FAITH THAT IS SEEN
LUKE 5:17-20
LUKE 5:17-20
Introduction:
How can faith, being an invisible quality or attitude, be seen? New Testament faith acts in accordance with what it asserts to be true. Faith that claims validity but sees obedience as a nonessential extra is bogus. Jesus taught that those who LOVE (ie, trust, believe in) HIM will also DO what He commands, JOHN 14:15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
Let’s look at faith:
I. WHAT IS FAITH?
A. The PERSUASION of the mind that a certain statement IS TRUE.
1. Faith in the GOSPEL of Christ, Philippians 1:27, Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;
2. Faith is the BELIEF of the TRUTH, 2 THESSALONIANS 2:13, “But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:”
3. The PRIMARY IDEA of faith is TRUST, PROVERBS 3:5, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”
a. God’s WAYS are INCOMPREHENSIBLE, ISAIAH 55:8,9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9- For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
b. His judgments are UNSEARCHABLE, ROMANS 11:33,34 “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 34- For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?”
c. Yet the Lord is RELIABLE and FAITHFUL, 1 THESSALONIANS 5:24, “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”
B. Belief, a FORM of doctrine, EPHESIANS 4:5, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism,”
1. There is only ONE GOSPEL of Christ, i.e., one faith, GALATIANS 1:6-7, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7- Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.”
2. It is the BELIEF OF THE TRUTH that opens the gates of heaven, Isaiah 26:2, “Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.”
II. BOGUS FAITH
A. Faith that SPEAKS, but DOES NOTHING, JAMES 2:17, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”
1. NOT BASED in God’s LOVE, 1 CORINTHIANS 13:3, “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”
2. FEIGNED faith, 2 PETER 2:1-3, “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2- And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 3- And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”
B. Faith that FOCUSES ON MAN, JEREMIAH 17:5, “Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.”
C. Faith that is HYPOCRITICAL, (a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess), MATTHEW 23:27, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.”
III. AUTHENTIC FAITH
A. Faith that BRINGS SALVATION, Hebrews 10:39, “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”
B. Faith that is ACTIVE, JAMES 2:20-22, “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 21- Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 22- Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?”
C. Faith that is KNOWN, EPHESIANS 1:15,16 “Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, 16- Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;”
D. Faith that PLEASES God, HEBREWS 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
CONCLUSION:
The faith of the Word of God is faith that is seen. It is faith that is active, accomplishing the will of God. It is not a put-on to be seen, but, rather, a trust in the Lord motivated by God’s love for man. It is an authentic faith.