The Need for a Living Faith
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Introduction
Introduction
We now move to a new series focusing on Growing in Faith. Our first sermon will focus on the need for a lively faith and what that means.
We must always be cautious of thinking we have ‘arrived’ in our Christian faith. We must, like the Apostle Paul, continue to press on. We should continue to press on in the areas of spiritual growth and grace.
Faith very often seems like a static or ‘stationary’ thing, but in reality it is to be a living and growing function in our spiritual lives.
There’s an old saying that, “You’re never too old to grow up.” Or, “you may grow old, but it doesn’t mean you grew up.” We need a living faith, because God has intended for us to grow consistently throughout our Christian life.
3 We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;
1. A Living Faith Grows
1. A Living Faith Grows
Our point here is that it is expected that something that is alive should grow until it has reached maturity.
A. This is a Natural Outcome
A. This is a Natural Outcome
After we are saved, our faith begins to grow.
The disciples prayer for more faith in our text shows that faith can grow. Examine these Bible verses that discuss the growth of faith.
3 We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;
Naturally we see the process of growth - grass grows, weeds grow, flowers bloom, animals grow, people grow - all things that have life grow.
And Christians should grow in their faith!
You can put a brick in the soil and water it, fertilize it, and let the sun shine on it but it will never grow - it’s dead, lifeless. And unfortunately many Christian live a brick-like dead faith - they don’t want to grow in the Lord, they just want to exist, they don’t want to deepen their roots or stretch their branches - they just want God to water them over and over and over.
This literally means ‘vigorous growth’, to ‘grow wonderfully’, abounding and increasing.
The growth should continue all our lives - a growing faith means a growing Christian.
God never places us in any position where we cannot grow. When we are not sending branches upward we may be sending roots downward. When everything seems failure we may be making the best kind of progress.—E. Prentiss.
So a living faith grows naturally.
B. This is a Desired Outcome
B. This is a Desired Outcome
Just as a newborn baby, must gain strength and learn to crawl, the new Christian feeds on the Word of God and matures.
2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
Babies love to eat and they love to let you know when they are hungry.
It is exciting to see a Christian’s faith grow!
Parents take great pride in a baby’s major moments of growth - first sounds, words, rolling over, crawling, and walking.
15 Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men’s labours; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly,
It is the hope of every pastor, parent, teacher, and mentor that those we have led to the Lord, grow into Christian maturity with increased faith in God.
C. This is a Divine Outcome
C. This is a Divine Outcome
Faith comes from God.
God created us as creatures of faith, as we discussed in a previous article.
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus Christ is the Author and Finisher of our faith!
God has given to every man the measure of faith.
3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Only God can increase our faith. If our faith has come from God, it is not intended to be stale and stagnant. He intends for us to use it and grow it.
2. A Living Faith Exercises
2. A Living Faith Exercises
As our faith grows, all other graces increase.
Since faith in God and His Word is the foundation of the Christian life, when our faith grows, it benefits every area of our lives.
A. Faith is the Building Block
A. Faith is the Building Block
5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
It is required for a relationship with God. Saving faith must be present – believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
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.
Faith is the starting point of a relationship with God.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
B. Faith Should Grow Stronger
B. Faith Should Grow Stronger
A little faith will save you but a strong faith will build you.
9 The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
7 They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
In a lot of exercise programs you start with base-building. In cycling or running you might start by putting in some time or miles. You have to build a base so that you can improve. As you’re building a base things start to improve. Your muscles strengthen, your breathing is more economical, your HR is better managed, etc.
Strong faith will attempt great things for Christ. Strong faith carries out the projects of holy enthusiasm, and hence daring ideals are turned into action. Strong faith will protect us from the attacks of doubt and fear, and that’s why the enemy mocks our faith so strongly with heresy.
Our Faith needs to be strengthened! We do this two ways.
1) Developed Through the Word.
* Faith is not blind; it is based on the Word of God.
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
The Word of God provides the evidence to produce faith.
30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:
31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
We see fulfilled prophecies; scientific foreknowledge; it’s high moral standard; it’s continuity and consistency.
Our faith is born out of strengthened from the Word of God. Weak bible study = weak faith.
2) Developed Through Watchfulness
We are warned of the danger of unbelief. Many Christians slip in this first area and become very very weak.
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
Look at the testimony of Abraham.
18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb:
20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
Not weak in faith, staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, strong in faith, fully persuaded.
Maybe Abraham was similar to Pablo Casals, who was considered the greatest cellist to ever live. When he was 95 years old he was asked why he continued to practice 6 hours a day. He answered, “Because I think I’m making progress.”
A living faith must be a growing faith that exercises.
3. A Living Faith Purifies
3. A Living Faith Purifies
Growing and strengthening cannot occur in an impure environment.
Illustration of the athlete and the purity of his diet.
A faith that comes from God, is a gift from God, certainly cannot be an impure, stagnant faith.
A. By a Cleansing of the Heart
A. By a Cleansing of the Heart
Our hearts are a terrible soil for growing faith.
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
The heart is a term by which the Scriptures frequently express the mental, physical, and emotional power of man. As the decay of sin has affected them all, they all need the purification of grace.
If our faith is to grow then it must grow in good soil.
Well, our will needs to be cleansed.
9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
To have a properly growing faith we need better understanding.
18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
We need true cleansing to grow properly
25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
A living faith can only grow in a heart that’s purified by faith.
That can only happen by the blood of Jesus Christ
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Have you been saved, cleansed from your sin? Your faith won’t grow if not. In addition, Christian, we need that continual cleansing!
B. Through a Prompting to Holiness
B. Through a Prompting to Holiness
We are cleansed by faith through a prompting to holiness.
When we’ve been saved, born again by faith in Christ, there should be a recognition of an inner prompting to holiness.
If you want a growing garden, you must be pulling weeds.
Holiness in light of a growing faith is pulling out the weeds in our lives.
Ponder the holiness of God, meditate on the wonders of his word, think about the everlasting love of the Lord Jesus Christ, the expression of that love on the cross, his becoming sin for us!
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
As we by faith think on these heavenly truths it should do something to our hearts.
14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
There should be a constraining in our hearts to live right before God - to sacrifice all that is worldly and ungodly so that our lives could be pleasing and holy to Him.
How can we live in rebellion to a wondrous God? We should desire to walk in holiness.
And then a living faith purifies,
C. By Communion with Christ
C. By Communion with Christ
I have faith in a living Saviour and thus it should be a living faith. It is a living faith from a living God. It is a faith that cleanses my heart, and pursues holy living.
Lastly, here, a living faith purifies by developing communion with Christ.
We are to be branches that are grafted into the vine of Jesus Christ.
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Communion with Christ means that I have a common interest with Him - a growing faith is interested in what Christ is interested in.
By faith I am privileged to go with boldness into the holiest of all, and, to seek my Father in heaven. This faith is a strong faith - laying hold on the very attributes of Christ.
Will you continue living in the flesh? Or will you call to Him for deliverance, for growth, for a living faith, for holy living, for a cleansed heart, for communion and fellowship with God and Christ?
The victory needed in your life, in your spiritual development, is freely available.
CONCLUSION
So is your faith growing? Maybe you’ve had a stale faith lately - it is a living faith and that which is living grows - maybe you need to strengthen it more, exercise it - and maybe it needs some purification - confession of sin, pursuit of holiness, closeness to Jesus.
We don’t all grow the same way at the same rate. I like this little illustration.
We often wonder about how God grows us. But there is no one-size-fits-all for Christian growth. It’s not some book at the store with seven easy steps. But it is God Himself working individually in our lives. Look at how he did this in the Bible.
He had Abraham take a walk, Elijah take a nap, and Joshua take a lap.
He gave Moses a forty-year time out, he gave David a harp and a dance, and he gave Paul a pen and a scroll.
He wrestled with Jacob, challenged Job, whispered to Elijah, warned Cain, and comforted Hagar.
He gave Aaron an altar, Miriam a song, Gideon a fleece, Peter a name, and Elisha a mantle.
Jesus was stern with the rich young ruler, tender with the woman caught in adultery, patient with the disciples, blistering with the scribes, gentle with the children, and gracious with the thief on the cross.
God never grows two people the same way; he hand-crafts each individual; he’s not a mass-producer.
— John Ortberg