We Walk By Faith Part 5
Scriptures: Rom. 7:18-22; 10:10; 1 Pet. 3:3-4; 1 Cor. 2:14-15; 9:27; Prov. 3:5-6
Introduction:
To date we have discussed several aspects of faith. I have shared with you that faith is an unquestioning belief in something. As it relates to our spiritual faith, it is an unquestioning belief in God. I shared with you that this faith comes through hearing, understanding and believing God’s word. Two weeks ago I focused on how our faith needs to be prejudicial. It needs to be so firm that no one can shake us or cause us to doubt because we have studied for ourselves and we know what God will or will not do in our lives. When bad things happen we are quick to understand that God is not the author. When things are going “wrong” in our lives we know that God is there supporting us, not causing those things to go wrong. Although this would seem to be very basic it is something that we all have struggled with during our spiritual growth. This morning we will examine why we must believe with our inner man – that hidden man of the heart, or what we call our spirits, versus believing with our minds. Let’s start with Romans 10:10.
I. The Heart
Two weeks ago we read what Paul said in the book of Romans and I want to cover it again this morning. Turn to Romans 10:10. “For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness; and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” Paul says that it is with the heart that we believe resulting in righteousness. He was not referring to the physical organ in the middle of our chest that pumps blood throughout our bodies. The “heart” that he was speaking of is the human spirit which is the core of our being. Our spirits are eternal even though our bodies are flesh and blood. When we die it is our spirit that goes back to God. Remember when God created us He did so in His image (Genesis 1:26) and that image includes primarily the spiritual part of us. God is a spirit and when He created us He made us spiritual beings. So it is with our spiritual being that we believe and it is credited to us as righteousness. In John 4:24 Jesus says that God is a Spirit and those that worship Him must do so in spirit and truth. He was not talking about the Holy Spirit for the Holy Spirit had not been given yet. He was referring to the human spirit.
It is with the human spirit (the heart of man) that we believe. This is where faith starts. If we do not believe with our spiritual man, our believing will never develop into faith because our minds requires “reason and/or proof” to believe. The spirit of man is the heart of man and this is why we say that man is a spirit that lives “temporarily” in a physical body in order to operate on this earth. We are more than just a mind and a body; we are spirits (1 Thess. 5:23). So it is with our spirits, not our minds that we must believe and walk in faith. The spirit man is that part of you that only you and God know intimately. I am not talking about what we show others; I am talking about the person that exists within us who is the real “us”. This is the person that we keep hidden from our closest friends. This is the person who knows our weaknesses, desires, sins, faults and our faith. This is the person who knows what we truly believe because it starts with this person. The person I am referring to is that “hidden man of the heart” who is the real person that few people understand. The hidden man of the heart is the real me and the real you. Let me give you an example.
II. The Hidden Man of the Heart
Let’s review some Scriptures that talk about the hidden man of the heart so we will have an idea of just who he is. Let’s look at 1 Peter 3:3-4. It reads “Your adornment must not be merely external – braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.”
In these verses Peter is giving some directions to the Christian women of the Church that can also be applied to the men – spiritually. He tells them to not “dress up” just the outside, but more important that man (or woman) on the inside – the hidden man of the heart. Who is the hidden man – that spiritual man within us who communes with God. Remember, our bodies and our minds are not the “real” us; the real “us” is our spirit man. When we die, our bodies and our minds (the brain) go into the grave as they are physical organs. But the hidden man of the heart, our spirits, returns to God. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:27 “But I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” Notice how Paul uses the possessive terms when talking about his body. He says “my body” which speaks to ownership. Now you may say that this is what we all do and you would be correct – but look a little closer. He states that he disciplines his body and makes it “his” slave. In order to discipline something and make it your slave, there had to be a separation between the two. Paul sees himself as separate from his body so he sees himself as one identity as his body as another. So the “real Paul”, if you will, must get the body where he dwells under subjection to him. The real Paul is his spirit or the hidden man of the heart. Turn back to 1 Corinthians 2:14-15. It reads “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.” When you read the verses preceding the ones we just read you find that Paul states that we receive not the spirit of the world but the Spirit of God and through that Spirit we know what has been given to us by God. This can only be known by the “hidden man of the heart” the spiritual man because the natural mind cannot comprehend what the Spirit is saying. The natural mind cannot get a spiritual revelation as it flows from Spirit (God’s) to spirit (ours). The Bible says that the Word of God is foolish to the natural mind because you cannot understand the Bible with your head; it is spiritually understood. Therefore, you cannot strengthen or build your faith with your mind, it must come through your spirit. You can study the Bible all you want with your mind, but until you get it in your spirit it will not be manifested in faith in your life. Faith comes by believing with your spirit – the hidden man of the heart.
Turn to the Old Testament to First Chronicles chapter twenty-eight. In this chapter David gives Solomon some instructions as it pertains to his relationship he should have with God. This is what David tells Solomon in verse nine: “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands even intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.” David tells Solomon a lot in this verse. He tells Solomon to seek God with his whole heart. That was the spiritual side he was referencing. Then David adds a willing mind. David understood that Solomon would need to get his mind focused on the same thing as his spirit. David tells Solomon that God knows the heart and the intent of the thoughts of man. He tells Solomon to seek God and God will allow Himself to be found. As you read the story of Solomon, he started out just as David had instructed him. After he became king, Solomon wrote these words in the third chapter of the book of Proverbs. Let’s read verses five and six. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6) Solomon gives others the same instruction that David, his father, gave him. It’s about the heart – the spirit of man. Solomon says to trust in the Lord with all our heart and not to lean on our own understanding. Our understanding rests in what we know with our minds So Solomon says that we should not depend on our minds, but our hearts – that spiritual side of man. When we do this we acknowledge God with all of our ways and the results are that He will make our paths straight or direct our paths as some translations states. My point here is that our minds and our spirits are separate and we are not to depend on our minds for our faith in God, but our hearts which is our spirits. Now turn over to Romans the 7th chapter.
III. Faith to Overcome Sin
As I prepare to close this message, I want to address a confession that Paul makes about the spirit of man versus the flesh of man. Let’s begin reading at verse 18 of Romans chapter 7. “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.” Most of you are very familiar with the verses I am reading as many have used Paul’s confession as an excuse as to why they cannot stop their sinning. Yes we all sin, but I maintain that we should strive to get to the point of not accepting it as normal anymore. We should be surprised when we do sin versus being surprised when we are able to overcome a sin or temptation. We have been so conditioned to sin (because it is fun) that it is the expectation and the norm. But I want you to see something in this verse that we do not talk about much. Remember earlier from 1 Corinthian 9:27 that I shared with you that Paul saw himself – the hidden man of the heart – as being separate from his body? When you read verse eighteen, you find this again. He separates himself from his body. He states that nothing good dwells within his flesh but then he turns around and states that the willingness to do good is there but the actual doing of the good is not. Paul was not making as excuse, he was explaining a situation. Remember later he talks about not sinning because of grace and the fact we must get our bodies in subjection to God? But here he is stating that due to our fallen nature, no good is in our flesh even though the willingness to do good is there. That willingness to do good rests in the hidden man of the heart – the spirit man. Let’s continue on.
“For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man.” (Vss. 19-22) In these verses Paul continues to explain that there is good within him but evil also. But he makes a separation. He states that the evil is not of him, but the sin that dwells within him. He does not want to sin, but the sin still resides within his flesh. In verse twenty-two he states that he joyfully concur with God’s law in the inner man. You see that. The natural man desires to sin, but the inner man is where God can connect with us. Paul finishes this chapter by saying that only through the grace of Christ is we delivered from this battle between our flesh and our spirit.
Here is the point I need to make. Paul was not using his flesh as an excuse, he was painfully aware that sin resided within him and he needed to get it out. He understood that even though he was under grace that did not give him a licensed to continue in sin. He saw sin as being a part of his flesh butt he saw himself as a spiritual being who must deal with the sin through the grace of Christ.
So why is this reference important to this message about our believing with our hearts? Some people believe that they are the person they see in the mirror. They are the person who thinks a certain way and act a certain way. Some people believe what they are told from outside influences. These influences can only see our physical bodies and cannot really know what is on the inside of us. In order for us to begin believing God with our hearts, we must accept that fact that we are spirits who dwell in a fleshly body that desires sin. Because we dwell in this fleshly body that desires sin, we must get to a point where our spirits rule our fleshly bodies. This is a struggle for most Christians. We are ruled by our flesh. Our flesh tells us when to eat and when to sleep. Our flesh tells us when to go and when to stop. Our flesh tells us when to look and when to close our eyes. Our flesh tells us when we like something and when we don’t. Our flesh tells us sin is okay because it feels good. Nothing that feels so good can be bad for you, if we listen to our flesh. Because we have been trained to allow our flesh to rule us it is a struggle when we accept Christ and try to get our spirits in control and yet this is what we must do.
If you take nothing else from this message I want you to hear this. You are not your body. You are not your mind. You are a spiritual being who exists in this world in your physical body. Because of this truth, as you interact with your heavenly Father who is a spirit, you can only do this with your spirit. Your mind will not accept God, only your spirit can. Your bodies will not accept God, only your spirit can. If you begin to understand this, you will be able to accept that your faith comes through what you believe with your spirit – regardless to what your mind says or your body feels. Your mind and your body do not control spiritual outcomes, only your spirit can. If you allow your mind and your body to dictate what your spirit believes, you will struggle with your faith because our flesh cannot fully comprehend spiritual things. We are so much more that what we see in the mirror or the thoughts that races through our minds.
This morning I want all of us to understand that we are spirits. Whatever you are believing God for this morning, stop trying to believe in your mind and start believing with your spirit. To do this, identify what you are believing God for and then cast down the thoughts and physical feelings that come against it. Paul states in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war accordingly to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” We need to meditate on these verses. When thoughts or anything else rises up against our knowledge of God (whatever we believe according to God’s word) we take it captive so that it does not grow. We cast it down so that it does not cause doubt in our belief. I do not care if it is a thought; a book; a TV show; a family member or friend; if it rises up against the knowledge of God, you must cast it down. This is truly a matter of the heart – your spiritual man.
As we continue to walk in faith, let us walk believing with our spirits and not with our minds as we attempt to reason things out.
Please stand and repeat this confession with me: “I will trust in the Lord with my spirit; I will not lean and depend on my mind and my understanding. Although I walk in the flesh, my battles are not of the flesh. Therefore my weapons are not of the flesh but of God for the pulling down of strongholds. This morning my spirit takes a stand against every negative stronghold in my life. Doubt, anger, fear, and unbelief I cast you down in the name of Jesus for truly I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Until next time, may God continue to bless and keep you.
