Jesus talked about having the faith of a mustard seed… small faith we might call it. Very well. But Randy Meyers reminded us today that God also calls us to “large faith”. Growing faith. A faith that moves men and women to believe and do great things for God. Randy shares four stories that illustrate this challenge.
“The Gate between Peril and God’s Power”
Hebrews 11:1-13. 1Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2This is what the ancients were commended for. 3By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
4By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.
5By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
7By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
11By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.
I. Introduction: Every Christian Lives by Faith
A. What is your greatest challenge as a Christian?
1. Any obstacle you face, any concern you have (great or small), how you respond to personal struggles depends on faith.
2. Every Christian lives by faith.
B. Christian character is not recognized by the degree of faith, but by its presence.
1. The growth of character, however, is related to and dependent on the growth of faith.
2. It has been rightly said that weak faith will carry a man to heaven, yet it will never carry him comfortably or pleasantly.
a. John Owen, an English theologian from the Puritan age, said, “A small, but true faith will do its work safely, though not so sweetly…since a little faith gives a whole Christ.” (paraphrase)
b. The lowest degree of true faith gives the highest completeness of righteousness.
C. My pressing need
1. I am addressing the topic of faith this morning because it’s a message that I personally need to hear; and, I suspect, a message that all Christians cannot hear too often.
a. I confess that lately I have been enduring a great deal of stress.
b. No single problem is weighing me down, just the multitude of concerns that many of us endure.
2. In light of this reality, what is my pressing need?
a. Simply, to walk in faith.
b. That is the pressing need of all believers. Walk in faith.
D. Growing in faith
1. Naturally, in order to prepare a sermon on this issue, I searched the Scriptures for an appropriate passage to be the foundation for my message.
a. Whereas most discussions of faith in the Bible are concerned with the faith in God that leads to salvation, I was preoccupied with finding a text that addressed the need of growing in faith.
b. There are some great stories in the Bible that speak to this very issue.
2. In Luke 9, we read about the boy who was possessed by evil spirits.
a. The father of the boy longed for his son to be healed and Jesus said, “Everything is possible for him who believes.”
b. The father replied, “I believe, help me overcome my unbelief.” (Mark 9:23, 24)
c. Incidentally, this was the text for one of my first sermons preached at Stonebridge, just after Joel was born in 2000.
3. Another fitting narrative is the instance recorded in Luke 17 when the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith.
a. Jesus’ response was that even a small amount of faith can accomplish much.
b. The point is that our faith is great, not because of how much of it we possess, but because our faith is in such a great God.
c. The power of our faith is not the faith itself, but the object of our faith.
4. Such knowledge is important, to be sure; but, I looked further. I was drawn to Hebrews 11—especially verse 1.
a. What can I do to be more assured in what I hope for?
i. The first step is to acknowledge what I have just mentioned; namely, that our trust rests in a powerful God.
ii. God brought the universe into existence by His spoken word (v. 3).
b. But the rest of the chapter goes at length to encourage us with examples of godly people who walked in faith.
E. There are four persons in this passage who are commended for their faith.
1. What stands out about their faith?
a. What can we learn?
b. That is my focus this morning.
2. In my attempt to keep this subject manageable, I would like to look at one lesson from each character (Abel, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham).
a. Please permit me the liberty of rearranging the order of the characters and simplifying my interpretation.
b. Here’s my outline:
1. Go to God. (Enoch)
2. Leave your comfort zone. (Abraham)
3. Exercise your gift. (Noah)
4. Take some risk. (Abel)
II. Enoch: Go to God
A. Walking with God
1. The Christian life is set out in Scripture as a pilgrimage and the Christian is identified by a lifestyle of fellowship with God. (Sinclair Ferguson)
a. This principle is illustrated in Enoch’s life.
b. Although he was a great prophet, a patriarch, and a preacher, he is singled out for none of these things, but for personal character, in that he walked with God.
2. Communion with God is vital because it is God alone who gives and strengthens faith.
a. How do we expect to get anything from God when we don’t spend time with Him?
b. How can you possibly have faith in someone you don’t know, or someone you’ve lost touch with?
c. Isn’t it the same way with the people in our lives? (This is not a new idea.)
B. Changed by the Word
1. What’s the remedy?
a. Well, here is the place in the sermon where the preacher says you need to pray and read your Bible.
b. Most of you have heard this advice countless times, but this is how faith is cultivated. “It is cultivated by studying the Bible and learning what God is like. As we study the Bible, we get to know God, and our faith is made strong because it is in Him.” (J. M. Boice)
2. My task is to persuade you that it’s worth reconsidering how you approach your personal relationship with God.
a. For example, there is a reason why you should meditate on the truth of Scripture.
b. “Biblical meditation is more than merely reading the Bible and perhaps praying afterwards. It is even more than memorizing certain portions of the Bible. It is internalizing the Bible’s teaching to such an extent that the truths discovered in the Bible become part of how we think and change the way we function.” (Boice)
3. Careful study of the Scriptures should change us.
a. This is what Paul meant when he wrote to the Christians in Rome to be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2).
b. This is why I pray before each sermon I preach that God would use the truth of His word to change us.
c. You also would do well to pray before each sermon you listen to, that God would give you ears to hear truth that would change your lives.
4. Speaking of James Boice, I’ve mentioned in this pulpit before what he told his congregation while he was dying of cancer.
a. “If God does something in your life, would you change it? If you’d change it, you’d make it worse. It wouldn’t be as good. So that’s the way we want to accept it and move forward, and who knows what God will do?”
b. Dr. Boice was able to continue in faith because he rested on the promise that God is good and knows what He’s doing.
C. Standing on the promises
1. In the great Psalm 119, why does the psalmist have confidence that God will preserve his life? Because he meditates on the promises of God (119:48).
2. I recently read about “promise boxes.”
a. A practice that originated during the Victorian age in England, a promise box was a small box that contained many tiny, tightly rolled scrolls that each contained a promise from the Scriptures.
b. During a time of need, a person would randomly take a little scroll from the box, read the promise from God, and return the scroll to the box.
c. No one knows for sure, but the practice may have been started by soldiers who would give the box to their spouse before going off to war.
d. It was hoped that in their absence, their wives would be comforted by the promises of God.
3. While considering a promise of God out of context may not be an ideal comfort, it seems that it could be a positive experience nonetheless.
a. We should look for ways to be encouraged by the promises of God in the Bible.
b. John Stott said, “I wonder if there if there is any more vital lesson for Christian living that this: that God has condescended to our weakness by making us promises, that he will never break them, and that faith reckons on his faithfulness by grasping hold of them.”
c. “So many of us complain of spiritual doubt, darkness, depression and lethargy, of besetting sins and unconquered temptations, of slow progress towards Christian maturity, of sluggishness in worship and in prayer, and of many other spiritual ills, while all the time we do not use the secret weapon which God has put in our hands.”
4. If you are trying to live by faith, then you would do well to go to God.
III. Abraham: Leave Your Comfort Zone (#2)
A. God called Abraham to a faith that would grow.
1. For that reason, He called Abraham out of his city and nation, away from the influence of his family and friends, away from their way of thinking. (Dan Doriani, EPC pastor)
a. I’m not suggesting that we all pack our bags, but I am saying that a positive change of personal culture might be helpful.
b. What that looks like will be different for each person.
2. But what I do know is that God had to remove Abraham from his culture in order to do something new through him.
a. A professor of theology from Yale observed that, “Our coziness with the surrounding culture makes us so blind to many of its evils that, instead of calling them into question, we offer our own versions of them—in God’s name.”
b. Again, I am not advocating that we all move to foreign countries.
3. What I think we can learn from this is that putting yourself in new surroundings may help to strengthen your faith.
a. This may involve choosing new friends, getting a different job, or just turning off the television.
b. It could be through adding something positive to your life or subtracting something negative.
c. Either way, a change in your personal culture may produce a fertile environment to respond to God’s grace.
B. Who knows what God might do?
1. What I am getting at here is that a significant lifestyle change could be just what you need to improve your walk with God.
a. I think even a whole church could experience an improved walk in faith.
b. I think, for a church to experience revival, we would have to leave our comfort zone.
2. A cultural shift can even help an entire community draw closer to God.
a. The Book of Nehemiah illustrates how a community of Israelites made such a change and experienced revival.
b. After the third wave of exiles returned to Jerusalem, and the walls were rebuilt around the city, we read in Chapter 8 of Nehemiah how, “…all the people assembled as one man in the square…
c. They told Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses…
He read it aloud from daybreak till noon…
And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law…
From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this.
And their joy was very great.”
3. Many of us, I suspect, would experience greater joy walking in a mature faith, if we would just remove ourselves from our present comfort zone.
IV. Noah: Exercise Your Gift (#3)
A. Among the most striking examples of living by faith has to be Noah.
1. God tells Noah, “I’m going to flood the earth, wipe out mankind, and start over. And, by the way, you get to be the one who survives.”
a. Now I’m thinking God could have hidden Noah in a safe place, flooded the earth, and then put him back on dry land when the time was right.
b. But no, God wants Noah to build this really big boat, take some animals, and float around for 40 days.
2. The most fascinating part of the story has to be that God tells Noah to build an ark.
a. I can’t imagine anyone had ever built a boat that big.
b. Estimates are that the ark was about 450 long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet tall.
c. But there’s more. “Noah, these floods aren’t coming for a while, and it’s going to take you a long time to build this boat.”
d. We’re not sure how long it took Noah to build the ark, but 80-100 years is a reasonable estimate.
3. Clearly, for Noah to start building this ark, and keep on building it for years, was an incredible act of faith.
a. The lesson here, and I admit I’m oversimplifying this a bit, is that Noah was called by God, and he obeyed.
b. I’m guessing that Noah learned a great deal about walking in faith as he continued to build that boat.
4. I’m thinking Noah was a pretty good carpenter.
a. Perhaps that was one of his gifts or he learned the skill on the job.
b. Still, Noah listened to God’s call and set out to complete the task before him—even if it was going to take 100 years.
c. The point is that even though faith is a work of God in the believer, Noah didn’t just wait for God to take care of it. Noah wasn’t passive.
B. Faith through service
1. I’ve prayed many times that God would strengthen my faith.
a. I think I’ve even blamed God that my faith isn’t stronger.
b. But I think God builds our faith through our experiences.
2. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 12 that since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly.
3. Peter writes, “If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 4:11)
4. John Piper said, “The gift of faith doesn’t replace service, it trusts in power to do service.”
a. I suppose that some of blame our lack of faith for not engaging in service. And that’s a valid position.
b. But I also think we would do well to serve first, and witness the growth of our faith because of it.
c. Piper continues, “The Lord gives spiritual gifts to every Christian, including the faith to use them.
Let us pray that he will measure out to us mighty measures of faith.
Find your gift. Embrace it by faith.
Use it in the strength God supplies so that God will get the glory and you (and those you love) will get the joy.” (Piper)
V. Abel: Take Some Risk (#4)
A. All of faith is risk
1. All of these four points might be saying the same thing, just with different phrasing.
2. This last point could really be the theme of the whole sermon since doing something “in faith,” in essence, requires taking some risk.
3. And that’s what we see in the life of Abel.
In verse 4, we read, “by faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.”
B. Why was Abel’s sacrifice more acceptable than Cain’s?
1. When we read the account in Genesis only, it’s really hard to tell. I think we’re left to speculate.
a. Some people have imagined that Abel’s animal sacrifice had some intrinsic value that Cain’s sacrifice of vegetation did not.
b. But that can’t be it, since the Israelites would later be commanded to make a grain offering after receiving the Law through Moses.
2. The answer to the question—Why was Abel’s sacrifice more acceptable than Cain’s—is found in our text in Hebrews. (Ligonier Ministries)
a. Abel offered his sacrifice in faith, and it is implied that Cain did not.
b. God had regard for Abel because he had faith; but Cain, though outwardly obedient, lacked such faith.
3. The story from Genesis, on which Hebrews 11:4 is based, reinforces this.
a. There we read that Abel brought the first fruits of his labor, but Cain did not.
b. Abel trusted that God would continue to provide even after he gave up the first evidences of God’s provision.
c. But Cain did not and withheld his first fruits from God.
C. Faith involves risk
1. Abel took a huge risk.
a. If he gives God the first fruits of his labor, who knows if there will be enough after that?
b. How many of us are inclined to give God the first fruits of our labor.
c. If we are honest, many of us just give God the scraps.
2. I think what we’re reading in Scripture is that faith trusts in God’s provision.
3. And if we can’t trust God to provide for us, no wonder our faith falters when we are faced with the many stresses that life on earth brings.
D. Now, I want to be clear that persevering faith is not something that we create in ourselves.
1. We only possess true faith if God has graciously given it to us (Eph. 2:8).
2. And we should also recognize that God alone can strengthen our faith.
a. But how does this happen?
b. God grows our faith through our obedient, risk-taking effort.
3. It’s just like prayer.
a. We often hear how prayer is powerful.
b. Well, let’s be clear. Prayer is only powerful because God is powerful.
c. Our words of prayer alone are completely destitute of power, except that God Almighty is pleased to work through the prayers of His people.
4. It’s the same way with faith.
a. God is pleased to strengthen our faith as we take the initiative to make the sacrifice to serve Him.
b. I want my faith to grow. You want your faith to grow.
c. Then it seems to me we need to make an effort to walk with God, leave our comfort zone, take a risk, and engage in service to the Lord.