Date:      11th January 2009                                                  (Sunday AM)                                                                       Ref: A0417

Place:     Kambah P.S.

Title: Faith is the Victory

Text:        & Hebrews 11:33-34

Illust:     A huge crowd was watching the famous tightrope walker, Blondin, cross Niagara Falls one day in 1860. He crossed it numerous times—a 1,000 foot trip, 160 feet above the raging waters. He asked the crowd if they believed he could take one person across. All assented. Then he approached one man and asked him to get on his back and go with him. The man refused! Mental assent or even verbal assent is not real belief or as James puts it: “faith without works is dead” (Jas 2:26)

I.                   What is Faith

A.               Working Definition

i.                 Faith a word that is thrown around in the world, often used in reference to all religion – “3 great world faiths”. – Importantly this is a word that is critical to the Christian walk

        Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, (NKJV)

ii.               A vital necessity, more than just a type of religion a critical component of following God. Our text states that people have subdued kingdoms, quenched fire, escaped certain death. - But what is faith:

           The dictionary:

      1. Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing.

           Biblical Greek

      Str: 4102 πίστις [pistis /pis·tis/] 1 conviction of the truth of anything, belief; 1d belief with the predominate idea of trust (or confidence) whether in God or in Christ, springing from faith in the same.

iii.             Faith is to believe that something is true, that it is reliable & to place your trust in that.

      In Yellowstone National Park the first Geyser ever named was called “Old Faithful” Named in 1870 by explorer Gen. H.D. Washburn this was because of the regularity of its outbursts. In fact today With an error of 10 minutes, Old Faithful will erupt 65 minutes after an eruption lasting less than 2.5 minutes or 92 minutes after an eruption lasting more than 2.5 minutes.

B.               Faith in Action

i.                 Faith then in the Biblical sense is a confident assurance that God makes & keeps His promises & you can live your life trusting Him. – Bet your life on Him & His promises to you.

         Deuteronomy 7:9 “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; (NKJV)

ii.               The Bible is a book of faith, this is the sense of our text, a summary of the power of faith, faith in God. ~ & Text

           Daniel going into the Lions den

        Daniel 6:10 Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days. (NKJV)

           S, M & A in the fiery furnace

        Daniel 3:17-18 17 our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. 18 But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” (NKJV)

            Jonathon & his Armour bearer

        1 Samuel 14:6 Then Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the Lord will work for us. For nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few.” (NKJV)

iii.             All these men & many others that we can find within these pages, believed God for their deliverance, that He would help them conquer their enemies, that they could trust Him for victory, even their very lives.

        Isaiah 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. (NKJV)

         2 Thessalonians 3:3 But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. (NKJV)

II.                 The Task at Hand

A.               State of The Nation

i.                 Let’s take stock of where we are at. Our nation is by & large Godless, they worship at the altar of sport / money / houses / jobs

ii.               A lack of balance & perspective – The ability to rightly / correctly discern a situation

           Take the protest yesterday outside the Israeli embassy where;

      “Protesters gathered outside the Israel embassy shortly before 1pm (AEST) today carrying signs that read: "Enough is enough", "Free Gaza Now" and "Israel, enough with the victim act".

           Some facts

      Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005,

      Hamas has done nothing more than turn it into a launching pad for attacks on Israeli civilians.

      At the same time, the international community has ignored these rocket attacks and only acts when Israel tries to stop them.

      In 2008, more then 2,900 rockets and mortar shells were launched from the Gaza Strip, targeting Israeli civilians.

           Trees & Animals have more value than humans

      PETA want to have fish renamed as Sea Kittens because no-one would want to kill a kitten

      Canberra Times calling school after trees chopped down – News????

iii.             The general moral decay with the rise of the acceptance of homosexuality / fornication / abortion / drug & alcohol abuse. – Not just apathetic about God but becoming more & more anti-God

B.               Our Call

i.                 Things look pretty bad & they don’t seem to be getting better, in fact they’re getting worse; so bad that even secular commentators / police / Govt bemoaning the coarsening and selfishly violent tendency of our culture / youth. - Set against this climate we have the divine call to:

         Mark 16:15 “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. (NKJV)

ii.               This is our call, your call to go, to preach. – To tell people about Jesus & what He has done for them on that cross 2000 years ago when He paid the price for their sins.

iii.             The message has not changed in 2000 years – & Acts 2:38-40 – To go to this perverse generation & proclaim the need to repent & thereafter to see the church grow. – Souls saved. – To believe that God still & can save people today

III.              Faith To See

A.               Source of Faith

i.                 Earlier I had said that faith means that you can live your life trusting Him – Trusting Him to do what? – You need to know what His promises are.

           Found in His word. – What He says for you, for your family, for your future.

ii.               Do you have faith? – Do you cry out for more faith? – One source: The Word of God

         Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (NKJV)

iii.             When you pray, you have to believe that your prayers are heard otherwise why pray. To believe this (faith) then you should be searching out the promises of God from His word & resting your faith upon them

        Mark 11:24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. (NKJV)

      Feeding upon the Word makes a mighty man of prayer – RA Torrey[1]

iv.             How many here can work out that there is no point praying for physical health if all you eat is junkfood, chocolate, icecream & drink soft drink. The same is with faith, no amount of praying for faith will bring it if we neglect faith’s proper nourishment, the Word of God.

B.               Have Faith

i.                 This AM, I want to challenge you to a life of faith. – Not an optional extra in the Kingdom, a necessity. – To live by faith

      Living by faith doesn’t mean that you believe real hard so that nice things will happen magically. Living by faith means that you saturate your mind, soul, and heart with the living truths of the Scriptures. Then you submit to those precepts in your day-to-day existence.[2]  – E. Bulkley

ii.               To live by faith & experience the victorious Christian living that comes with a faith filled life, you must feed on the Word. Do you want to see God move, you must have faith that He will. Praying in faith for God to move, you must be conscious of & convinced in His promises for you.

      Faith, in prayer, is the firm expectation or assurance, free from all doubts, of getting the thing asked. ~ The prayer of faith reckons the thing asked as already really its own, because God has heard the request and granted the thing asked, and what God has granted is as really ours as if we had it already in our possession experimentally. [3]

         1 John 5:14-15 14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. (NKJV)

iii.             I close with the words of the John Yates hymn :’Faith is the Victory’

Encamped along the hills of light,
Ye Christian soldiers, rise,
And press the battle ere the night
Shall veil the glowing skies.
Against the foe in vales below,
Let all our strength be hurled;
Faith is the victory, we know,
That overcomes the world.

Chorus     Faith is the victory!
Faith is the victory!
Oh, glorious victory
That overcomes the world.

IV.             Altar Call

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[1]Torrey, R. A. (1898). What the Bible teaches a thorough and comprehensive study of what the Bible has to say concerning the great doctrines of which it treats (379). New York, Chicago [etc.: Fleming H. Revell company.

[2]Bulkley, E. (1993). Why Christians can't trust psychology (123). Eugene, Or.: Harvest House.

[3]Torrey, R. A. (1898). What the Bible teaches a thorough and comprehensive study of what the Bible has to say concerning the great doctrines of which it treats (362). New York, Chicago [etc.: Fleming H. Revell company.