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.