Defining Faith

Alright, the title of today's sermon is Defining Faith, Part 3 of 3. Loyalty. Faith brought to maturity. Loyalty. Faith brought to maturity. You know, biblical faith is not a one-time event. Biblical faith develops over a lifetime of experience and learning. And it begins with believing God, and it grows where we learn to trust Him. And it reaches maturity when we remain faithful under testing. So, let me start with this statement, because this is going to be an important statement for understanding the sermon.

God is not looking for a moment of belief, a super-heroic event, just once in your life and then you're done. God is developing a life in which belief grows into trust and trust demonstrated through faithfulness, so that character, character, what grows inside you actually helps you become described by the word loyal, God's loyal son or God's loyal daughter.

So, we're going through this series on defining what faith is, and this is the third sermon in the series. And a lot of people might be scratching their heads, why didn't I start with the definition of faith in Hebrews 11.1? I would argue that is not the definition of faith. That is the result of faith, what faith does for you. And I'll get to that in just a moment, and I'll explain to you why. That goes beyond the definition of faith, and that is Hebrews 11 verse 1 is actually an encouragement, is actually something that tells us why we should have faith.

It doesn't really define what faith is. Okay, and out you'll see when we get there. So in sermon 1, John showed us that people who, in the Greek word pisteo, believed in Jesus, but Jesus did not pisteo or entrust them to themselves. Remember the story of John 3.16? It was actually part and the ending part of an entire story that John was telling about Jesus.

Nicodemus also believed something. He was in that story. He believed something true about Jesus because of the signs he did, but Jesus took him further. Jesus said to Nicodemus that he needed to be born again. In other words, Nicodemus needed to become a different human being than the one he currently was. And was Nicodemus the bad guy in that story? No. Nicodemus represented you and me. Nicodemus was us at our very beginning of faith.

John chapter 3 ends by describing a person who does the truth, who comes into the light, not just a person who intellectually believes that Christ is the Savior, as our modern Christian counterparts will often argue. So belief is necessary, but belief alone is incomplete. That was sermon 1. In sermon 2, the disciples believed that Jesus was the Savior. They walked around with him. They followed him. They learned from him every day, and they even believed him enough to get into the boat. But when the storm came, what did they do?

They judged his character by the circumstances instead of judging the circumstances about what they knew about Jesus. They actually questioned whether or not he cared about them, their Savior, the one who would eventually die for them. They believed him, but they didn't trust him. And when that happened, Jesus said they had no faith, no pistis, which is the Greek word that they used for faith.

So belief is not only not enough. It doesn't even count to God until you trust. So you might say belief as the starting point, but you're not even out of the the gate, if you will, if you want to use a horse race analogy. The gate might open with belief, but you're not out of the gate until you trust. Okay, so that was sermon two. Belief is the ability to honestly say, I know what God has said, and it is true no matter what. That's belief, actually. Trust is putting yourself in his hands because you believe him.

Okay, now let's move to once we learn to trust him. Faith is eventually going to require something more. And now we come to the final part in the process of growing in faith. Will we remain faithful when trusting God becomes costly?

And this is where we often fall down in life. And don't feel too bad about that, because there's a very faithful man named Abraham who fell down a lot in life. And he is such a good example for our life today. Belief, trust, and faithfulness are not unrelated kinds of faith. It is a process that grows into loyalty. These are stages of development, if you will. Belief is knowing what God said is true. Trust is placing yourself in his hands. Faithfulness is the maturity point in that process. In other words, because I believe him, I trust him. And I will remain loyal to him, even if obeying him is costly to me. No matter what the cost, no matter what the cost, I am with God. I obey God. James gives us the language for this growth process.

James actually describes faith as a process. Speaking of Abraham, James says in James 2 and verse 22.

James 2 and verse 22. Do you see that faith was working together with his works, which is obedience, and by works, faith was made perfect. Made perfect. That means brought to completion or maturity. So what is James saying? James is telling us that your faith has to be matured. There's a growth process involved in faith. And so this scripture, James 2 and verse 22, eliminates the idea that faith is a one-time event, where you say, Jesus is my Savior, you go up to the front of the stage, and you go in front of everybody, and you proclaim, Jesus is my Savior, and that's all you have to do. According to many modern Christians, that is actually what they believe and what they teach. But James says your works, in other words, your actions, your obedience over a lifetime, build faith to maturity. Faith involves a growth process. And that's the direction of this final sermon. As we did in the other sermons, we're going to look at a story.

We're going to see an example of the story of how faith is matured. And so for today's sermon, I've already mentioned it, we're going to look at the story of Abraham. He was described as the father of the faithful. Do you know Abraham's faith was developed over many, many years?

God had been working with him for a long period of time. In Genesis 12, Abraham responded to God's call, and he left his homeland. And that was just the starting point. At least the starting point that we are brought into the story. In Genesis 15, verse 6, it says, he believed in the Lord, and he accounted it to him for righteousness. Notice that it says Abraham was accounted as being righteous. It's not that he was righteous. It's that God counted it as though he was righteous.

In other words, God treated Abraham as though Abraham would obey him. God gave him credit for saying, this guy's going to obey me, even if he made mistakes from time to time. The Scripture shows just how important belief in God is. God starts working with you when you believe.

So when I say intellectual belief is not enough, that's true. But what this Scripture says is that intellectual belief is not a bad thing. It's actually necessary for the growth process.

Faith starts in the mind, and it grows from there. And faith started in Abraham's mind.

He believed God, and God gave him credit. He wasn't mature yet, but he got credit.

That's the beginning of what we discussed in Sermon 1. Abraham believed God. Then, what happened next?

God required Abraham to wait for a promised son. And through that process, Abraham had to learn that God could be trusted. God could be trusted to fulfill everything that he had promised.

And that was a big deal, because Abraham and Sarah were both beyond the age.

And Abraham did learn that through his life. And God kept his word. By the time we reached Genesis chapter 22, Abraham's faith had already passed through years of growth, mistakes, corrections, waiting for promises to be fulfilled. And in Genesis chapter 22, it's not the beginning of Abraham's story. It's the climactic test of faith that God had been developing. So what can we learn from Genesis chapter 22? God gives Abraham a test. Now God had already promised through Abraham's seed, which would be Isaac, that all nations of the earth were going to be blessed.

And his seed would be like the number of the stars in heaven or the sand of the sea. So Isaac was to be married and have children and have many, many descendants. But he wasn't married yet.

God promised and Abraham had to trust that God keeps his word. So Isaac was supposed to be married.

But before any of that happened, God puts Abraham's faith to the test. Have you ever had a test that seems to contradict everything you know and believe about God? Would Abraham follow God even when it would cost him something that none of us would want to face?

None of us could face without absolute loyalty in God. So Genesis chapter 22 and verse 1 sets the frame that this is definitely a test from God. This was intentional. Genesis 22 verse 1 says, now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham. And he said, here I am. And that's an ancient way of saying, yes, sir, I am ready to respond.

Then he said, take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Mariah, offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will tell you.

So God commands Abraham to offer Isaac. Okay, so this huge challenge, obviously.

Not only was Abraham a man who dearly loved his son, and that would have been enough of a challenge. That would have been enough for any of us in this room to be a challenge. But also, God had promised that his covenant would continue through Isaac. So killing Isaac would seemingly end God's promise. And God doesn't break his promise. Think about that.

If Abraham had been a young disciple, like the disciples who got in the boat in the last sermon, Abraham's likely response would have been to question God's character.

Remember what they asked Jesus if he even cared about them? Abraham was being tested beyond simple trust. This wasn't a storm on a boat. This had a cost to it. And Abraham had to decide whether he would continue to believe God when he could not understand how God's command and God's promise could both be fulfilled at the same time.

So Abraham passed both the belief test and the trust test instantly. Notice that Abraham passed the belief test and the trust test instantly in Genesis 22. This wasn't about belief or trust. This was about loyalty.

He didn't say to God, wait a minute, you promised. Are you a liar? He didn't say that. He trusted God. Abraham believed and trusted him. But he wasn't done yet. There was more beyond the simple trust test. Abraham simply let out and took Isaac to the mountain God told him to go to.

Trust was there. Let's leave Genesis 22 for just a moment and read something that adds to the middle of this story in the book of Hebrews. Paul describes this. Hebrews shows us that Abraham trusted God. He didn't even question God's character. We know this because of the book of Hebrews. The disciples in the boat questioned Jesus' character, but they were in their 20s. They were just beginning their walk of faith. Abraham is now a very old man, and this is what faith looks like when it is matured. Abraham had gone beyond the point of where those disciples were getting into the boat. Hebrews 11, faith chapter, verse 17, notice something very important about Abraham's state of mind when he gathered the wood and the donkeys and the men to take Isaac to Mount Moriah. Hebrews 11, verse 17, by faith, pistes, when he was tested, or Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, who had received the promise offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, and Isaac, your seed shall be called. So here he's bringing out the fact that Abraham knew about the promise when he left for the mountain. Abraham had the promise in his mind, and listen to the conclusion in verse 19, concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. Now what in the world does that mean? Abraham's body was dead when, and Sarah's body was dead figuratively, when they had Isaac. In other words, they couldn't have children, and they had this miracle baby. They knew that God kept his promises, and Abraham knew that if he was going to kill Isaac, God was going to resurrect him. He trusted God that much.

He trusted God to be loyal.

Do we?

So Hebrews chapter 11 verses 17 through 19, which we just read, explains what was going on in Abraham's mind when he just left for Mount Moriah, and he didn't argue, he didn't talk back, he didn't question.

God's instructions were clear, and he just went. And that wasn't the test. That was trust. He didn't know exactly how God would resolve this apparent contradiction, but he trusted God's character. And the test was, will Abraham act on that trust no matter what it cost him? Think about the costs. Think about all the things going through his mind.

Okay, yeah, if I have to sacrifice Isaac, God's going to resurrect him. But then what?

How is that going to affect my relationship with Isaac?

Dad, you killed me, and God raised me back up.

You know, it would probably tear that relationship that he held so precious. What a cost! But he just left.

Abraham did what the disciples and the boat failed to do. He didn't judge God's character by the immediate circumstances. He knew God could even work that out. He judged the circumstances by what he knew about God. This is the perfect example of what faith looks like when it is matured by a lifetime of obedience. As James said, faith is perfected, in other words, matured by works. This is the example that James used. And Genesis 22 demonstrates that loyalty. Let's go back there. We're now in verse 3. Genesis 22 in verse 3. So Abraham rose early in the morning, he saddled his donkey, and he took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. And he split the wood for the burnt offering, and he rose, and he went to the place of which God had told him. Look at all the detail that Abraham put into obeying God! I'm a procrastinator. If there's something that I don't want to do, I will put it off and put it off. And Abraham didn't want to do this, but he was so loyal to God, he rose early in the morning. He got up, and he got with it, and he left, because God told him to. He prepared the altar, he placed Isaac on it, and his actions demonstrated that God held first place in his mind, even above the Son through whom God had promised all of these things were supposed to come. And this is where the Greek word pistis, the word faith, reaches into its actual mature statement or status of faithfulness, of fidelity, of loyalty, or allegiance. Those are closer words in the English language to what the word pistis actually means, or what James calls maturity.

Abraham didn't merely say he believed God. He was in action loyal to God when the cost was extreme. And God said, Now I know, verse 10. Abraham stretched out his son, Genesis 22, verse 10.

Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him and said, Abraham, Abraham, and so he said, Here I am. And so, verse 12 is the turning point. Listen to verse 12, because it is key to our growth process. Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. We should not take the words, Now I know, to mean that God lacked knowledge about Abraham. So what did that mean? It began by telling us that God was testing him. That's the key.

Now I know marks the demonstrated outcome of the test. God is saying, I want you to demonstrate your faith. Not just because Abraham personally needed the test, although Abraham was just as human as you and I, he definitely benefited from the test. But God used this extraordinary result to show us, to show me, to show you what faith looks like when it's mature.

Abraham's faith was no longer something that he simply professed. I love Jesus. I'm going to put that on the bumper sticker of my car, and I'm going to drive around town, and I'm going to tell everybody that I love Jesus. As you speed, you don't use your blinker when you get over.

Right.

It wasn't theoretical anymore. It wasn't just Abraham's mind. It was now his character.

James 2, verse 26.

James 2, verse 26.

How did Abraham get to the point where God said, Now I know? Now, by demonstrating his fear of God, his absolute awe of God. That means God is first in my mind.

There is nothing that comes before God in my mind. How did Abraham show that? Through action.

God had brought Abraham to the point where faith was developed over many years, and he stood under a great test. That's why James says that Abraham's faith was brought to maturity by what he did.

So, Abraham's story is a really neat story. It contains the full progression of what we covered in this series. In Genesis 15, Abraham believed God. In Hebrews 11, we see that he trusted God.

And in Genesis 22, Abraham showed his faithfulness or loyalty by obeying God at huge, extremely big cost. And then James says what happens when we read the beginning of the sermon in James 22. His faith was brought to maturity. That's what it means, Now I know.

That is the complete picture of Pistos.

The Bible tells us a very different story than what modern Christianity believes or teaches.

So before we move to personal application, I want us to look briefly at Hebrews 11.

We often call this the faith chapter, and we've already read a portion of it in the sermon today.

But before Hebrews gives us all these examples, it tells us something that faith does for us.

Because I don't want us to get the picture that the apostles or Jesus were telling us, you better watch out because you're going to go through an extreme test. Life will test you whether you're Christian or not.

Faith will get you through that test, and that is the purpose of Hebrews 11 in verse 1. Listen, and let's do some nerdy stuff, get some word definitions here, and listen to what Paul is actually saying in Hebrews 11.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Adam Clarke makes a very interesting observation about this verse.

He says that the word translated substance.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Do you know what that means?

When I was young in the church, I had no idea what this verse meant.

When I was going through college, you know, Bible college, I had no idea what this verse meant.

Then I read Adam Clarke, and I was like, oh, that's what it means.

He says the word translated substance means something that is the foundation that something else stands on. So faith is the foundation of hope, your hope.

Faith is what holds hope up in your mind. Faith supports you. When other people would lose hope, you have a solid foundation of hope in your mind. Faith is a benefit to you.

Faith is not, oh, no, I'm going to go through an extreme trial. Faith is holding up your hope.

It's the foundation of hope. And then he says, Adam Clarke, the word translated evidence carries the idea of the demonstration that produces conviction. It's a demonstration. That means faith isn't merely a test, one test after another. What does it mean to have faith? Well, you've got to go through one test after another. That's not what it means.

It says it's the evidence of things not seen. The things not seen are demonstrated in your mind by faith. You have a demonstration in your mind when you have faith. But what are the things not seen? Paul makes a very similar point in 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 18. I would like you to turn there. If I can make a suggestion, it's your responsibility, what notes you put in your Bible. But I would suggest you put 2 Corinthians 4 verse 18 next to Hebrews 11 verse 1.

Because Paul defines what things unseen are. Now, remember, faith is the demonstration in your mind of things you can't see. But what things is he talking about?

2 Corinthians 4 verse 18, Paul makes it clear. While we do not look at things which are seen, but at things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary.

Think about that. Everything we look at is temporary. Our bodies are temporary.

Everything in this physical life is temporary. The things seen. What are the things unseen? What is faith a demonstration of? But, it says, the things which are not seen are eternal.

Back to Hebrews 11 verse 1. Faith is the demonstration of eternity, of something much better to come. Of the fact that, yes, this trial may be hard, but I have faith that I am going to live forever with all my church brethren.

This is such an awesome opportunity, such an awesome life. Faith holds your hope up, and it demonstrates eternity. That's a benefit.

So faith gives us a way to keep our eyes on what's eternal, even when we're living through what is temporary. It is, in a sense, the fuel—faith—is the fuel that keeps the Christian engine running.

Then Hebrews chapter 11 shows us what faith looks like when it's lived out. Abel offered God a sacrifice, and it was accepted. Noah prepared an ark when there was no visible evidence of a flood, but God warned it was coming.

Abraham obeyed God when he left his homeland, even though he didn't know where he was going.

Sarah judged God faithful to fulfill what he had promised, even though her womb had dried up.

Abraham offered Isaac because he trusted God to keep his promise, even if God had to raise Isaac from the dead. Moses refused to be called Pharaoh's son or the son of Pharaoh's daughter because he chose to suffer with the people of God.

Rahab received the Israelite spies and identified herself with the people of God, even though doing so would place her life in danger. Others endured mocking, imprisonment, torture, death because they would not turn away from God. Do you know what all of those actions are?

Acts of loyalty. These people believed what God said, and they trusted God's character. And they remained faithful even when obedience became costly. And that is the pattern that we've been learning from the Bible through this series. Faith begins with belief. It grows into trust, and that's when it's acceptable to God. And then it's demonstrated through loyalty. Hebrews 11, Hebrews 11 and verse 6, very important verse, But without faith that is pistis, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that's what we're going to cover this year in Sabbath's goal and teen Bible study, is God, is he there? Must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him, diligently seek him. We have to have faith in order to keep going, so faith is important to your and my life. Yet, you know, belief is involved, and so we don't put belief down. But the rest of Hebrews 11 shows us that belief becomes, or what it becomes when it grows into a full maturity, it becomes the foundation that keeps us moving towards what we cannot yet see, a life trusting God enough to remain loyal to him. So how do we apply this entire sermon series to our lives? Okay. Do we have faith growing inside us? How would we know?

The question isn't whether we believe, obviously, that God exists, or we agree that his word is true.

For Abraham, cost was involved. Most of us will never face a trial like that.

My parents didn't face a trial like that. They faced some pretty big trials, but they never had to put me on a pile of wood and cut my throat.

Most of us won't face that trial. That was extraordinary as an example to you and me.

And I'm not diminishing the trials that we are facing, or might face in the future, but realize Abraham's test was an example. Loyalty to God costs something. That's the point. It may cost you your job because of the Sabbath. That counts. It may affect your income because you keep the Holy Days or you tithe, and the budget is really tight. That helps us grow.

It may require us to obey God's teachings on marriage, on sexuality, on family. When the surrounding culture strongly disagrees, in fact, we'll cancel you if you disagree.

God notices. It may mean refusing military service or another duty that would violate your conscience before God, even if that leads to your imprisonment. It may cost us a relationship, an opportunity, approval from people we care about. Remaining to God, remaining loyal to God, it could bring criticism down upon you. It could make you feel and actually not just feel but be excluded. It could make you lonely.

You know, it's not that the test has to be as dramatic as Abraham's. How do you know you have faith? It's whether or not God remains first in your mind when the obedience to God carries a real cost to you. And when it does, do we diligently seek Him?

So, what are we still withholding from God? Where has God spoken clearly but we're resisting because obeying that particular thing will cost us something. Grow, brethren. Step forward.

God is developing the same kind of mature faith in us. Without it, we cannot please Him.

But do you know what that means? That with it, we can and do please Him.

So, let's remember where we started in the first sermon series in John 3 and verse 16. Whoever believes in Him, that word cannot be reduced to simply mean some kind of intellectual persuasion. So, how do we define faith from a biblical point of view? Well, based on what we've learned, we might say, faith starts with belief. Belief accepts that God's word is true. Trust is the next step. And that's when we place our life in His hands and we don't question Him by our circumstances. We judge our circumstances by His promises. And when we grow, faithfulness means we remain loyal to God and Jesus Christ when the cost becomes real, no matter what the cost. True faith is not a one-time event. God is not looking for a moment of belief, a super heroic event. Just once in your life and you're done. God is developing a life in which belief grows into trust. Trust is demonstrated through faithfulness so that your character can actually be described by the word loyal. God's loyal son or loyal daughter. Abraham was actually tested more than once.

His faith was challenged and trained over a lifetime. From the moment God told him to leave the land of Ur to a land that He would show Him. And ultimately, Abraham reached that point.

He passed the test and He showed us the example.

And when you think about it, so did Jesus Christ. Think about that. He asked for the cup to pass from Him. But what did He do? Exactly what God asked of Him. Suffered terribly and died for us anyway. And now we have the wonderful opportunity to grow, to become like those who were faithful before us. Waiting for the day when God says to you, now I know.