Faith vs. Reason

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, March 18. Most of us have no problem following God's commands, as long as they make sense. But today we are reminded to honor the Lord by acting on what He says and not on what we feel. Today we'd be able to read that third chapter of Genesis and recognize here's what happens when reason wins out over faith in God. When the Word of the world's wisdom wins out over the Word of the living God. You'd think we would have learned, but we haven't. And you look around you today and we see the same thing going on, not only among people who are unbelievers but also among believers. And so we have not learned our lesson.

And if you will also look around and think about how we operate today on the basis of the world's wisdom. And so it is absolutely foolish because the world's wisdom is not sufficient, not adequate. It's not working. It never has worked. It isn't working. And it won't work because you can't outsmart God.

There is no way. And so the tragedy is that people who operate in this way and look around them in their lifestyle, when it comes to spiritual things and their relationship to God, they do the same thing. They say now, I know that's what the Bible says, but what is logical? What is reasonable? What is the intellectual approach?

What's the wisest approach to these things? And so multitudes of people who sit in church week after week find themselves allowing without realizing the world's wisdom and the world's ways to slip open to their relationship to God. So they make decisions based on what seems and appears to be the right, logical, reasonable thing to do.

The only problem is the same tragedy takes place. So the title of this message is faith versus reason. And so I want you to turn to First Corinthians chapter one. When it comes to our relationship with God and people beginning and learning how to relate to him, he says there are a number of things that just don't fit the way of the world's wisdom. One of those things, he says, is this, that the idea of a cross and the crucifixion of Jesus having anything to do with me two thousand years later or my relationship to God is absolutely illogical, irrational, unacceptable. And he said this in verse 18, for the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness. And so he says now to the so-called intellectual, reasonable, rational people who attack everything from that perspective, he says it's foolish, it's empty, he says it's sort of moronic. He says, but to those of us who are being saved, it's the power of God. And all through this passage, you'll see it again and again. He uses the word foolish and foolishness.

Now, think about this. Logic says, wait a minute, don't give me this religious bit of something happened two thousand years ago. There are lots of great prophets out there, a lot of great leaders, and they've always been those kind of folks. So, I mean, there's got to be more to life than telling me that somebody who died two thousand years ago on a cross has anything to do with me today. That certainly must be a figment of the imagination or that is certainly the thinking of weak people who are not strong enough within themselves to face life and face it like it is and move on and have endurance within them. You've got to rely on somebody who died two thousand years ago.

Forget it. That's what reason, logic and the intellectual who thinks his education is taking the place of everything else is absolutely self-sufficient, doesn't need any of this weak religious stuff. And so that's the way of human reason. And notice what Paul says here in the contrast. Look, if you will, in verse 18, he says, it is foolish to those who are perishing, but to those of us who believe in it, he says, it is the power of God. Look in verse 27.

He says, now, the difference is this. God has chosen the weak things. God has chosen the foolish things.

God has chosen the base things. He says that that's the way God has done. Then he says, here's the reason he has.

Verse 29, that no man should boast before God. And so it appears to be foolish and irrational. But he says it is a matter of looking at it. Now, you see, this is the way of the clever. And the clever man says this.

There has to be a better way. For example, anybody who's got any common sense at all, any logic, any reason, any intellect at all knows this. Let's give it that there is a God. Let's say that, yes, there is a God.

We believe there is one. Now, what is the natural, normal, logical way to get acceptable in the eyes of God and get our sins forgiven? If we there's such a thing as sin, so let's give them such a thing as sin and disobedience. And so what's the natural, normal way to do it?

Anybody knows this. Here's what you do. You just make sure that you do more good than you do bad. And so if the good outweighs the bad, surely one of these days when you stand before this God, anybody who's got any common sense knows that a right, the true God who's a just God is going to weigh the good against the bad. And when the good outweighs the bad, then you're going to be acceptable.

The tragedy is a lot of people, they won't say that, but that's the way they're operating. They're looking at how many good things they do versus these few bad things they do, forgetting the fact that what makes a person lost and perishing is unbelief in Christ. So that all these things over here have absolutely nothing to do with a person's relationship to Jesus Christ. And so when a person thinks in terms of logic and reason that we're going to be made acceptable in the eyes of God through our reason, the problem is that's man's clever approach.

And so what happens? The world's idea is this, that Christianity is like all the other religions. You look at the cults, every cult in this nation or in the world, every single solitary cult bases their approach to God on what? On the performance of those who are followers of that God or followers of that leader. It's all performance. And so logic and reason says, if you want to be made acceptable in the eyes of God or your leader, whoever you may be, this is the way you perform. And so what that does, it puts acceptance on the basis of performance.

That's man's, he thinks, clever approach. That is the intellectual way. You mean to tell me that all I have to do is just believe in Jesus? That surely you don't believe that. I mean, after all, that isn't even logical. That's not even reasonable that the only thing I have to do is to place my faith in Jesus Christ, the son of God, who died 2000 years ago on a cross. You mean to tell me that I'll go to heaven if I just believe in Jesus? Forget it. I don't believe that.

And they'll come up with something. And you hear people say, well, now I have my own my own idea about God. I'll bet you do.

Everybody's got one. But friend, if it doesn't match this one right here in the word of God, you just as lost as you can be. And it doesn't make a difference how many degrees you've got and how many schools you've been to and universities and all the things you may be.

You may have had the highest grades in your class. Doesn't make a difference how smart you are. If you refuse that word of the living God, you are lost. And that may run against your intellectual grain. But I'm asking you a simple question.

Don't turn it off yet because we haven't gotten to the finish. So just hang in there and see how reasonable it is. Man's clever approach will never be made acceptable in the eyes of God because it won't work. So let me ask you a question. Speaking of reason and logic, if you're going to be if you're going to be acceptable in the eyes of your God on the basis of performance, let me ask you a question, sir. Perform what? Secondly, how much are you going to have to perform?

Thirdly, how long are you going to have to perform it? When will you know you have performed enough? In other words, when will you know that you've been good enough? So it really isn't all that logical and reasonable and intellectual to base your acceptance in the eyes of God on how you perform, because you will never know when you perform enough. You will never know how much you have to perform, how long. And besides that, you'll never know whether the quality of your performance match the requirement of your God. That isn't very logical, reasonable.

In fact, it doesn't offer you anything but a whole lot of questions and doubts at the end of your performance. It isn't very clever, but that's the world's approach. That is, it's a clever approach. Well, you just can't know God by reason.

And you see, the reasonable approach won't work. Listen to what he says. He says in this 19th verse, he says, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever I'll set aside. If a person could come to know God personally by anything that they do other than through the cross of Jesus Christ, he would never have said that.

Why would he want to destroy something that will get them to God? Why would he say that he's going to set aside their cleverness, their personal approach to performance? He says, I'm going to set it aside. Now look at this. He says, where is the wise man? Where is the scribe and where is the debater?

What he's saying is this. He says, well, look at the wise men. Do they have peace and joy? Are they contented? What happens then when the storms of life howl down upon them? When the bottom drops out and the sides cave in, where is their peace?

They're not there. He says, where is all this? Verse 21, for since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God. Listen, not only did not, absolutely cannot. Nobody can come to know God, Almighty, Jehovah God, personally, apart from the cross of Jesus Christ.

There's no way. Now, the question is, what's the cause of this? The cause of this is found in Second Corinthians, chapter four. Look at that, if you will. In the fourth chapter of Second Corinthians, Paul describing the plight of the unbeliever. This is what he says. He says in verse three, and even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, those who do not know Christ as their Savior. He says the gospel is something, he says it's veiled. They don't see it.

They don't understand it. He says, in whose case the God of this world, Satan, has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they may not see the light, the truth of the gospel, the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. He says Satan has blinded their eyes. Now, look in the second chapter of First Corinthians. Turn over a page probably there in your Bible.

Listen to what he says. He says in verse, let's go back to verse 12. He says, now, we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

Now, first chapter, second chapter there, verse 14. But a natural man, he's talking about the person who is logical, reasonable, intellectual, doesn't trust the Lord Jesus Christ, no faith in Him. The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God.

Why? Because they're foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them because they're spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritually appraised is all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ? He says, listen, the natural man cannot understand him.

So what does he do? If he doesn't have spiritual discernment, he has to go by logic and reason. So he says, therefore, this is what I think is right.

And this is how I'm going to live my life. Now, the way of reason dethrones God. Look at this. The way of reason dethrones God. Because when you say the way of faith, that's too simple. I mean, that's not even logical. That's not even reasonable.

What does he do? Then he has to set himself up or she has to set herself up to play God. And they operate on that basis to their utter destruction. But now, you see, believers do the same thing. Now, if I should say to you that you would dethrone God in your life, you'd say, oh, no, he's the Lord of my life. He's the Lord of my life.

I've made myself totally committed to Him. Well, let me ask you a question. Let's take this for example. Suppose you're in the process of making a big decision about some purchase in your life, whatever it may be.

And so you read the magazines and you watch the TV and you listen to the news and you talk to your friends and so forth. And they say, well, if you're going to do it, now's the time to do it. I mean, you need to do it now. I mean, interest rates are going to rise. This is going to happen.

That's going to happen. Look at the stock market, all these things. And so, listen, the smartest thing you can do, the best time to do it, do it right now. You get on your knees and you say, all right, Lord, I just want to thank you in Jesus' name that you give me wisdom and direction for my life. And I've heard from the television, the radio, the newspaper, my friends, my counselors, and they all say this is the time to do it.

God, that sounds right to me. I just want to thank you for what I'm going to do. And God says, don't do that. And so you can give God 40 reasons that you and your friends in the newspaper and the television have told you you ought to do it. And God says, don't do it. And you say, God, why? He says, because I told you not to. Well, Lord, there should be a better reason than that. Faith gives us the ability and the capacity to see beyond what is logical and reasonable and rational. I may not be able to see the end result.

I may not even be able to see why. But somewhere around the corner, God gives me just a little warning that when he says don't, he doesn't need to give me any reasons why it may not be logical, reasonable or intellectual, but it is wisdom from God. And many of God's people get themselves in all kinds of trouble doing what?

Practicing the way of what? Of reason rather than the way of faith. And so then we make mistakes. We want to we come back to God. Well, Lord, what happened?

What happened? You just disobeyed me. But God, look at all the things you see, the logic and the reason. And listen, all the evidence in the world doesn't mount up to one single word from God when he says no.

N-O. Listen, you can have volumes of why you ought to. But when God says no, that one no is wiser than all the volumes of man's wisdom.

Because God knows the future and we do not. The way of faith requires our personal acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and his death at Calvary for full payment of our sins. You cannot separate Jesus from the cross.

And this is the whole issue right here. The whole issue and the point of contention is the cross of Jesus Christ. God says that the only way for a person to be forgiven of their sins is for God to have paid the price for our sin by sending his only begotten son who had never sinned to take the full payment of our sin upon himself at the cross. Dying on that cross atone satisfied the demands of God for our sin and our guilt.

The way of faith is that I come to know Almighty God in a personal way by accepting his son Jesus Christ and his death on the cross as full payment for my sin. And the moment I do that, the Spirit of God comes into my life, then I have a discerning spirit to be able to relate to God. Because you see a person without Christ, they have no spiritual life. And so we relate to the earthly world by physical being, our emotions and so forth. But we relate to God only by our spirit. If the spirit is dead, there's no relationship. And so when a person places their trust in Christ, the Spirit of God, by an act of their faith, the Spirit of God comes into their life. And now they can relate to him personally.

Now they can know him personally. Now, I'm not saying God's whole redemptive plan is simple, but I'm saying that as far as what is required of you and me, it's down to one word. It isn't performance. It isn't keeping Ten Commandments. It isn't living by this and living by that.

And somehow persecuting myself physically and going through all kinds of gyrations to prove anything. It is simply one word, faith. Now, friend, isn't it wise on the part of God that in order to save a life from wrecking and ruining itself, you make the plan of salvation so simple that even a little five-year-old boy understands that he's disobeyed God. And that his heavenly Father loves him, sent Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son. When Jesus died, he paid for his sins, and he receives Christ as his Savior, and he's saved. Real simple. If I want to reach him young before they wreck their life, if I was really smart and wise, what would I do?

I'd make it so simple even a child can understand. So what happens is in the wisdom of God, he's made his redemptive plan so simple. You know what he's done? He's placed it in reach of anybody and everybody out there who hears it.

You see, the same people who use logic and say, well, my God is a God of love. Can you tell me anything any more loving than this? That this God who loves the entire world, he's made it so simple that he's placed it in reach of a small five-year-old boy and a 90-year-old man. And you don't have to get out of bed. You don't have to perform anything.

You don't have to do anything. It is a matter of placing your faith in Christ. Now, I didn't say when you got saved you wouldn't do anything.

There are lots of things you'll want to do because you are saved. But you don't do anything to get saved but place your faith in him, period. You don't repent to get saved. Listen, repentance is cleaning up things.

You don't clean up your life in order to get it clean. You place your trust in Jesus Christ who cleanses by his blood. Then you make corrections in your life that you know don't fit who you presently are now that you've been changed by the grace of God. That is the wisdom of God.

The gospel of Jesus Christ, the cross of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, he says, to the Jew, the Greek, whoever it might be. That's why Paul says, I'm not ashamed of it. Oh, the Greek philosophers and the Jews said it's a stumbling block. He said, I'm not ashamed because he says, first of all, I've experienced it in my own life. I've seen it demonstrated in other people's lives. It is the power of God unto salvation to change a man's eternal destiny.

Let me ask you a question. What other act on the part of anybody anywhere will change their eternal destiny from torment, from separation from God to heaven? And that that person can absolutely know for a certainty that in their life now and when they die, they are heaven bound.

Tell me any other any other idea, any other philosophy, any other truth, anywhere that you can know. Absolutely, that's for sure. And it's not your performance. You hope so. Maybe so. But I absolutely know so. Only through the cross of Jesus Christ. It is very reasonable, very logical and very intellectual to become a child of God because you step into the pathway of wisdom, the wisdom of God. Now, listen, it is always best to do things God's way. It's best to put your trust in him as your personal savior. It is the only way to get to heaven. Thank you for listening to Faith Versus Reason. For more inspirational messages like this, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.