were dumfounded…” Weymouth’s translation says that they “exclaimed in astonishment…” The King James Version says, “How soon is the fig tree withered away!” The American Standard Version says, “How did the fig tree immediately wither away?” Weymouth’s translation says, “How in a moment…has withered away!” The New English Bible says, “How is it…that the tree has withered so suddenly?” Phillips translation says, “How on earth did that fig tree wither away quite suddenly like that?” The King James Version says, “Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If you have faith, and doubt not…” Ronald Knox’s translation says, “have faith and do not hesitate…” E.V. Rieu’s translation says, “have faith and do not waver…” Jesus said in Matthew 17:20, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” He said in Luke 17:6 that if you have such faith, “Ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.” From our earthly frame of reference, it is incomprehensible what “little faith” can do. So why do we have to struggle so much to do God’s work? Now, let’s put this in context. There is nothing in this world as important as the good news of the gift of God’s saving grace to you and to me. God’s grace is unmerited; He gives us this gift in spite of all our shortcomings, sins, and failures to live up to His standard. But without faith, there is no salvation, no hope of eternal life, and none of the blessings Christianity promises. God gives eternal life for faith, and only for faith. And “little faith” walked on water! So, try it! Act in faith on a promise of God. God promises in Malachi 3:10, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” There is a story about an old fellow sitting in the back of a church enjoying the sermon and shouting, “Amen, preacher! Preach it!” But when the preacher started to teach about tithing, the man said, “Preacher, now you’ve begun to meddle!” There are plenty of people who think they understand the meaning of faith, but they count their pennies at the end of the week to see if they can “afford” to give. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Paul said in 1st Corinthians 16:2, “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.” The tithe is the Lord’s. When you honor the Lord with your substance, He promises to bless what He allows you to keep, and He makes it go farther than if you had kept all of it with His curse on it. You might say you find that too hard to believe. Join the club. It was just as hard for Peter to get out of the boat. His little faith enabled him to get out of the boat, but then he saw the wind and the waves. You can make an application to whatever threatens you every time you take a step of faith. Maybe you took your first steps of faith and started tithing, when suddenly, a bill you had forgotten about arrived in the mail. Do not make this complicated. This message is the footnote on the previous three messages. Will you start acting on God’s word, and be doers, not hearers only? Jesus spoke to a tree and took its life from it, but He turned that circumstance into a lesson that says you can move mountains! Stop making Christianity so mystical that it has no meaning. Jesus is saying there are mountains in our lives and there are trees to be uprooted; there are circumstances that ought to be different than they are now. There are barriers in our lives, yet “little faith” is sufficient to remove them. “Little faith” starts with faith’s meaning; it starts with the promises of God. When you start acting on them, you grow in God’s word and His life flows into you. Then more power comes, as your faith begins to join with God’s faith, which is called “the gift of faith.” As a church, we have stood at the threshold of victory for many years. When you leave the service today, I want you to ask yourself: Are you a weak link in the chain? Are you holding back the chain reaction of faith and its power from realizing what we have been called to do as a church? Start acting like the whole battle depends upon you! Again, faith involves “hanging your body” on God’s word by an action, not just by thinking about it. In Deuteronomy 1, Moses told the children of Israel in the wilderness, “The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount…Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land…” We have tarried at this mountain for too long. It is time that we get past this mountain. I not only want to leave the mountain, I want to flatten it! Let’s claim God’s promises and occupy the Promised Land, as we take the gospel to the entire world! That is my prayer, in Jesus’ name. Reprinted with permission from Pastor Melissa Scott | June, 2024 Wingspread | May, 2024 Wingspread | March, 2024 Wingspread | April, 2024 Wingspread | February, 2024 Wingspread | January, 2024 Wingpread | | Year 2019 Wingspreads | August, 2016 Wingspread | 2016 Wingspreads | 2014 Wingspreads | 2013 Wingspreads | 2012 Wingspreads | 2011 Wingspreads | 2010 Wingspreads | 2009 Wingspreads | 2008 Wingspreads | 2007 Wingspreads | 2006 Wingspreads | 2005 Wingspreads | 2004 Wingspreads | 2003 Wingspreads | 2002 Wingspreads | 2001 Wingspreads | August, 2001 Wingspread | November, 2001 Wingspread | December, 2001 Wingspread | 2000 Wingspreads | 1999 Wingspreads | 2015 Wingspreads | Year 2017 Wingspreads | 2018 Wingspreads | Year 2020 Wingspreads | Year 2021 Wingspreads | Year 2022 Wingspreads | Year 2023 Wingspreads | Year 2024 Wingspreads | | Return Home | Current Wingspread | Wingspread Archives | Contact Us | |
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