Faith: The Basics For Adding

Faith: The Basics For Adding

Chapter 1

...your faith... 2 Peter 1:5

“Veni, vidi, vici” were the famous words of Caesar- I came. I saw. I conquered. Many throughout the years have returned to these words trying to capture for themselves the glory that Caesar garnered for himself. But there was one who gave these words an unexpected twist; his name was John Sobieski, or John III, King of Poland in the 1600’s.

In 1683 Austria was in a desperate war with the invading Turks. The Turks had reached the walls of Vienna and had taken control of sections of the wall. The war was not a new development. In fact this conflict with Europe had been going on for about 250 years. But all was about to change on September 12. The Turks, fighting with an army of 140,000 soldiers, were making a great push to conquer the city, and win the war. Austria and Germany had 100,000 soldiers between the two nations trying to ward off the Turkish assault.

The previous winter Austria and Poland had made a treaty that stated each would defend the other in the event of a Turkish attack. King John III stood by the treaty above and beyond the call of duty, even to the point of leaving his own country literally undefended. Into Austria he lead an army of 30,000 soldiers to enter the fray.

On the morning of September 12^th, at about 4am, Germany and Austria began an offensive move. The Turks responded with the majority of their forces to eliminate the coalition. What the Turks underestimated was the threat of the Polish king and his army. King John III started his own offensive on the weak flank of the Turks. 12 hours of vicious fighting ensued which culminated in King John III and his men holding the high ground.

Around 5 in the afternoon 20,000 men charged down the hills in a mad dash against the Turks. And who should be in the lead? King John III! In one swift move he had thrown the Turks so off balance that within 3 hours the battle was won. The Turks ran for their lives, leaving 15,000 of their men dead on the battlefield, while only 4,000 of the Christian forces were lost. The entire war was won on that day.

Later, when King John III was giving details to the Pope about the battle, he said, “I came, I saw, God conquered!”

Now that is faith! Faith that God can do anything. that God is involved in his life. that God is.

Faith is the critical part of the equation in our walks with God. Someone has once said that Christianity is faith. You can’t be a Christian without faith. Faith is the foundation of our walks with God. As we journey through II Peter 1:3-11, you will find that we are to add this and add that and so on. But notice that this list of addition all starts with a little word- faith. It all starts with faith.

Faith Properly Placed

In Greek literature faith referred to trust that was placed in men or gods; it had to do with credibility, or a guarantee. Now, his could refer to a business transaction and the trust that was held between the two parties, or it could be applied to the reliability of the gods. It had a pretty broad range of applications within the Greek language. The problem with this Greek use of the word is that there was always the possibility of doubt or failure with the opposite party, or else faith could only be place in a specific aspect of the others character while anything else could be suspect.

While editing the Oxford English Dictionary, Sir James Augustus Henry Murray, though he would never live to see its completion, put out a call to “men of letters” around the English-speaking world to submit quotations as examples of usage in this mammoth work. Hundreds of responses started to pour in, and one of the first to respond was Dr. W. C. Minor, an American physician and Civil War veteran who claimed to be living near London.

Minor, responsible for some 10,000 quotations, corresponded with Murray for several years. It was quit a shock to Murray when he found out that Dr. Minor was actually an inmate at the Asylum for the Criminally Insane at Broadmoor, in Crowthorne, England! Murray’s faith in Minor was limited only to the literary quotations; everything else in Minor’s life was, like the Greeks use of the word, left suspect.

But, when we come to the Bible, we see the definition of this word being honed in to a specific application. Vine’s Expository Dictionary states that faith is a firm persuasion, a conviction based upon hearing; and always in the New Testament it refers to having faith in God or Christ, or things spiritual. To put it plainly, it means to trust- trust God or the things of God. But it is a trust that is not limited to a few basics, but rather trusting God in all things pertaining to God. There are no areas of doubt or suspicion.

When Peter writes in his letter to add to faith, he isn’t referring to faith in just anything, but rather faith in God. It is God that our faith must be placed in. In fact the Bible says time and again that we need to have faith in God. It was Jesus who said, “Have faith in God.” (Mark 11:22) By saying this it is assumed that people can put their faith in things other than God. Jesus gave us an example of this in the Gospel of Matthew. In this story we see the contrast between two people of faith.

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.  But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." (Matthew 7:24-27 NIV)

The first person built on something solid and sure, the things of God. And it turned out that his faith was properly placed. Whereas the second man found that his faith, though sincere enough to stake his life’s security upon it, was poorly placed. Both had faith. One was firm, and the other was futile. For us the issue is not faith. It is faith in God. Not a faith of God, but a faith in God. I love how Donald Grey Barnhouse drove this point home.

Faith is worthless in itself. If faith is not properly founded, it can lead to nothing other than disaster. One night cars sped along the main highway between Jackson and Vicksburg, Mississippi. The drivers had faith in their cars and in the bridges over the streams. They passed over some bridges at fifty or sixty miles per hour. Everything was lovely, the concrete spans stood firm over the rivers and bayous, and the cars went on their way. Suddenly, the twin taillights in front of a truck melted into the road and disappeared. The driver of the truck caught only glimpse of a black gap in the concrete before he too plunged into the stream below. Breaking glass, he succeeded in freeing himself. He swam ashore, but before he could reach the highway, other cars zoomed smoothly up to the gap and vanished. Frantically, he tried to flag three others. Their drivers ignored the dripping scarecrow figure and sped on into the void. Each time there was a single booming splash, sometimes followed by a few hoarse shouts and screams.

All the drivers had faith in a bridge that was out. There is only one bridge across the gulf of death. Chris has said, “No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” Woe to the man who attempts any other highway. His faith will carry him to a Christian eternity and not to heaven. Faith must have a proper foundation- Christ. (Donald Grey Barnhouse, Let Me Illustrate)

Faith must be properly placed if it is to have any value. “Look to Me, and be saved” (Isaiah 45:22) is the message from God. Faith in anything else will fail.

Faith, God’s Gift

One of the critical things to know about faith is that faith is a gift from God. The Bible makes this clear when it says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). It is God who has given us faith. When you look at the list of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5 we find that faith is a fruit of the Spirit. Once again we find it is a gift from God.

A few years back I moved down to Florida to pastor the church Calvary Chapel of Tampa for about a year. For the sake of discussion, lets say that after I arrived I found that there were issues in the state that needed addressing. So I run to become governor and win. I am now in charge of the great state of Florida.  As the Governor, I carry quit a bit of authority. One day there was a job that needed to be done on the east coast of Florida, but you and I were on the west coast of Florida. So as I stood there pondering who could be sent to do the job when my eyes fall upon you. I then tell you to go over to the east coast, but you have no way to get to the task that I have asked you to do. And as you are standing there trying to figure it out, I reach into my pocket and hand you the keys to my car. Faith is the key that God gives. It opens the door and lets you get started in your journey with God. It is a gift from God to you.

Turning once again to 2 Peter we find this foundation- faith. But in understanding faith as a gift that comes from God, we see that the foundation that we are to add to is nothing less than a provision from God. It was God who put this faith in a person’s heart; it is not a thing that one can mustered up from his or her own resources.

Faith, The Essence of Pleasing God

When Chester Harding had the opportunity to paint a portrait of Daniel Boone, he asked the famed frontiersman, then in his eighties, whether he had ever been lost. "No, I can't say I was ever lost," Boone replied, "but I was bewildered once for three days."

There are many in this world that are a bit bewildered as to how to please God. You might hear from one person that he has pleased God because he helped an old lady across the street. Another will say that God is pleased with him because he doesn’t lie. A housewife might point to piles of laundry and say, “If doing this everyday doesn’t please God, then I don’t know what will.” But it is not that difficult to discover the key to pleasing God. It is that very thing that He has already given a believer- faith. The book of Hebrews says, “But without faith it is impossible to please God.”

W. C. Fields, true to the uncertainty of being a life long agnostic, was not entirely unconcerned about the possibility of rejection at the Pearly Gates. Actor Thomas Mitchell began to thumb through a Bible he had found on Fields deathbed. Fields was quick to offer an explanation: "I'm looking," he declared, "for a loophole."

There are no loopholes when it comes to finding a way to please God. It is the very foundation of the Christians way of life. In the book of Romans we find this incredible sentence, “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” (Romans 1:17) From first to last! From the very outset of our walk with God, to our last breath here on earth. Faith is the means by which we live.

Paul the Apostle was so convinced of this that he kept hammering this point home. He gave the church in Corinth a little different take on it. “We live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) This is so critical from Paul’s perspective that he says never trust your eyes over your faith. The things of heaven, the things of God, are more sure than the sunset in the evening, than seeing the bottom line on your bank statement, than seeing the test results from your doctor, than seeing your home when you drive up to it.

And what if we don’t have all the faith that we need to please God? Then we need to do as one man did with Jesus. He cried out to Jesus saying, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.” Mk. 9:24.

A while ago my wife, Jennifer and I were driving around town and she told me a great story. There was a father and son standing next to a rock, and the father had asked the son to pick up the rock. So the son bent over and gave it the old heave ho. Nothing. The father encouraged the son to use all of his strength and give it another try. Nothing. “You aren’t using all you’ve got, Son. Try it again.” This time the son put his back, legs, and arms into it, and that old rock just sat there completely unimpressed and unmoved. “Son, you need to use all the strength you have to move that rock.” “But Dad,” replied the son, “I have given it all I’ve got.” The smiled and said, “No you haven’t. You didn’t ask for my help.”

That is how it is with faith. You can’t just muster it up from the depths of your soul. That will fail in so many ways. God, on the other hand, is happy and willing to give us the faith that is needed to believe in Him. He offers this gift to each of us. The father of the demoniac in the Gospel of Mark understood the principle of faith being a gift from God for when he was challenged by Jesus that all things were possible for those who believed- for those who had faith, the father tearfully cried out, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” This tormented father pleaded for that gift of faith. We know that God gave it to him in that moment because the son was delivered.

When we are lacking the faith that is needed for the moment, we can always ask God to fill in the gap and He will come through on your behalf.