Walk by Faith

Faith 20

 

          Are you worried? Uncertain? Frustrated? Discouraged? Hear me out and I will send you away with the instructions necessary to obtain blessing. In II Corinthians 5, while discussing the issue of death, Paul makes a staggering statement: For we walk by faith, not by sight (II Corinthians 5.7). Death comes to all of us. Likewise, it comes to all those whom we love. Eventually and inevitably, it marches in to claim its own.

          Death is a large part of life, and a larger part the older we get. We are forced to deal with the death of those around us. We find ourselves faced with the necessity for preparing for our own, both spiritually and practically. At the same time, we strenuously try to avoid it. Without death our concept of life would be a very different thing, especially eternal life. Some people struggle with these concepts very much, some few all the time but all of us struggle with it at some point. Thus it is that Paul aims in this chapter to remove our fear of death.

2 Corinthians 5:1–10

1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:

3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

          It is illogical to be confident in the face of death. It is illogical to be confident regarding our certain future blessing in the afterlife. It is illogical to structure out lives now in relation to what is impossible to see but which immediately follows this life. Such illogical confidence is the blessing and the challenge of the Christian life.

          I began this series months ago by proposing that faith is seeing with our heart. Generally, we identify what is going on around us via our senses – sight, hearing, touch, etc. – and make adjustments accordingly. In a decision making context we use sensible logic combined with observation and experience. For example, I look out the window and see the sky darkening and the trees blowing. It just makes sense that it is about rain so I take an umbrella with me. Yet in the spiritual realm, faith ignores all of that. Faith sees, instead, with our heart. It believes and acts on something regardless of whether our logic/senses/experience agrees with that belief. And it continues to maintain that belief in spite of all evidence to the contrary. We walk by faith, not by sight.

          When Peter’s mind conceived the idea of stepping out of the safety of the boat and walking on the stormy seas to Jesus his senses told him it was a bad idea. His experience told him it was a bad idea. His logic told him it was a bad idea. But his faith drove him to step out of the boat anyway. Faith is making decisions based on what you believe. It is making decisions based not on what you see with your experience or your logic but what you see with what you believe down deep in your heart.

          This is precisely how God’s people are to live. “Walk” is routinely used in the Word of God as a descriptive term for the course of our daily life. Abraham was told by God to walk before me, and be thou perfect (Genesis 17.1). The sweet psalmist of Israel implores us to walk uprightly (Psalm 84.11). Our Saviour told us that if we follow Him we will not walk in darkness (John 8.12). Understanding this then, we understand what it means to walk by faith and not by sight. We are to live our lives by faith. We are not trust the evidence of our senses or our mind. We are not base our decisions on them or structure our lives around them. No, we are to live our life by faith, seeing with our heart, believing in God and in God’s Word, and structuring our life according to these things.

          If I am going to do this thing, to walk by faith, I must then acknowledge God’s will instead of my own as first in every area of my life. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; And lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, And he shall direct thy paths (Proverbs 3.5-6) These paths are the way in which we are to walk. I trust in my heart. I do not trust what my own understanding, what my senses and reason tell me. I acknowledge Him, which means I recognize His claim of authority over me. And I am instructed to do this in all my ways, all my paths, the totality of my walk.

          There is a career path that makes sense to you and another that makes sense to Him. Choose His. There is a dating path that makes sense to you and another that makes sense to Him. Choose His. There is a way to spend money, a way to parent, and a way to do a thousand other things that makes sense to you. Do not choose your own. Choose His. We are not called to live our life according to what we think is best or according to what makes sense to us. We are to walk by faith, seeing with our heart not with our sight.

          In so doing, we will discover that not only is our daily life rearranged but so is our approach to that most human and divine of subjects, death. To walk by faith is to live and die in confidence. It is to live untroubled by worry, uncertainty, fear, discouragement, or frustration. It is to live confident in the Lord’s timing, in the Lord’s provision, in the Lord’s power, in the Lord’s will, and in the Lord as the master of the harvest i.e. the result. It is to say, “God’s got this. I’m going to sit down over there, have a lemonade, and watch to see how He will handle this.” Such is not a self-confidence birthed out of my experience in my own abilities, rather it is a God-confidence birthed out of my faith in His abilities.

          By the same token, to walk by faith is just as much to die well as it is to live well. The same man who penned II Corinthians 5.7 wrote the end of his own story in II Timothy 4.7-8. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. What confidence at the end!

          There may be some reading this who have no faith and lots of confidence. If there are some such, I pity them. They are in for a disaster and a face full of dirt. Others perhaps reading this have no faith and no confidence. I hurt for them. They are missing out on the hope and delight of the Christian life. Like the children of Israel in the wilderness they murmur, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? (Psalm 78.19) Of course He can. Have a little confidence. Have some faith in God.

          Beloved, trust Him today. See in belief with your heart rather than your mind. And then roll your burdens off onto the Lord. Walk by faith and live in confidence.

How Faith Comes

Faith 19

      Our Christian life is birthed in faith. But how does that faith come? How does one get enough faith in the first place? It is one thing to hear a thing and a different thing to believe what you hear. It is especially difficult to believe it enough to stake your eternal existence on it. Additionally, the Christian needs faith not only for the new birth, but faith for every moment after that. As we wrote last week, it is from faith to faith. That which is birthed in faith must then be lived out in faith. The same substance that surrounds and enfolds us as we are born again is the same stuff in which we must live and breathe for the rest of our life. To accomplish that, we must have ready access to faith, a steady supply, a constant acquisition. So how do we get it?

          Paul gives us his wonderful answer in Romans 10.

13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

          Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. In the original language “by” means “out of”. Faith rises out of hearing the Word of God. The simple truth is we do not know what we ought to have faith in until we hear it. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? We must begin with hearing the Word of God. What is the Bible? It is the revelation of God, the revealing or unveiling of Who He is and what He thus expects of us. The Scriptures ever direct us toward Him, and with sufficient specificity that our steps can be guided. This is the first step – hearing the Word.

          Once heard, we begin to grow toward it, be begin to gradually see the validity of the Word. This is the gracious work of the Spirit in our hearts. When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth (John 16.13). We hear the truth of the Word and the Spirit compels us to admit that it is the truth. He compels us logically, evidentially, and experimentally until we come to agree.

          Once that process has begun, once we have begun to admit the validity of God’s Word, we naturally come to gradually turn over ever-increasing aspects of our lives to God’s control. We hear the Word. We believe the Word. We act on that belief. We hear more of the Word. We believe that too. We act on that too. This is faith growing. It is faith that first depends upon God for salvation, then for parenting advice, then for money advice, then for marriage advice, then for our view of government, then for our perspective on entertainment, then for etc. etc.

          Having said this, it behooves us to understand that not all who hear the Word of God will respond in faith. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esiais saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? The Bible is not magic. It does not do its work outside of a willing reception. Jesus was God come in the flesh. Every word He spoke was a Word of God. And yet He said, Who hath ears to hear, let him hear (Matthew 13.9). With mingled sorrow and anger in my heart, I can point you to young people who grew up under my preaching who walked away from the Lord the first minute they could. They heard me preach hundreds of times. That does not mean the Word of God is ineffective. It means God’s design does not overpower man’s free will. God wants to be wanted. The entire Scripture record shows us that.

          Assuming this – that you receive the Word when it comes – and understanding that faith comes to us as the Word comes, it stands to reason that each of us must prioritize a healthy diet of preaching. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? I am all for reading the Scriptures, for meditating upon them, for singing them, for putting them up on the wall as art, for listening to them read to you on your phone, and for every other way you encounter the Word of God, but if you do not regularly sit yourself down in front of an old-fashioned, leather-lunged preacher you will inevitably find yourself drifting into the spiritual weeds. No, the preacher does not have more access to God than you. No, the preacher has no more inherent ability to see things in the Word than you do. But he has more experience studying it, he has more time to dig it out, and – above all – he has a different perspective than you do. It is so easy to get tunnel vision, to let your vision be filled with what is directly in front of you. Preaching breaks us out of that. The best preaching presents God’s Word to us from another spiritual man’s viewpoint and compels us to examine ourselves in the light of the written revelation of God.

          This is why preaching, real preaching, is so resisted in our day. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears (II Timothy 4.3). We do not want to know that we are wrong. We do not want to feel uncomfortable. We do not want to feel that we do not measure up. We do not want to hear thus saith the Lord because we would rather go on secure in the ignorance of thinking we already know what the Lord said. Just try knocking on a stranger’s door and turning the conversation toward the Gospel and see how quickly the resistance comes.

          This foolish rejection of the preaching of the Word of God is not limited to the unsaved on his doorstep. It is practiced by many a person occupying the rolls of the average independent Baptist church of our day. Apparently, they already know everything. Apparently, they are not interested in hearing the Word preached. Apparently, they are more interested in watching television or taking Junior to his soccer practice or chillaxing on the back deck then they are soaking up ever increasing amounts of the Word of God.

          …and then they wonder why their faith is so weak. It is not complicated. Faith grows as you encounter the Word of God through preaching. Open your heart and head for the Lord’s house. Sit yourself down, Bible in hand, to see what the Lord will show you. And watch your faith grow.

From Faith to Faith

Faith 18

          Paul’s great theme in his greatest book is how to be freed from sin (Romans 6.7). We all of us have loads of it (Romans 3.10, 23). How are we freed from that sin? How do we become righteous? Via belief. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10.9-10).

          Romans is not, however, only occupied with the idea of what saves or rescues us from the penalty of our sin – hell – and takes us to Heaven. It is also occupied with what enables us to live above sin in this life right now. It is just as much occupied with freeing us from the doing of sin as it is freeing us from the consequences of the doing of sin. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life (Romans 6.22).

          Succinctly summarized, Paul says, “If you aren’t saved, get saved. If you are saved, get holy.” And in either case the means/method is the same: faith. We are spiritually birthed by faith; we continue on in that new life by faith. We live by faith.

          Paul himself summarized more elegantly than I when he penned Romans 1.16-17. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. It is the gospel, Christ displayed triumphant in His death, burial, and resurrection. That gospel is the power of God unto salvation, the only cure that can overpower sin. That gospel is available to every one that believeth, the means of applying the cure. Therein – in the gospel – is the righteousness of God revealed. How so? God’s righteousness is revealed in Jesus’ holiness and God’s wrath, and it is revealed more directly in my life as the means of my becoming righteous and obtaining righteousness. The means of this two-fold righteousness being applied to my life is faith. It is from faith – we are saved by faith – to faith – living a life of dependence upon the Lord as we grow in likeness to Christ. Ergo, the just shall live by faith. We become alive by faith and we become like Christ by faith.

          It can be accurately said that faith in Christ brings us two things. First, it brings us salvation and, second, it brings us holiness. Initially, we are saved from hell and granted a positional righteousness. Immediately following, we are freed from the dominion of sin in our lives, and gradually we grow in practical righteousness.

          We see, then, an unvarnished truth. The Christian life that must be birthed by faith can also only be well lived by faith. I do not begin in faith and continue in works. Does the Christian life contain good works? Yea, verily, in numberless multiplicity. But they are not done in order to obtain salvation for we already have that salvation. Nor are they done in order to obtain holiness. Good works are a necessary ingredient in a holy life, but those good works must be done while relying upon the Lord. We cannot do them in our own strength. We must depend upon Christ just as much in the doing of our good works, in living out a sanctified life as we did to enter into that life via the new birth to begin with.

          Thus it is we see the magnificent clarity of Paul’s phrasing in Romans 1.17. Those who are justified must live by faith. We must live from faith to faith, faith to get saved, faith to live out the fullness of that salvation.

          For many years, our fireplace in the home in which I grew up was graced by two cane-bottomed chairs. More decorative than functional, nevertheless, they occasionally were pressed into service when hospitality demanded it via a plethora of guests. I sat in them a time or two as a young man, but I would never sit in them now. Why? Because I stepped on the scale this morning and I know better. I will put no weight in them for I do not believe they will hold me up.

          I have given you several definitions for faith in this blog series and we have now stumbled across yet another one. Faith is putting all your weight on something. If you came across me in a grocery store aisle and I was on crutches you would assume something had happened to my legs. Why else would I need some help to support me? Yet if I stood there on my crutches and blithely assured you there was nothing wrong with my legs you would be rightly suspicious. Just so, I am rightly suspicious when a Catholic theologian tells me he is really trusting in Christ alone for salvation. If that is the case, why all the massive institutional demand that people place themselves on the crutches of good works? No, beloved, if you are trusting in Christ alone for salvation all of your weight has to be placed just in Him. You cannot trust Christ and trust your church, your priest, your pastor, or your own good works in order to obtain justification at the very same time. It is only faith and faith in Christ only that accesses the grace of God to save us.

          In the chair illustration we thus see faith for salvation. Let me offer you a second illustration to picture the faith necessary for sanctification. Years ago, in some sermon or other, I heard a preacher waxing eloquent about his mistaken efforts to become like Christ. He pictured himself as an artist whose desperate brush strokes entirely failed at painting the image of Christ onto his life. It dawned on him one day that his mental image was mistaken. He was not the artist; he was the canvas. The Holy Spirit was the artist, and it was His job to paint the picture of Christ on the canvas of his life.

That preacher’s illustration, well helpful, was incomplete. In and of itself, it can lead to quietism and passivity when the truth is God repeatedly calls us to fight, to labor, to work. I do think he was right though that you and I are not the artist. That is most definitely the Holy Spirit. But we are more than just the canvas; we are also the brush. Having been freed from sin, we are now free to choose to whom we will yield the control of that brush – to sin or to righteousness, to God or the devil, to the lust of the Spirit or the lust of the flesh. The brush cannot paint the image of Christ on the canvas of our lives in and of itself. It must yield itself in entire dependence on the Spirit to paint what and when and how He will. And when you and I yield ourselves in dependence upon God He uses us to write His will into our hearts and lives.

Romans 6. 16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

17  But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

18  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

19  I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

20  For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

21  What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

22  But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Young Painter at His Easel
by Theodore Gericault, c 1820

          In either case – salvation or sanctification – it is by faith. It is from faith to faith. It is being birthed into the Christian life by faith; it is continuing to live out the day to day Christian life of holiness by faith. It is living by faith.

          Have you begun in faith yet? I trust the answer is yes, that you have placed your faith alone in Christ to save you from your sin. Then continue on in faith. Yield yourself to the Lord and let Him do His will through you. Rely upon Him in faith to help you to tell the truth, to live a life of purity, to put down the bottle, to love your wife like Christ loves the church, to give to missions, and to do a thousand other things. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Galatians 2.20).

          Live by faith. Live from faith to faith.

What I Want for My Children

Faith 17

 

Mother and Child
by Gladiola Sotomayor

         At first glance, this title may seem an odd choice as part of a series on faith. But as you will see in a moment, there is a valid tie-in. At the same time, I think this will be a practical/philosophical help to parents of young children. Let us press forward then.

          I Timothy is a book written to pastors. In it, Paul tells Timothy what a pastor ought to do/not do, be/not be, and what a pastor ought to emphasize in his ministry. Paul also gives him instruction regarding different groups of people in the church. In chapter two, Paul does this in relation to women in the church. In verse eight he speaks of the importance of modesty and a certain deferential femininity. In verse nine Paul emphasizes that women ought to be busy serving others. In verse ten, however, he minimizes that service in the area of the church, specifically in the preaching arena. He proceeds in verses thirteen and fourteen to furnish the reason for this proscription, namely that women are more prone to be spiritually deceived while men are more prone to be spiritually rebellious. All of which brings me to the verse I want to emphasize in this post, I Timothy 2.15: Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. In essence, Paul is telling Timothy that a woman should not focus on leading the church. She should focus on her home, and specifically on her children. I believe the companion passage in Titus 2.3-5 bears out that point of emphasis.

          My purpose in this blog post, though, is not to write about a woman’s place in the home. I want, instead, to focus on the specifics of I Timothy 2.15. In it, Paul is telling Timothy that a woman’s life will have the most meaning and accomplishment if her children grow up to love and serve the Lord. More precisely, Paul is telling a mother what to want for her children.

          It never ceases to amaze me what people want for their children. Naturally, they desire for their children more than they had, but often if not almost those desires are unscriptural at best and dangerous at worst. A book on Amazon entitled “What Do You Really Want for Your Children?” by Wayne Dyer has 79 reviews and a 4.7 rating out of a potential five. Going solely by his chapter titles, Wayne thinks you ought to want your children to value themselves, to be risk-takers, to be self-reliant, to be free from anxiety, to have peaceful lives, to celebrate present moments, to be physically well, to be creative, and to feel a sense of purpose. Many of these sound noble but Dr. Dyer has missed the point by a wide margin. God reveals something simple and higher for us in the Word of God. We should want them to continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.

          The first thing we ought to want for our children is faith. What is faith? It is seeing with your heart. It is not that I want my children to be illogical. It is rather that when my children are forced to choose between what God says and what the logical evidence of their senses show them I want them to choose what God says. I want them to walk by faith and belief in Him, not by sight. Faith is also stepping out on the belief. Faith and doubt are usually mixed together. Rarely is faith present without some doubt being present as well. But the person of faith, while doubting, still steps out on the belief. I want my children to act on their faith in God. I want them to step out and live a life that takes God at His Word.

          The second thing we ought to desire for our children is charity. It is to live a life of love. What do I want them to love? Whatever God tells them they ought to love – God Himself, their neighbor, the Word of God, the lost souls of men, one another, their husband/wife, and their own children. All of these are specifically commanded or at least strongly implied and exemplified in the Scripture.

          The third thing we should want for our children is holiness. What is holiness? I answer this in detail in my book, “Freed From Sin,” but simply put, holiness is being like God. It is having God’s moral character of purity. Holiness is yielding yourself to God rather than yielding to your own fleshly desires. Holiness is walking in the Spirit. Holiness is obeying God from the heart. Holiness is being a partaker of the divine nature, not becoming god but becoming like God. In short, we ought to long for our children to grow up to be like Jesus.

          The fourth thing we should desire for our children is sobriety. As I understand that term in context it means to be serious about life. This does not mean my children cannot laugh, that they must slowly toil, grim-faced, until death closes their eyes in a final rest. No, it means that they ought to live a serious life, carefully, with a purpose, undertaking their responsibilities in a serious, mature manner.

          Having briefly examined these instructions found in the epistle, I come to one final thought. It is not enough for us to wait until our children grow up to expect them to love and serve God. If they are to continue in these spiritual graces when they are older we must begin with them now, at whatever age they may be. Now is when they are moldable. Now is when our influence will have the greatest impact, not in five or ten years, but now.

I do not know who wrote this piece, but it does summarize the urgency involved in such parental tasks:

I took a piece of plastic clay

And idly fashioned it one day,

And as my fingers pressed it still,

It moved and yielded to my will.

I came again when days were past–

The bit of clay was hard at last;

The form I gave it, it still bore,

But I could change that form no more.

I took a piece of living clay

And gently formed it day by day,

And molded with my power and art

A young child’s soft and yielding heart.

Breaking Home Ties
by Norman Rockewell

I came again when years were gone–

It was a man I looked upon;

He still that early impress wore,

And I could change him nevermore.

          My eldest son finished high school this year. He set about the task of assembling his life. What will it look like, I wonder? I know not, but I do know what I want for him – faith, charity, holiness, and sobriety. And if that is what we want in our children, beloved, we must set about instilling it early and often.

          There is not greater task. There is no harder job you will ever love so much. Let it be done according to the Word of God, and may He bless it by forming our children in the mold of Paul’s instructions to young Timothy nigh on two thousand years ago.

Mutual Faith

Faith 16

          At the beginning of Paul’s greatest epistle, Romans, Paul introduces both himself and Christ. He chases that with some words of commendation to the Christians in Rome. Following these, he expresses his great desire to come and to see them.

Romans 1.8-12

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;

10 Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

11 For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end you may be established;

12 That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

          The purpose of this blog series is to examine the subject of faith in the Word of God, and what we find here in the highlighted phrase at the end of this introductory statement in Romans is highly beneficial. Paul is saying this: 1) You have faith. I know it for your reputation for such has reached all the way to me. 2) I have faith. 3) If and when we can both be together we will gain something by it. Paul then describes the benefits to be gained as a spiritual gift from God, as a comfort, and as something which helps to establish us. Now that I have shown you the bones of this blog post let me actually write it for you.

          I wrote earlier in this series that our faith ought to be placed in God. Everyone has faith. We get to choose where to place it. We ought to put all of our apples into God’s basket. The truth is when we do that, by definition, we do not need other people; we only need and depend upon Him. But having said that, it does not then follow that other people are not beneficial to us. They plainly are, and that is precisely what Paul is communicating to us above. My faith in God does not require anyone else but it is helped by many another brother in Christ.

          God did not design Christianity to be lived in a vacuum. While some of our spiritual expressions are solitary, if all of them are there is a problem. A Lone Ranger religion is problematic. He designed us to help each other, to minister to one another. We see this in the frequent admonitions in the New Testament using the phrase one another. To put it bluntly, your church and your spiritual friends were designed to help you. But they cannot help  you if you choose to live in isolation. God calls us to be a community, to be together, mutually supporting and ministering to one another.

          I do not care how mature you become in Christ you will not grow past this point.

A. W. Pink
1886-1952

One of the well-known commentators of yesteryear failed here, and it is for precisely this reason I refuse to read him. A. W. Pink was an esteemed mid-20^th century author. As his renown for biblical insight grew so did his withdrawal from Christian society. The last twenty years of his life he devoted scores of hours a week to finishing his commentaries. With great discipline, his study bore fruit and it shows in that he is still widely read a century later. But not by me. Why? Because for the last twenty years of his life he refused to go to church. He felt he could accomplish more for the cause of Christ by using those hours to write. I do not know all of his thinking, but his actions show me that he felt he was beyond the benefit of mutual faith. And that is a very bad place to be.

          The practical necessity and benefit of mutual faith is why a church must ever be mindful of its shut ins and seniors. It is one thing for a person to willfully choose to absent themselves from the accountability and ministry of assembling with His people. It is an entirely different thing when they desire to come but cannot. Just last week, our church formed up after the morning service into a parade of cars, and slowly drove by some of our seniors here in Dubuque. Why? Because we want them to know they are not forgotten. We want to somehow find a way to grant them the benefit of mutual faith.

          The blessing of mutual faith is dependent, however, on that faith being similar. Make no mistake, with this blog post I am not praising generic togetherness. Every community gathering, indeed, every church is not equal to every other church. The two word phrase found often in Scripture, the faith, is indicative of this. It is the body of doctrine that we are all called to hold in common. And if you do not hold the same body of doctrine that I do then we have no basis for fellowship, no basis for walking together (Amos 3.3). But where such faith is held in common that faith ought to be exercised communally, mutually.

          In my time in Christian work I have met thousands of Christians who do not have a church home, or do not take an active place in that church’s service for the Lord. Oh, they may visit one every once in a while but there is no particular local church where they have plugged themselves in to serve and to be served. They are spiritually homeless. Not coincidentally, their Christianity is almost always a weak, cobwebby type of thing, insubstantial and easily shaken.

          This is why one of the most important things you can do for your marriage and for your family is to root yourself deeply into the life and culture of a biblical local church. From time to time I hear the misleading stat that Christians divorce as often as non-Christians. I suppose that may well be true if you define Christians as including Catholics, Mormons, and all kinds of other professing nonsense. But in my twenty-three years of pastoring, I can say that I have only seen two active church member couples divorce. That is an excellent percentage.

          I do not say this to benefit my church. I do not write for my church, primarily. I have no axe to grind. You do not attend my church. But it is not about your church either. It is about you and about those you love. Your church and your active attachment to it is more important than your children’s school. It is much more important than their participation in sports. It is vital to your family’s long term stability and growth.

          This is why one of the most important things you can do for your marriage and your family is to stop bouncing around from church to church. If I transplanted a sapling every couple of years it would never develop into a mighty tree, and neither will your children. Find a good church. Put your roots down. Build strong relationships with those around you. Let them minister to your need and do you minister to theirs. And you will find your faith and your Christianity gradually yet firmly established.

          Mutual faith brings such great comfort with it. I cast my mind back over the troubles and trials God has brought my way, and I blush to think of how weak I have been. Yet in addition to my own direct relationship with the Lord one constant source of strength and comfort remains – my church. When I buried my daughter my church gathered around me and poured grace into my life. I will never forget that. What comfort God’s people have brought to me in these decades, and what comfort they will bring to me in the decades yet remaining until He calls me home.

          Elijah, battling Jezebel, wanted to die for the simple reason that he thought he was all alone. But he was not. Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him (I Kings 19.18). Everybody needs to see what God showed Elijah that day. Never has that been more true than right now. For many, if not most, of us, we are separated in some very real way from God’s people. Our church attendance is limited at best and legally forbidden at worst. Pastors cannot be with their people. We tune into livestreams and join Zoom prayer meetings but we find at the core that such things are cold comfort. Why? God designed us to be together but we cannot be. Let us not play the Elijah card. Let us remember our mutual faith. Let us be grateful for its past blessings and look forward them again. And when this Covid-19 crisis has passed let us hold more fiercely than ever to our mutual faith.

          You are not alone. We are all still here. And so is He.

Full of Faith

Faith 15

Note: if you are planning to take my free Zoom class on Freed From Sin beginning tomorrow evening you will get an email with the sign in link during the day on Tuesday, April 28, 2020.
______________________________________________________________________________

 

Basket of Apples, c 1865
by John Francis

         In Acts 6, the Jerusalem Church found itself frustrated by complications of growth. In the preceding few months it had grown from around 120 to at least 8,000 and probably more. Part of the solution to those complications was the installation of the first deacons, including a man name Stephen. (Yes, I realize this passage does not use the word “deacons” but I am quite comfortable associating that here.) And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews… …and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost (Acts 6.1, 5). I love that descriptive identifying phrase – full of faith. It speaks directly to what I want to become and what I want to build in others. So what is it? And how do I get there?

          Those of you who read this blog regularly will recall that last week I used the illustration of apples placed in baskets to reveal what we are to do with our faith – place it in God. With that in mind, I want to tweak that illustration slightly and apply it to today’s blog post. Instead of five people each with an apple let us narrow that down. Let us give one person five apples. Placed in front of him are the same number of baskets. The apples represent faith. The baskets represent what the man places faith in. He places one or two apples in one basket, another in a different basket, and no apples in some of the baskets. Which happens to be a bit more like how life actually operates.

          We are given a measure of faith. We place some of that faith in God, yes, but we also often place some of that faith in institutions, in men, in industries, in investment strategies, etc. In other words, rarely, if ever, do we only trust one thing. We often trust many, to one degree or another.

          What does it mean to be full of faith? There are those who would say that means there is no room for doubt. I am not one of those people, and I already addressed that earlier in this series on faith. No, to be full of faith does not mean that there is no doubt in your life. It means to place all your faith in God alone. No longer do I spread my faith out among the different baskets. I find the basket labeled “God”, and I put all my apples in that one basket.

          Stephen, the man described here as being full of faith, is not a major Bible character. He is, however, mentioned in one other biblical account. Following his election to the office of deacon, he preached with boldness and power and he was soon brough to the attention of the Sanhedrin. Arrested and brought to trial, Acts 7 brings us the speech Stephen gave in his own defence. He begins by reviewing some pertinent points of Jewish history and showing how those pointed toward Jesus. Toward the end, he pulls no punches in what is a basically a sermon to the association of men who had recently murdered Christ. Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers. The Sanhedrin reacted to this broadside with all the grace of a wounded rhinoceros. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. Following this display of demonic fury, they proceed directly to the sentencing phase – death by stoning. As Stephen slips the surly bonds of Earth in direct likeness to his martyred Master he whispers an immortal prayer: And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

          What grace Stephen brought to his martyrdom! Aye, and more than grace. This is nothing less than being full of faith. How so? Because he committed the entirety of his life, in complete trust, into the hands of His God.

          You do not have a greater possession than your life. Thus, you do not have a greater gift. Our Saviour said as much mere hours before He practiced it when He told the Apostles, Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15.13). Stephen gave his entire life, every single breath of it, willingly and trustingly into the hands of His Heavenly Father. He let the Father choose how to spend that life. And he did not resist or fight or change his mind at the last minute when he realized how God would choose to spend that life – in martyrdom. He put all his apples in one basket.

          The first step in that process is to place your faith in Christ alone for your salvation, but that is just the first step. That done, the story of the rest of your life is written as you learn how to gradually decrease your trust in anyone/anything else and gradually increase your faith in Him.

Someone once described the Christian life as being the polar opposite of the

Stoning of St. Stephen, c 1625
by Rembrandt

physical life. I was born tiny and helpless, entirely dependent for everything on my parents. As I grew, I became less and less dependent on them and more and more dependent upon myself. Finally, as I matured, I ceased to be a dependent at all and became independent. Spiritually speaking, I was born large and in charge, only dependent on God for my Saviour. But as I grow, I become less and less independent in my thinking and living and more and more dependent upon Him. Finally, as I mature, I cease to be independent in any area at all and I become entirely dependent upon Him for everything.

          I am full of faith. I am all in in. All my apples are in one basket. Him.

           

An Invitation

          As most of you know, last year I published my third book, Freed From Sin. It was not an easy book to write. Years of study, of writing, and of God’s working in my life are contained within its 430 pages. One of the things I included in the book was a discussion guide. I know in spots it is a fairly technical work, and I realize that many of the topics take much time and thought to work your way through. In spite of that, because of the value of the subject matter, I wanted the book to be as accessible as possible and I thought a discussion guide at the end of each chapter would contribute to that.

          For many years now Mandy and I have homeschooled our children. Part of my responsibility in relation to that is to teach my older two high school students a Bible class. Through the years I have taught them why we are fundamentalists, what we believe about music and alcohol, how to approach dating, and a biblical view of money. We spent one whole year in Proverbs and another doing systematic theology and hermeneutics. As I approached the spring semester this year, the fact that Jack was about to graduate from high school weighed heavily on me. This would be the last home school Bible class he would take from me. What did I most want to communicate to him?

          With some embarrassment, I tell you that God led me to my own recently published book, Freed From Sin. I want my son to love and serve God for a lifetime. I want him to live a life that resembles his Saviour. What better subject could I teach him in our last class than the meaning and means of sanctification? So taking my own book, we sat down three hours a week for sixteen weeks and studied it out. Reading each paragraph by turns, we read the entire thing front to back. From time to time, I would pause the reading and interject with some explanation or question or answer or illustration. At the end of each chapter, we would review by means of the discussion guide.

          We finished recently. I laid the book on the dining room table, resting in my conscience, knowing I had done a good work to prepare my children to follow on to know the Lord. I confess, I wish I had had a larger class. It is just good stuff, helpful stuff, edifying stuff. But I had done what I could with what I had.

          A few days ago I was contemplating the situation in which we find ourselves. As I mentioned on my Brennan’s Pen Facebook page the other day, I have never been a video guy. I am a word man. I think words allow for precision and thought where video mostly only allows for surface contact and emotion. But this pandemic has forced me to embrace video. We are streaming our church’s services live on YouTube several times a week. Mandy has begun a livestream of her own teaching a ladies’ Bible study. And just a couple of weeks ago I launched a Facebook live reading program via Brennan’s Pen.

          …then an idea hit me upside the head like a boat oar: why not stream a class on Freed From Sin to whomever wants to take it? Everybody is home. God’s people are craving connection and teaching both. I know I have a book chockful to the brim with helpful biblical content. I just watched how teaching it patiently and slowly helped my own children. The technology is available to teach it more widely. Ergo, this blog post is being written.

          Beginning next week, Tuesday, April 28, at 8 PM Central time, I will be offering a free online class on Freed From Sin. I am inviting you to join me, if you would like.  

          There are a couple of parameters I need to mention at this point.

First, you need to have a copy of the book. If you do not already have one, you may purchase print editions in paperback or hardback on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. The digital version is available on Kindle or iTunes. I am not going to put a bunch of links here. You can figure it out.

Second, a potential student needs to be at least 15 years of age, and a relatively mature fifteen. This is not a class for children. Beyond that, I do not care if you are a pastor, a Bible college president, or a nursery worker, you are welcome.

Third, I am choosing to use the Zoom platform. I realize there have been some questions about its security recently, but I will not publish the link to each class online. You will receive it via email on the day of class. In order to ensure you receive the link for each class you will need to subscribe to my blog. Simply navigate to concerningjesus.blogspot.com and enter your email and name in the box on the right hand side of the page. The classes will not be archived. You must participate live. Also, I cannot be your tech support. You will have to figure out how to use Zoom on your own. Zoom is free, and if you are a reasonably intelligent individual you ought to be able to handle figuring out how it works.

Fourth, the class size is limited to 100 in attendance each time. You do not have to enroll. I am not going to take attendance or try to police who shows up. I will not and cannot hold a spot. I will open the Zoom meeting 15 minutes early each night and the first 99 people to sign in will be able to take that evening’s class.

Fifth, and most importantly – by taking the class you are agreeing to teach someone else the material when we get done. If we cover one or two chapters a week the class will last for some months. At the end of that time, you will have a solid foundational understanding of the doctrine and practice relating to holiness. And, may I say, you will have an excellent textbook at your fingertips. <grin> I am not interested in just teaching you. I want to teach you so that you will teach someone else. Teach your Sunday School class. Teach your youth department. Teach your small group. Teach your Christian school Bible class. Teach your college. Teach your staff. Teach your church. You can even, like me, teach your older children. Just teach it to somebody else. Do not worry. I will teach you how to teach them. Just watch how I teach. Then sit down with them over a copy of Freed From Sin and work your way through it together.

          So join me on Tuesday nights beginning next week at 8 PM Central. Let us journey into the heart of the purpose for which God saved you and me – forming us into the image of Jesus Christ.

Have Faith. In God.

Faith 14

          God gives every person some faith. (Romans 12.3) There is not an entirely cynical person on the planet. There are people who have become cynical in certain areas, but everybody trusts somebody or something in some way. It is part and parcel of how we are made, of how God created us. We are each of us born with the capacity to believe.

          Though God gifts us with this capacity, what He does not do is forcibly direct that faith. The capacity to believe is present in all of us. We get to choose where we place it.

Imagine for a moment that there are five people present, each possessing an apple. In front of those five people, I place a number of baskets. I then invite each person to place their apple in the basket of their choice. Walking slowly up and down the line of baskets, the first individual chooses the basket that looks the best to them. It may be because they like the way that basket looks. It may be because others have told them that is the best basket. It may be that his experience tells him this is a better basket. It may be that there are lots of other apples in that basket, or none at all. But he picks a basket for what seems to him a good reason.

This is precisely what the average person of your acquaintance does with their God-given capacity to believe. They place it in one or more of a number of different baskets. Some, for instance, place their faith in themselves. They back themselves. They bet on themselves. In their own mind, they are the smartest, the strongest, the best, the greatest. They believe in themselves. Others place their faith in the government. Given enough power and money, the government will eliminate crime, solve immigration issues, fix the income inequality gap, and provide healthcare to all. Often this type of individual is highly invested in whichever politician is campaigning for office next. Still other people place their faith in money. They reach for it, grasping it, acquiring it with might and main. After all, it is called the Almighty Dollar for a reason. If I can just get enough of it everything will be all right. Some choose to place their faith in the media, believing this trusted source or that one, molding their actions and reactions in life around what some influencer or journalist or broadcaster says or writes. Numerous other examples could be furnished.

What is the problem with this scenario? Not its accuracy, for ‘tis highly accurate. This is exactly what people do. The problem is in the baskets they choose. You can back yourself, but you will soon find you are dumber, weaker, and more fallible than you think. Government has a God-ordained role, without question, but it is not as a basket for faith. The only people who have ever been let down by government are all the people who have ever lived under one. Money? Ha! It gets lost, stolen, inflated away, not to mention what it purchases is only temporary at best. The media? Both the accepted wisdom and the countercultural wisdom of the day are often wrong. Science? The military? Name it and it has been proven to be a perpetual failure in some way.

The average person of an experienced age has come to admit this. The next problem is that they often simply choose a different basket. My employer let me down so now I will trust the government. My health failed me so now I will trust science and medicine. I am just taking my apple from one bad basket to a different yet equally flawed basket. Nothing ultimately gets better this way.

What am I supposed to do then? Let us turn to Jesus for the answer, shall we? Walking into Jerusalem during the Passion week, He cursed a fig tree. For the context and the meaning of it, you can see this blog post here from my series on the life of Christ. My point today is Jesus’ reaction to the Apostles shock at finding it withered the very next day. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God (Mark 11.22). The wise man places faith in God.

This is not blind faith. It is not walking up to the basket labeled “God”, closing our eyes, and dropping our apple into it. It is a conscious decision, understanding Who and what God is. It is the application of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. God is simply the best basket. He is the best receptacle for faith.

Why? Well, He is eternal. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms (Deuteronomy 33.27). That means He sees the end from the beginning. That means He is already in the future. That means His guidance of and preparation in my life will be done with perfect knowledge.

God is all-powerful. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth (Matthew 28.18). That’s substantially more power than the amount of power available to any other basket, is it not?

God is all-knowing. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do (Hebrews 4.13). I do not know about you, but I would prefer to trust Someone who is never surprised about anything or anyone. Nor ever will be.

God has never tried and failed. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it (Isaiah 55.11). There is nothing God has ever decided to do that was beyond Him.

God binds Himself to His own Word. God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? (Numbers 23.19). See if any other basket can make the same claim with a straight face. Go ahead. I dare you.

Why have I chosen to extend my writing on faith? Because in the situation in which we find ourselves, the calls for us to trust in the wrong thing are clamoring, frantic, panicked, and wrong. I do not want to let the media or society or medicine or history or my own feelings drive my life. I want to live a God-driven life. I want to close the eyes and ears of my life, and in the stillness of my heart hear His still small voice. And I want to place everything in that basket.

Join me. Together, let us place our faith in the only basket that really makes any sense. Let us have faith in God.