On Faith, Part 1

Well, I'm quite excited about the sermon today, and I hope you will be as well. It's a sermon that I've learned from and one that has propelled me with interest, and I want to share this message with you today. How many of you would like to be in the kingdom? Is there anybody here that really wants to be in the kingdom? It's kind of a simple question, but I think that's why pretty much we're here today. You know, seeing you and the brethren I serve into the kingdom of God is my purpose.

It's a calling, but it's a calling that I very much welcome. The question then becomes, how can you and I be assured that we will be in the kingdom of God? Is there a way that you and I can be absolutely sure of being in the kingdom? I believe there is, and I believe the Bible tells us that.

If you turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse 13, we'll see here what I believe God inspired Solomon to say to humanity, who comes to understand God in his way of life, to say that is the key or the keys of our entering the kingdom of God. And here he says, let's stop for a moment at the very end of the book of Ecclesiastes, let's stop and ponder this question.

What is therefore? What is therefore the whole duty of man? And he then lays out for you and me the whole duty of man. Fear God and keep his commandments. For this is man's all. Or as it says in the old King James version, this is the whole duty of man. This is all. This is man's all. This is our total responsibility to fear God and to keep his commandments. But what's he really saying here?

To fear God means to have a deep faith in God, to believe deeply, to have a strong faith. And to perform his commandments means to love. Love God with all your heart, soul, and might. Love your neighbor as yourself.

So you have to have faith, a strong faith, and then you have to have an obedience. And that is the whole duty of man. Another way of looking at this is to have faith in Jesus Christ. And love your neighbor as yourself. Love your brethren. Love God. So here we are presented with the two. I would posit to you. The two prerequisites for our entering the kingdom of God. Faith and love. And these two are to be performed before a gracious God. As we perform our faith, we demonstrate our faith. And as we love our God and love our fellow man, we do so before a God that is gracious.

And his graciousness then permits us entry into the kingdom of God. This is further defined in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8, where it says, we are saved by the graciousness of God through faith. Faith. And also Jesus Christ in Matthew 22, 37, giving us the two great commandments that I mentioned before of loving God and loving our fellow man. So we're saved by obeying God, being faithful, but we're saved because God is gracious to those who are faithfully following him.

I'd like today to begin a short series of sermons on these big two, on faith and on love. Since they are the key that the Bible says, they are the prerequisites to you and I being in the kingdom of God, I want to make sure that all of us fully understand what our responsibilities are.

Today, the title is, How Do You Live By Faith? The Bible says, the righteous will live by faith, the just. But those who are justified, in other words, those who make it in the kingdom will live by faith. How do you live by faith? And then we'll look at love and its complexities at a different time. First of all, we're going to take a look at what faith is. We'll find it's the rarest thing in the universe today. We'll find that it's very precious to someone, and then we'll see how we can have more of this very precious and important resource.

Gold is uncommon. I think most of us know the price of gold determines its value. I'm sorry, the rarity of gold determines its price and value. Diamonds are somewhat rare, and their rarity obviously makes them worthwhile. There are other various elements in the universe that are rare, but faith is almost non-existent. You can go to the outer reaches of the universe, and you can go to the core of this earth, and you can look everywhere in between, but you won't find much faith.

It is extremely rare. It's almost non-existent. And because it is so rare and almost non-existent, it's very precious. It is very precious to someone. It is worth creating the universe for in all its complexity. It's worth creating life in all of the ultimate and intricate detail that exists here, to mine this one precious little missing resource. To someone, it was that important. Who is that someone? Well, those who are searching for it, and only those who are searching for it. You and I probably don't put a high degree of value on it.

We don't tend to search for it. We don't tend to think about it a whole lot until we need it, usually in a crisis. However, someone is searching for it. It says in the Bible, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith anywhere on this earth?

Why did Jesus ask that about Himself? Because He is looking for faith. It's important to Him.

Jesus Christ has always been searching for faith, ever since the first humans were created. Go back and read the record. He was the God of the Old Testament. What has He been looking for all this time? What was Abraham's big thing in his life about? God was looking for faith. Do you have faith? Here, take your son and travel all the way up north and sacrifice him. And let's see if there's any precious, rare element in you. Because He found it, what was Abraham called? The Father of the righteous, right? Nope.

Father of the faithful. The spies went into the Promised Land. And what was the main issue?

Did any of them have faith? None of them had faith except two, Joshua and Caleb. And Joshua then led Israel into the Promised Land. Jesus Christ said in His day, O you of little faith. Why didn't He say, O you of little works? O you of little righteousness? O you of little something? Little knowledge. Because faith is important to God. It is so important to God. It says in Hebrews 11, verse 6, Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. We're talking here about those who are looking for faith. Those who faith is the most important element. God, it turns out, is going to bring into His kingdom only those who have godly faith. Only those who have developed this precious resource and are therefore worth harvesting because they have this rarest of qualities. And that harvest that has been pruned and encouraged to grow and develop is ready for a harvest.

Now, when we look at faith from our standpoint, we often wish we had more faith. Oh, I wish I had more faith. Oh, I believe it helped out my unbelief, you know, was a statement that was made. What about faith? How do you feel about faith? Well, it's kind of irrelevant. It's kind of irrelevant. It's how God feels about faith that's relevant. And God wants faith all the time and everyone. You and I, however, have a little different view of faith often. We wish we had more of it sometimes, but let's consider for a moment when are the times when we wish we had more faith? Today? Probably not. How about when you're about to be put in front of a firing squad for what you believe? Oh, that's when I wish I had more faith. Have your toenails pulled out.

Lose your job. Lose your job over the Sabbath. As some have said to me, I'm going to lose my job over the Sabbath. Pray that I will be able to do what's right. This is common. There are times when we wish we had more faith, when we need more faith. When we're sick, when disasters strike, big issues, trials, tests, suffering. This is when we wish we had more faith. And why do we want more faith? Come on, why do we want more faith? Because we want to get something. That's why we want a miracle. If I had more faith, I'd be healed. If I had more faith, my finances would get worse. If I had more faith, heaven would open. And if I had more faith, I would receive something.

In other words, we want to get saved. I want to have enough faith to get saved. I need more faith to get married. I need more faith for my job. I need more faith to get healed, etc., etc. But God always wishes you had more faith. God always wants you to have more faith every minute of every day. And we're going to see why that is important and why you need faith to be strong all the time.

Let's talk for a moment about what faith is not. Before we get into what faith is, let's look at some things that faith is not. Faith comes initially through certain faith-building opportunities in life. Similar to when a parent raises a child and wants them to develop a certain character trait, the parent will give them certain character-building opportunities. Oftentimes, those character-building opportunities will have rewards attached to them. It helps the character-building to go along smoothly. It gives a child an interest in the result in a way. Sometimes it's the same with God. We find that, for instance, when Jesus Christ came to this earth, it was an earth that did not have faith in God, did not have faith in Him as the Messiah, did not have faith in the kingdom of God, faith in the resurrection. And in the absence of a belief in those things, Jesus Christ came in and performed miracles, eye candy for the people. And they said, wow, what's this? Wow, this is unique. And so in a world where those issues were not known, in a world where the pagan Greeks, Romans, others had never known Christ, Christianity, godliness, the commandments, or anything else, miracles were an important way of getting people's attention, of convincing people that God existed, that Jesus Christ truly was the Son of God. Now, similarly, my father took me as a young boy and said, I want you to learn certain character traits, certain work ethics. I didn't know those work ethics. I knew how to show up at the table and eat, and I knew how to go play, just as soon as I was done. He wanted to teach me how to mow the lawn. Well, there's a little boy with a big backyard full of St. Augustine grass with its tough leaves and even tougher little stems all growing up out there, and a lawnmower that he had to push to make the blades go around, with no other sound but you groaning, and those blades supposedly whirling until they stuck in some of that grass. I needed an incentive, and so it was, John, you go out there and mow the lawn for a few hours, get blisters all over your hands, and I'll give you two dollars. So, I never really developed a love for mowing the lawn, but I could be persuaded to get two dollars. Later on, I was taught that if I did my homework, which is an important character trait, I could watch one hour of TV with the family. Well, TV was pretty exciting. This is the Ed Sullivan show, you know, and all the entertainers and new stars that came on Ed Sullivan. Didn't want to miss that, or yep, do that homework. There was Red Skelton, his entertainers in comedy, didn't want to miss that. Jackie Gleason show. Oh, you know, hurry, do the homework, because you're going to get paid. You're going to get a payoff here. Later on, it was the series Mission Impossible. You didn't want to miss Mission Impossible. You know, you're doing your homework, you hear that dong, dong, dong, dong, go, go, go, whoa, whoa, fast! It's starting!

Sitting at the table, I didn't necessarily like to eat my vegetables, and so the rule was, if you eat your vegetables, Mom will give you dessert. Now, what's interesting about these things is, it's easy for children to begin to think that doing right gets rewarded. Doing right automatically brings a reward, and you can develop a kind of a theory that I will be a good person, and this reward will come, and I depend on this reward. God gives His new babes in the faith also faith-building exercises and opportunities. These encourage a development of a trust that there is a God, and that this is the God, this is the true God, this is God's church, these are God's teaching. And these often come in the form of miracles or special blessings to babes in the faith, to get them to see, just as those early converts in the New Testament, many of whom needed a lot of seeing and a lot of enticement to sort of get the picture. You remember the Apostle Paul, for instance. The Apostle Paul didn't get the picture, but a big miracle was done for the Apostle Paul, and then he got it. He was struck blind on the way to Damascus, and then he was healed by a person in the right church with the right teachings. And some of those events are profound. Some of the rewards that God uses are when you tithe, he'll open the windows of heaven, in some cases, at some times, and you'll get a reward. Tithe? Hey, look, a reward! I didn't go bankrupt after all, or I got a bonus. Wow, that just didn't happen. You can't explain that one.

Or the phone rings, and you know, you won something. And he says, wow, that's pretty good. You know, a third tithe here, I didn't think I'd make it, but somehow Aunt Lucy left me a little piece of the pie. And those things work out. They help our faith. Sometimes when we are sick, we can be healed. Sometimes if we have an emergency that takes place in our life, and God steps in, it's like, wow, there is a God. How many of you have had some event take place in your life that really showed you that there was a God and where that God was? Anybody? Was it just me? Okay, now look at the hands for a minute. Now each of us has a story here. My story was when I was 12 years old. My parents were in the church, but I was 12 years old. And so I was given 45 minutes to live, and I was healed miraculously at that time. Now just to show me, I guess, that that was special, a real miracle. Two of my other schoolmates died, and they were not healed. And that was tragic. And I realized then, number one, there is a God, and He saved my life. And number two, this life is not to just be thrown around or misused because God did something.

That's really stuck with me my entire life. It's been profound.

Now it's easy for humans then to say having faith means receiving stuff from God. I mean, look at me. It started when I was 12, and I received stuff from God. And when I paid in third tithe years, I got stuff from God. And when I was going along with some emergencies or whatever and felt that I got saved out of them. Wow! See, obeying God means getting stuff.

It's like when I was young at home. If I ate my vegetables, I got dessert. Well, why am I a Christian? Why am I pursuing this way of life? Is it to get stuff from God? Why was I a child growing up in the family learning character? Was it just so I'd always get stuff from my parents?

You know, there is a maturing process in a child. And today, if I went out tomorrow and mowed the lawn, would I expect my dad to put a check in the mail?

If I eat my vegetables, will my mom send dessert? If I get sick by doing something foolish with my body, do I expect God to step in and heal it?

If I get in trouble on the highway, do I expect a miracle angel to take the wheel out of my hand and drive me to safety? If I get called in front of a bad king who's going to toss me in a fiery furnace, do I expect that I'll be walking around in that furnace with Jesus Christ?

You know, what are our expectations as our faith matures? Do we hang on to the childish mentality and the childish expectations, or do we mature? We need mature faith.

When the disciples had initial faith-building experiences, they were pretty dramatic. They were pretty profound. Later on, the Apostle Paul and Apostle Peter and others would be in situations that they got into where they were imprisoned and possibly were going to be killed. But you know the one event there in the early part of Acts where the angel came and opened the prison wide, and they walked right out, and everybody was mysteriously asleep, and they went out and continued preaching the gospel. That's a faith-building lesson, as much for them as it was for the brethren who were very encouraged and motivated by it.

Did that continue to be the norm for the apostles?

When they healed, as Paul said, did profound miracles among many of the Gentiles who did not know God and healing them, could Paul say, I expect to be healed? No. Paul was not healed of his own eyesight. That very thing that God had healed him of, when he was first converted, came back to haunt him, evidently. Did Paul have the prisons open in Rome, and did he walk free? No. Did he want to walk free? You know, the brethren in the last part of Acts there, I think it's about the 22nd chapter, appealed him, don't go to Jerusalem! They're liable to kill you! And he says, what is that to me? You know, be quiet! Of course I'm going to Jerusalem, and if I die, so what? I've been called to do a job. See, there's a maturing of faith, and the expectations from God are those of a mature Christian. We need mature faith. The patriarchs, the disciples, the apostles, I believe, progressed and learned the same development of faith and trusting in God, not in God as I've got somebody who's promised to deliver me out of any and everything I ever get into, but that I am so riveted on God, I know he exists, and I know his way is right, that I will go do that no matter what. That's mature faith.

Let's notice this in Hebrews 11. Now, Hebrews 11 can be a double-edged sword. It can erode faith if you're not careful, or it can build faith.

We call it the faith chapter, but how it affects you could be setting you up for a fall, if you read it wrongly. Now, you might be thinking that Hebrews 11 is promising you a bunch of stuff from God. Whenever you have a problem, if you have faith, God's going to give you a bunch of stuff.

The caveat of that is, if you get into a problem and you don't receive stuff from God, it may erode your faith very rapidly. You may say, I had all these expectations. I believed I had faith, but God let me down. You see, God didn't come through.

Hebrews 11 probably disillusiones more people than it inspires, but it shouldn't weaken or destroy your faith. If you understand what's being said here, let's take a look. The point is that faith-building opportunities from God are to help God's new children grow to trust Him, grow to know Him. And largely, these are one-time events.

One-time events. And what we read in Hebrews 11 are many people's one-time events. And all of you who raised your hands could probably write and add to the verses of Hebrews 11 about your one-time event. Now, if someone else picks up the Bible and reads all of these one-time events and says, Oh, wow, look at here! Anytime I'm 12 years old or have a kid who's 12 and I'm going to die in 45 minutes, God will heal me. And look over there, anytime I have a rollover accident and suddenly my car's going to spring back on its wheels and there won't be a scrape on it. And look over here, and look over here, and look over here, and look over here. See?

This is what's going to happen to me. Well, let's read. Verse 5, we find that these faith-building exercises and rewards were one-time events to encourage and inspire people that, yes, God does exist and, yes, God does intervene oftentimes once in a person's life. For instance, verse 5, Enoch was being pursued. Enoch's life was in danger. We can interpret from this verse.

Verse 5 of Hebrews 11, By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found. Ah! Somebody was looking for Enoch who wanted to kill him.

Now, Enoch was taken in a fiery chariot up to heaven. So next time somebody's coming after you, gunning for you, you can expect a fiery chariot to show up, just like happened to everybody else in the Bible, and you'll be whisked out of there and won't be found. Right? Or not right? Is there any other thing said about Enoch? That was his one event in life. When Enoch was transported away in that chariot, after having been a righteous man, he was a preacher of righteousness, maybe more so after than before, what effect do you think that had on his life? How do you think he felt about God and godliness and his way of life the next time a band of people came looking for him and he wasn't whisked away by a chariot? He was probably faith-ready the next time.

Is the purpose of this story for you and I to expect the same? In verse 7, By faith, Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear. What is godly fear? That's faith, that's belief, that's trust, that's reverence for something that you really believe in. And he prepared an ark for the saving of his household. And he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. Righteousness which is according to faith. Those words may not mean a lot now, but they will by the end of the sermon. What a profound event when you are floating in the only ship and you're the only life that you know of anywhere, you and the animals that are around you, and that ship comes back to earth and you go out and propagate and fill the earth, do you think you'll say, I'm not really sure if there is a god, and I'm not really sure that I need to follow that god.

You think that would ever enter into Noah's mind for the rest of his 900 years? No! That would have been profound for another 800 years of his life. It'd just been a profound lesson. He would have probably told it to everybody he ever met, all of his kids and grandkids and great grandkids, and topped that message. It was profound. It was also one time event.

When we come to verse 11, by faith Sarah herself also received strength. Now, when you think about Sarah, you go back to the story, Sarah was a little bit, you know, she kind of laughed. Was she really trusting? Was she really strong? By faith, Sarah received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age because she judged him faithful, who had promised. She had a little bit of belief. But what about after this event? If you take, for instance, a 90-year-old woman who's never had children, and she gets pregnant, and nurses and rears her child, how do you think she feels after that event? About there being a God and about following that God? That's a pretty big event in a person's life. What else do you read about Sarah?

In verse 33, or should I ask the question, is the purpose of Sarah's story for all barren women who are 90 years old to expect to give birth on their 90th birthday?

In verse 33, let's notice where this chapter leads us. It leads us to maturity of the faithful. It leads us beyond those who need a miracle in order to believe in God, need a miracle in order to be reassured that they're on the right path, need some sort of intervention, some special intervention, fly away, getaway, defense, jail opening episode in order for them to trust and believe.

In verse 33, some stop the mouths of lions. Does that mean that I'm going to jump out of the safari vehicle over in Kenya and start grabbing lions? And I'll be okay. No, that was a one-time event for Daniel, an old man in a lion's den, Daniel, a man who almost on his own had to go against the Babylonian and then the Persian Empire, the great mystery Babylon the Great and Persia that conquered it. And here's a man encouraged, motivated, and also showed a sign, I believe it was to Darius the Mead, if memory serves me correctly, who was involved in that. In this incident, it showed him that God existed, just like Nebuchadnezzar was shown that God existed.

But here we go, verse 34. Some quench the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were out of weakness made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the alien, women received their dead, raised to life again. Are you ready, faithful? All your dead are going to come back to life again if you're women. Is that what the lesson is here?

Is the purpose of telling their experiences for you to expect the same?

Again, your miracle is unique. I've never heard of anybody ever say any of these things, valiant in battle, weakness made strong, escaped the edge of the sword, fire you escaped, dead, raised to life again. You know, these are not things that happened in my life in probably years. We would have our unique things to write here.

What is the purpose in telling these things?

Your miracle, your event, is unique to you and unique to your calling as a babe in Christ. So was theirs. A miracle can be an initial faith-building tool. I'm not saying that all miracles only appear early, but they are rare in my experience of hearing of a dramatic incident that takes place in the life of a seasoned church member who is full of faith, complete and whole, well-developed, mature in the faith. Because the Bible itself describes miracles as being faith-building tools. For instance, in Psalm 77 and verse 14, David says, you are the God who performs miracles. Why? You display your power among the peoples. To those who don't know God, he displays his power.

We should not become dependent on miracles, just as I should not become dependent on my parents paying me to mow my lawn. Do I need my dad to send me money when I mow the lawn? No, I really don't. I learned a long time ago that lawns are boring to mow, so I got rid of them. And I found out gravel in the yard just sits there and you don't have to mow it. Nevertheless, miracles are not intended as faith-maintaining tools, nor is any type of support like parental encouragement intended to be ongoing encouragement for life. And I'm saying, when you give your child dessert after eating all his vegetables, it doesn't mean that he's going to keep eating his vegetables throughout the rest of his life because you're going to be there giving him dessert afterward. These are building instruments.

Instead, what we really find at the end of the day, I believe personally, and I'll take responsibility for this, miracles are actually a substitute for faith.

Miracles are actually a substitute for faith. Now, why do I say that? Because when Christ did miracles, he was doing them to people who had no faith. And miracles are not needed for people who have faith. The apostle Paul, the apostle Peter, the apostle John got past the need for maintaining their belief and trust in God Almighty by the miracles that had been performed around them in their early life. We don't read after Abraham and Isaac, in that incidence of faith, of Abraham, the rest of his life just having miracle after miracle after miracle that maintained his faith in God. So miracles and those who seek miracles as a need in their life are needing something besides leaning on the faith that is inside them. Jesus said in John chapter 10 and verse 38, if I do it, even though you don't believe me, believe the miracles.

See why he was doing miracles? We go back and say, oh, back in the early church there was miracles and the age of miracles has it passed? You know, is the church today delinquent?

Believe the miracles that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I and the Father. How many of you here today do not believe that Jesus Christ had the Father in him and that he was in the Father? Anybody here does not believe in Christ and the Father in their relationship? Okay, nobody. I guess nobody needs a miracle then, because that's what he said. The miracles were done so that you would understand the Father is in me and I and the Father. Hmm. See, we have a little better understanding, a little more mature viewpoint than those people did at that time and therefore the miracles was because of an absence of faith. Once you have faith, you no longer need miracles. Conversely, if your faith requires miracles, if you require miracles in order to have faith, I say you don't have faith. When I was 12, I needed a miracle to have faith in God or to really believe in God. I needed a miracle.

Today, I don't need to be healed. I want to be healed. Once in a while, I'll get that little stab down there with that spleen rupture and I'll say, oh, this could be it. I'd like to get out of this, but I don't need to. See, there's a difference between want and need. Sure, we'd all love to. The Apostle Paul prayed urgently that he could see and God said, no. Quit pastoring me. No. Paul didn't need to see. Did that destroy Paul's faith? Oh, wow. He said, no. I know more miracles for me. I think I'll just crawl in a hole. I will become a pagan. No. He just roared out the rest of his life, fighting the good fight of faith and went all the way to the end and said, I've got a crown!

But he didn't get healed. See, he didn't need to be healed. And God recognizes he didn't need to be healed.

If we look at this through a different lens, we can find that certain things are beneficial at a certain time for children and for God's children. But once you have faith, you no longer need miracles. And if you're faith, in order to have faith, you require miracles. Again, I say you don't have faith. Those whose faith needs miracles are indeed a very weak group. And is that my opinion? Or is that the Bible's opinion? Let's read 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 9, and some other scriptures concerning this point about the need for miracles and the tendency to want to rely on miracles. If you don't have faith and you need miracles, you're probably not going to make it to the kingdom, Jesus said. Let's look here in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 9.

You know, the Great Tribulation begins when the sacrifices in the temple are stopped, they ceased, by the lawless one, by the one who stands up and declares himself to be God in the temple. That is the beginning of the Great Tribulation. Don't anybody fool you? Jesus Christ said that. The sign of Daniel, when that takes place, that's when the three and a half years begin. This is what he's referring to right here. Paul says it's Thessalonica. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of miracles.

There it is. If faith requires miracles, that is a very shaky position to be in. All kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and every sort of evil that deceives.

Reliance on miracles isn't godly faith. In Mark chapter 13, verse 22, Jesus Christ himself said this, For false christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect. That's it. False teachers will come into the church using miracles in order to deceive the elect. A person who needs miracles to believe has a scant chance of getting into the kingdom of God. Mature Christians will have moved on from miracle needing to having faith. Not from appreciating miracles, not from asking God for miracles, not from believing in miracles and appreciating miracles whenever they happen, but they will move on from needing miracles to believe in God and obey God, to having godly faith. And this, as we'll see, comes from having his Holy Spirit in us. Mature Christians have faith to go on and develop godly character to seek God's kingdom in any circumstances. Miracles, no miracles. Trials, no trials. Blessings, cursings, killings.

Anything that comes along, a mature Christian will have the godly faith to move forward building godly character in any situation. And God said, whatever that situation is, there's nothing that's going to be too great for that person to endure, because he has godly faith. And that's going to see him through. And I'll make sure it sees him through.

In Hebrews 11, verse 35, this point is brought out very clearly. Remember the faith chapter? Remember all the miracles!

Notice verse 35 of Hebrews 11. Godly faith will enable a person to continue to grow in any circumstance. Any circumstance.

It says in verse 35, others were tortured. I don't know what it's like to be tortured, but I don't want to be tortured. Tortured and slowly made miserable to the point where you just can't take it. That happened to some people. Not accepting deliverance. They said, no. I'm not going to sin. I'm not going to disbelieve in God. I'm not going to change my godly character. I'm going forward. I don't care what this torture is. I will not accept anything else. Were they given a miracle? No. Did they need a miracle? No. Were they strong? Yes. Will they obtain salvation? Yes, they were. Yes, they will.

Still others had a trial of mockings and scourgings.

Yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stone. They were sawn in two. They were tested. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. These people didn't get a miracle. They didn't get a chariot. They didn't get a gate to open in jail. They didn't get some lightning bolt. But what were they? We're going to see here in a minute. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins. When they tithed, the windows of heaven didn't open on them.

Being destitute, afflicted, tormented. When they got sick, they didn't get healed.

Of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth. And these, having obtained a good testimony through faith. These people had faith. That's something precious. That's something that wasn't built in any of these situations. Faith is never built in a crisis. It's only exhibited. And their crisis showed that they had godly faith. And they kept moving forward because they obtained a good testimony through faith. Now we appreciate miracles that happen to babes of Christ or whoever God wants to give them to. That's fine. And we ignore them when they're performed by lawless ones.

Miracles are kind of irrelevant in that sense. They don't control your future. And a person who conducts them who is lawless, maybe somebody down the street is doing miracles today and telling you you can break God's law. Kind of irrelevant. So what if he bring the dead back to life? I don't care. I ignore that. And so would you. Miracles won't distract us from being the children of God or the followers of God. Now, let's ask the big question. What is faith? We've seen some things that faith aren't. What is faith? You might be surprised at what faith really is. Imagine the rarest thing in the universe. The rarest of rarest things. It's just not out there. That is faith. God is seeking people with it. It is very, very unique. Faith is important to God. He's the one searching for it. It's used some 650 times in the Bible. And 450 of those times are in the New Testament, using the Greek word pistos. P-I-S-T-O-S. It's there a lot. It's everywhere. Faith, faithful, believe, faithfulness. But it's that Greek word pistos. Very important to God. But what is it? You know, we have to forget our own ideas of what faith is. And we have to accept God's definition of faith. Not mine. Don't believe me. Leave your Bible. That's what I taught by my pastor growing up. Believe your Bible. Faith in God, you might call it godly faith, living faith. Godly faith that is for salvation is very unique. Very unique.

Remember, all those situations in Hebrews 11 that people got into, and throughout the Bible, that people got into, faith. Faith got them through every crisis. I like to use a little analogy here, some other crises that can come along in your life and mine. I'll read you some of them. Torn vinyl seats. Automobile cylinder sleeves, breaking. Broken crankshaft pulleys. Generators, starters, transmissions, engine blocks, stud poles. Cylinders, torn keys, tractor axles, and hubs. Fuel tanks and radiators. Body shop repairs. Refrigeration units. Stove parts. Porcelain bathroom fixtures. Ceramic tile light fixtures. Hot and cold pipes. Screws. Dowls. Bolts. Aluminum bolts. I'm sorry, aluminum boats. Washers and dryers. Outboard motors. Motorcycles. Bicycles. Water pump. Lawn mowers. Water tanks and tubs. There's a whole bunch of problems that can come up in life. Kind of like all the problems that come up in our spiritual life. And what's the fix? In your spiritual life, it's faith. Living, godly faith. And your physical life, it's epoxy cement. Epoxy cement is really powerful stuff, according to this package. A parts store in Waco, Texas, repaired a 20-ton hydraulic jack with this stuff. The city of Dallas, Texas, repaired a caterpillar engine block with it. A lady in Seattle repaired her cracked kitchen disposal. A housewife in Dallas saved her expensive stainless steel cookware by using it. I mean, this stuff's gonna do it all, okay? Just like faith. And just like faith, it has two parts, okay? Two parts. And so this analogy, though a little different, helps us understand what faith is. There's a tube here that's red and a tube here that's black. Now, I've tried this before and you can try it too. You can take the red tube or you can take the black tube and you can smear it on the side of your radiator or your kitchen stove broken or whatever it is you want to glue back together. And you can smear it on there, stick those two parts together, and you can come back in a year, which I haven't tried a whole year, and you know what you'll have? The same kind of gooey white stuff that's in the red tube. It's just goo. It won't stick to anything. Or on the other hand, you can take the black tube, which has a kind of a dark gray goo, similar to the white goo, and you can take the dark gray goo and you can slather it on stuff and stick it together. And it won't do a thing. Now, there's nothing wrong with the red tube or nothing wrong with the black tube. They're fine. But of and by themselves, they don't fix things. The basic underlying premise of faith is that it includes two components. If you have one component, the red tube, you do not have faith for salvation. If you have the other component, if you have the black tube, you do not have the faith for salvation. It's not going to solve your problem, as it were. It's not going to get you through to the kingdom of God.

Now, there's been a lot of wars about which tube is better. I like the red tube. I like the black tube. Religious wars have been fought over which tube color you ought to have when it comes to the components of faith. Some say, oh, believe in Jesus and you're saved. Oh, I heard a guy the other day on the TV. I hadn't seen him in a few years. He's on there. Oh, belief in Jesus. Belief in Jesus. It does it all. And the thing is, if you believe in Jesus, you're saved. And there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing you can do about it. Like, wow, okay, that's the red tube.

And then you have some who believe in the black tube. And that is, you have the law. If you keep the law, you will be in paradise. Whatever version of paradise that is. And so, you have two viewpoints. Now, if you believe in Jesus, you won't be in the kingdom. And if you do the law perfectly, you won't be in the kingdom. All right? It's not going to solve your problem.

Either one of those by themselves is not going to solve your problem. Faith has two components, and together, mixed together, they are godly faith. The faith required for salvation.

Faith in the New Testament has these two aspects. One is, I know, and the other is, I do. One is intellectual, the other is action. To say, I know, I know, hey, I believe, I know there's a god, I saw a miracle, I read the book, I believed it. To know is one part. Or, to do is another part. But there are two components. Let's see how this is defined by God in Scripture. In Hebrews 11, verse 1, if we want to look at the definition of faith, let's use Hebrews 11, where God defines it. He defines it. First, we'll look at the red tube of faith. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith, then, is what you have when you don't have what you seek.

Faith has become your reality when your reality is not here. Faith, then, is belief. That's what it is. It's belief, it's trust, it's a deep respect of God, His way, His kingdom, the whole package. It's the knowing. And your faith, even though you don't have God physically right here, you don't have His kingdom physically right here, you don't have the promises, you are assured of them, you believe them. That is your proof, and your belief in that becomes your proof.

In verse 6, we find that without faith, it is impossible to please Him. Why? Because He's looking for faith. Remember? When the Son of Man comes, will He find any faith in the earth? And if He doesn't find faith in you, it's impossible to please Him.

Why? For He who comes to God must believe that He is. That's point one. That's the red tube.

That's the first half. Here comes the second half. And that He is a rewarder, He's going to give an inheritance in the kingdom to those who diligently seek Him.

That is the black tube.

Faith, Godly faith, is those who not only believe, but those who do.

Those who enter the kingdom with faith are those who believe to the core of their being and act on that belief diligently. That summarizes Godly faith.

Faith is what you do in seeking what you know. It's not just sitting in one camp or the other, either doing or believing. It is doing what you believe, and that is Godly faith. So to summarize faith, faith is your reality of God and His plan, combined with your fully dedicated diligence in following God and His plan. That is faith. You can't separate the two. This is not glue. This is not a weld until the two are totally together. Then you wait 12 hours, and it's amazing what that stuff will do. I've carried this around for a lot of years and used it in a lot of situations. It reminds me so much of the two components of faith when they are together. There's just nothing that God can't do through a person who has the deep trust and conviction in him and is acting and living on that trust. That's why David was a man after God's own heart. It wasn't just because he had nice love in his heart. No, David deeply believed in God, and he was living out that belief in God. And it was credited to him for righteousness, just as it was Abraham. That's why it was credited to him for righteousness.

To summarize here that you can't have one component, let's look at a question. Each of us has a very unique opportunity to be here today. The opportunity to be alive is what I'm talking about as a human being. Now, you're here, but your potential siblings are not. And when I say potential siblings, let's just think for a minute.

You know, a woman is born, is a little baby, and she's got about, I forget, 20,000 eggs inside her. And a man, when he goes to have a child, has about 6,000 potential kids. All right? For one of those, I think there's 2,000 eggs that remain by the time a girl hits 18, what's the chance that you're here? And the other 5 million some, and the other eggs aren't here. They didn't make it. But for some reason, you got to live. And here you are. Now, what is required for you to be alive today?

What would you say is required for you to be here alive today?

Well, I'd say there's two things required. One is that you have a body.

Okay? You got your body? Yep, everybody's got your body. See, we all qualify.

And one of the two things it takes to be living today, right? They got the body. Now, is a body just a body? Is that all you need to be alive today? Not really, because we could lay you out here stone cold, and we could look at you and say, such a shame. Yeah, I got Lucy here, but she ain't really. You know, she's not alive. It takes the breath of life, doesn't it? It takes the spirit of life that God blew into Adam, the life-giving life. It's also called the soul.

It's just life, all right? So the life that goes with the body is necessary for you and I to be alive. And God can take away the life and leave a body, and you've got to worry about that. He can also take away the eternal life that he would put into a spirit body. You've got to worry about that.

But when we look here at this concept of, are we alive? You can't just have one component. You can't just have the body. Or let's say you don't have a body. Somebody here without a body, but you can have life. All right? Life. Oops, sorry. There's nobody for the life to go in. Didn't work. You've got to have both, don't we? You've got to have both. Let's look over here in James chapter 2, just a page or two over James chapter 2, in verse 26. For as the body without the spirit is dead, you've got to have both parts if you want to be alive. As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. You're not really a living person if you don't have a body and life to go with it. And you don't have godly faith if you don't have that deep trust and belief in God and the actions to follow your trust and belief in God. And verse 18, but somebody will say, you have faith and I have worse. You've got the red tube, I've got the black tube. And you can argue all day about that. But there's no life there. That's not faith. Show me your faith without your works. I dare you. Show me your glue. Show me how this is going to fix the block, the cracked block on a big caterpillar tractor engine without the two together. But Paul says, I will show you my faith by my works. Faith, then, isn't a feeling. You conjure up if you want to grow in faith. Okay, I'm going to grow in faith. Okay, I've got more faith now.

Oh, well, faith, faith, maybe what I need is a really bad situation to come along so I can grow in faith. Okay, I'll drive my car into a tree. Oh, and I can't afford the payment, so now I'm growing in faith. I mean, how do you grow in faith? Faith isn't something that you maintain by seeing miracles. Oh, last year we had a miracle. I was really inspired. I haven't had a miracle in a year now. My faith's kind of waning. It's about to go out. Need another miracle. Faith guys, healing guys, coming to town or something. We need a miracle here. Otherwise, the lights may go out. No. Faith isn't these types of things.

Rather, faith is your reality. It's what you believe. It's what you do.

How can you grow in faith? How can you grow in faith? Well, it's been a lot of news out, especially outside the United States, about how the dollar has been falling. Let's use the analogy of how would you grow your savings account. Something tangible we can understand. The dollar's weakening. The dollar's falling. It may not be the universal currency anymore, as we've read recently in church literature. It may fail our government. It may fail ultimately you and me, etc., etc. So what do we do? Convert to euros. Convert to euros. So let's just say in this little hypothetical thing, you want to take your dollars and convert them to euros, because euros are going up, dollars are going down.

Be in good shape, because when there's no more dollar, you got euros.

Bear with me. I know it's not a very good analogy. But it's chosen specifically because it's a little bit obscure. You probably don't know a lot about euros. How would you get them? What would you do with them? You know, euros are euros. We don't know that, but it's kind of like faith. How would you get faith? How would you grow faith? We don't know a lot about that, so bear with me, because I think the analogy is pretty good. And if you want to grow in faith, maybe we would know about as much of it as how we would grow our savings account in euros. So we first asked the question, where do euros come from? If I want to get euros, if let's say you had a little money that you could buy 10 euros with, where would you get a euro? I don't know. Where would I get a euro? I haven't seen a euro before. Maybe that's the first euro I've ever seen. Now, where'd you get a euro? Maybe he gets some in London when he goes through. London? Yeah. Yeah, UK probably gets them in London. No, UK uses British pound sterling. They don't use euros. Maybe gets them in Kenya. Yeah, no, Kenya use Kenya shillings. Well, where would you get euros? See, kind of a good little head scratcher. How do you grow in faith? Well, you have to ask, where does faith come from? If you want to build faith, you have to figure out where it comes from. Where can we get it? Well, the first indication we get comes from Galatians 5 and verse 22. I find that following baptism, we receive God's Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit has certain fruits, the Bible says, or it has certain responses, certain developments in a person's life. Certain things come from it. The product of Holy Spirit is love. That's good, because love is one of the big ones, one of the two things, isn't it? That we're judged for regarding entry into the kingdom. And then there's joy, and there's peace, and there's long suffering, there's meekness, there's moderation, there's goodness, and faith right there. Your translation may say faithfulness, but just look up the word. It's P-I-S-T-O-S in the Greek, pistos, faith. Faith is a byproduct, or it comes from, it's a product of having God's Holy Spirit active in your life. God wants us to grow in fruit, produce fruit, Jesus Christ said. I am come that you will produce fruit. My Father wants you to produce fruit. I'm going to trim you so you produce more fruit, more faith, more love. So here we see the source is God. And at baptism, we receive a little of God's Spirit. It resides in us, and we need that to grow in us. In Romans 12, verse 3, we're going to see that faith does come from God, that He gives it.

Romans 12, verse 3, it says, As God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

So that godly faith, that conviction of who God is, understanding and really believing in what His truth is, His teaching is, and the ability to follow that, perform righteousness, comes from God.

In actual fact, then, faith is not your faith and my faith. It's not the faith of a 12-year-old boy that came to believe in God because he was healed, or the faith of anybody that had a miracle happen to them, which was their own faith, because, oh, look at that! Put two and two together, there is a God. I figured that out. But actually, the faith that comes through the Holy Spirit is somebody else's faith. That is God's faith. That is something that God is giving us, sharing with us something that He has. Just as His Spirit is part of His mind, His faith then comes to us.

In Philippians chapter 3 and verse 9, Paul says to the church in Philippi, "...not having my own righteousness." See? Our righteousness. The love, remember? Love is the fulfilling of the law. Love is performing righteousness. And where does love come from? It comes from the Holy Spirit of God. It is actually God's righteousness. He is performing in us.

Paul says, "...it's not my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ." Your translation may say, "...the faith in Christ." Wrong word. Check in the Old King James version. It's the faith of Christ here and also back in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 16. It's the faith of God. Here, the faith of Christ. "...the righteousness which is from God by faith." And what is faith? Trust in God and acting on that. Righteousness, then, is faith.

It is the embodiment of what faith is. Faith is not only the belief and the trust in God, it is the doing of God's law, which is righteousness. You cannot separate righteousness from faith because godly faith combines righteousness with belief and trust in God.

The righteousness which is from God by faith.

In Revelation chapter 14 verse 12, here is the patience of the saints. Here's the perseverance, the patience, the faith, the ongoing... It's not obliterated by the great tribulation. It's not obliterated by the trials that they went through. No, the saints of God were patient in their trials. They were long suffering in their trials. They were enduring in their trials.

These are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. They are two different things in a way, but I can't see how the faith of God, which is not only the belief of God in His commandments, but the doing of those commandments is not also the keeping of those commandments. They become one and the same, don't they? Because faith is an action combined with the belief.

Godly faith, that is. In Romans chapter 1 and verse 17, some have erroneously tried to break out part of God's requirements for us to have faith and love and try to set aside the law in some way or reduce it, diminish it, to just have to have the intellectual portion alone. Oh, I believe, and therefore it says, if you believe in Jesus, you'll be saved. Therefore, there's nothing anybody can do about it, not even me.

But notice here, Romans chapter 1 and verse 17.

For in it, it's talking about the gospel in verse 16, for in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. Who are the just? Those who God justifies, those who God is gracious to, justifies, forgives their sin, these shall live by faith. It is a combination of trusting and doing. It's a life, it's a living, it's a going forward together.

It's a belief in doing it. We must do what we believe.

To grow in faith, then, what we need is more of God's Holy Spirit. We need it operating in our lives.

One of the fruits that is to be increased is faith.

Now, you could ask yourself, how much faith do I show in my life? Today, tomorrow, Monday? Well, not a lot. I don't really have any big trials. You know, nobody's got a gun to my head.

I'm not dying.

Oh, wait a minute. Remember, that's not what faith is about, anyway.

How much faith, godly faith, do you show in your daily life?

The question of the sermon is, are you living?

Do you have living faith? And are you growing in this living faith?

Do you live by faith? It says here in the Bible that the just shall live by faith. Do you live by faith?

The answer to that comes when we examine ourselves and examine the two elements. Number one, how much do I believe God? How much do I believe what he said? Am I really convicted not only that there is a God, but I know that God, and I know his laws, I know his ways, I know his plan, and I trust in his promises. Absolutely. That's tube red.

We can then analyze that and see if we need to grow there. And I think we all can grow there and look for ways to grow in that belief and understanding. That's the mental component of faith. And the second is to examine our deeds. How much am I living what God says? How much am I really convicted and living out, acting out what God says?

Now we can analyze that and say, well, you know, I do it a little here, I do it a little there, but sometimes that which I want to do, I'm not doing. And really, we need to examine ourselves to see whether we're in the faith, belief, and doing, and then make adjustments.

And some things that go along with this beautifully in growing faith.

Bible study, because when you study your Bible, the red tube gets strengthened. You learn more about God. You learn about the things He did, the miracles, the prophecies. You see the prophecies acting out. You see we're right on track with what Jesus Christ said is going to happen in the end time, etc., etc. And so the belief, the trust, the acknowledgement of God grows through Bible study. And then prayer. The other side would say, Father, I see these things. I trust You. I know we pray for Your kingdom to come, but I'm weak. Help me. Today I'm going to interface with people on the job, people at work, people in the world, whatever, my spouse. Help me to walk better than I have been. Help me to be a better example to them. Help me to live the way Christ would live on this earth. That's the doing side.

See how those work together? The meditation to stop and think about? What am I going to do? How am I going to conduct myself?

Where am I going to go from here? And then notice how repentance and forgiveness kick in every day. And see, I'm not perfect. I wasn't perfect yesterday. I didn't do it all right. But with prayer and study and arming myself of what I want to do, if you'll just forgive me and set aside those mistakes I made yesterday, give me a fresh start. I want a new crack at this. I want a new crack at this. I'm good to go. We're going to walk the walk today. Whatever comes up.

And that's a wonderful thing. God gets very, very excited about. That's a person who is living by faith, growing daily in faith.

And anything that comes along is not too big for you and God to get through.

Doing this, you're growing in faith. You're growing in knowledge. You're growing in God's graciousness every day.

You're putting on righteousness by God doing it through you.

In conclusion, brethren, in Luke chapter 18 and verse 8, Jesus Christ asked the question, Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, shall he find faith on the earth? Now, that's a question many people think is an open-ended question.

And some still raise the question, I wonder if he will.

Actually, 60 years later, Jesus answered the question himself. We don't have to wonder. He already answered it.

Before we read the answer, let's ask the question, Where does faith exist on the earth? When he comes back, where will he find faith on the earth? The answer to that is in you. That's where he'll find faith. It's in you.

You, as you walk down God's path through all situations, totally convicted and totally believing, that is where godly faith will be found. And at the end of that path stands an open door to those who have godly faith. An open door right into the kingdom of God. And that is our hope, isn't it? That's our calling. That's our desires to go through that door. And that door is open to those who have faith. And you, if you have living faith and are growing and using and walking and living by faith, will go right through that door. It's not cracked, by the way. It's wide open. Let's finish by reading Revelation chapter 3 and verse 8.

Revelation chapter 3 and verse 8. Sixty years after Christ asked the first question, he answers it. He says, I know your works. He says, I know what you're doing.

See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it.

For you have a little strength. And what have you done? Two things.

You have kept my word. You have performed that which you are convicted in. You have kept my word. That's too black.

And you have not denied my name. You have believed in me. That is too bread.

That is the doing and the believing. And the people that have that will walk straight into the kingdom of God.

So, brethren, do you live by faith? If you do, the kingdom of God is waiting for you.