Faith In God

Faith in God

Mark 11:22-24

Sunday July 22, 2001

We have seen that God has provided a marvelous salvation from all the consequences of man’s rebellion.

This salvation is to be received through repentance and faith.

God expects us to change our allegiance.

We must now love Him and serve Him - not our old selfish and corrupt desires.

He wants to set us free from our every oppression.

But as well as this change of allegiance or repentance we need to believe God and His promises with a living faith.

In this lesson we will consider what it means to have faith in God.

What is Faith?

What Faith is not!

Well we know that Faith is not religion.

Many times people say we have our faith.

What they really mean is this: We have our religious ideas and doctrines, our traditions, our ways of doing things passed down through the generations.

Don’t you try to change them.

This is not the Biblical idea of faith.

Faith is not mental assent.

It is not agreeing with your mind,

Many professing Christians believe mentally that the Bible is the Word of God, but this faith does not change the way they live.

It is not a faith that can save. Let’s prove that statement with scripture, James 2:14-17

14 Dear brothers and sisters, what’s the use of saying you have faith if you don’t prove it by your actions? That kind of faith can’t save anyone.

15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who needs food or clothing,

16 and you say, “Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat well” but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?

17 So you see, it isn’t enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good deeds is no faith at all, it is dead and useless.

And let’s not stop there, James 2:18-20

18 Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” I say, “I can’t see your faith if you don’t have good deeds, but I will show you my faith through my good deeds.”

19 Do you still think it’s enough just to believe that there is one God? Well, even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror!

20 Fool! When will you ever learn that faith that does not result in good deeds is useless?

People like that have no loving confidence in God.

Faith is not a way to manipulate God.

It is not a power by which we make God do what WE want when otherwise He would be unwilling to do that thing.

It is not a kind of magic through which we make God into our servant!

Faith is not hope, nor positive desire.

Hope is good, and relates to the future.

Faith, however, takes the promise as done NOW.

Many people have hope and are anxiously looking for results, but they lack the settled confidence and present assurance which faith has.

What is Faith someone may ask?

In the general sense of the word, to have faith is to believe in something or someone, to fully trust, to be so confident that you base your actions on what you believe.

To have faith is to be fully convinced of the truthfulness and reliability of that in which you believe.

Faith in God then, is having the kind of trust and confidence in God and in Christ that leads you to commit your whole soul to Him as your, Saviour, as your Justifier, as your Cleanser,

as your Healer, as your Deliverer, and Lord Master, King!

Now let’s look at what the Bible says as to the meaning of Faith!

The NIV translation says, "Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see."

The NKJV of the Bible says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

The New Living Translation says Hebrews 11:1

1 What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.

Faith is a spiritual substance!

When you have this spiritual substance in you,

it communicates to you a certain inner knowing that the thing you are hoping for is certainly established,

even before you see any material evidence that it has happened.

Faith is a spiritual force!

Faith in God is a response to God’s Word, which moves God to act.

Let’s look at the scripture and what it says in,

Mark 11:22-23

22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.