Have Your Own Faith

Charlie and I met this past week to plan the curriculum for the coming year. In our discussions, we both came to the idea that it would be good to have more expository preaching. One idea that we discussed was using the sermon in the mornings to cover a section of our class material in a deeper study. That is what we will do today with .

Romans 14:22–23 ESV

The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

I) Have your own faith

Faith is used in a variety of connected ideas in the Bible, but in our modern communication it has developed into a fuzzy concept that means little (“I haven’t lost my faith”)

Faith is assurance and conviction of things we cannot experience in the flesh –

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Assurance and conviction are powerful motivations that change our lives – ; – starting with our thoughts

Acts 4:19–20 ESV

But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

Acts 5:29 ESV

But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

But faith is also personal, it must be possessed, not borrowed or shared; children must have their own conviction (we will not follow someone else to heaven)

Our faith is before God, who is the sole judge –

Romans 14:4–6 ESV

Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.

The one who follows his own faith is blessed (beatitude, same as happy)

II) He who doubts

Doubt is the antonym of faith; this describes one who is following the faith of another (imitating without conviction) –

Galatians 2:13 ESV

And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

Worship without faith is sinful, even if the action follows the correct pattern

This is because without faith, we are not trusting in God, but ourselves

Faith comes from our understanding of what God has revealed – – not what someone else understands, so violating our conscience is sinful, even if our conscience is wrong

Romans 10:17 ESV

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

But perhaps the real meaning is that worship must originate from what we believe, not just following a traditional practice, or the lead of others

Concl: Justification by faith is a completely different way of thinking from being justified by law – – it gives the glory to God as the justifier, not our works.

Jeremiah 31:31–34 ESV

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”