Living By Faith, Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Today's message is the first in a series titled, Living by Faith. Faith is a word battered around in both religious and secular circles. But what does the Bible mean when it uses the word faith?

If I believe something strongly enough, does it make it so? Is faith separate from logic and evidence? Where does faith get its strength? Listen in with us as Pastor Rich answers these questions in this message titled, What is Faith?

This is part three of a message that was first preached on November 4, 2018 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. God communicated to Noah. He says, Noah, I want you to build an ark. Noah says, what's an ark? Well, it's something that's going to save you from a flood. Noah says, what's a flood?

Things yet unseen. God warned him. God gave him information. Noah just wasn't operating on a hunch.

He wasn't operating on his imagination. I'm going to build this big boat. And, you know, you never know.

Someday a flood might come. No, he was operating on listen to this. Listen, specific information. That's so key.

That is so key. Specific information, as were the rest of these. And it refers to them as promises. Promises. Abraham received a promise. He was part of a covenant, wasn't he? Verses eight and nine. Abraham was called out of Ur. He went up to Haran. His father dies.

Right. And God says, I'm going to take you to a land. And Abraham says, what land?

Where is it? God says, I'm going to tell you when you get there. That's OK. He wasn't following his own plan. He was following a God who had communicated to him.

And God said, follow me and I will take you to the land. You see, this is specific information. All the specifics that Abraham needed. Did he need the specifics of exactly where he was going? No, he didn't need that.

The specifics he did need was Abraham. I'm calling you. You follow me.

I'll tell you where to go. If that means anything, it means this. Trust God today. In our tendency to be control freaks, we want to trust God for tomorrow, don't we? God, I need to know what you have for me down the road. If I can figure that out and I'm OK with it, then I will trust you.

Trust God today. It also mentioned Sarah in verse 11. Sarah was beyond childbearing age and God had made Sarah and Abraham a promise, an heir because of Abraham would come a great nation. And Sarah, that means Sarah would have to have a baby. She was beyond those years, but she was given a promise.

You get this specific information. She was given a promise. It wasn't just, oh, I hope maybe someday God will make me. No, she was given a specific promise. And because she believed that promise, God gave her power to conceive. Did you get that?

And what does it say? She considered him trustworthy. There's the object of faith. God had made himself known and he gave her specific information and a specific promise.

So she acted upon that specific information and promise. And then you look in verses 17 to 19, you got the mention of Abraham and Isaac. Isaac was that heir, that son of promise.

Through him there would come a great nation. And then he was asked, Abraham was asked to offer up his son. And because he believed God, because he trusted God, he continued in that. He believed God was able to reason from the dead. He believed the promise that God had given.

You see specific information, but it is information. And it wasn't just an I hope so or wishful thinking. It was acting on specific information that's living by faith. Verse 22, Joseph down in Egypt had risen through the ranks up to high power. His whole family came down and he knew that God had promised a particular land to his fathers. And he knew based on that promise that his family would be moving back to the promised land. So when he died in Egypt, he made his family promise him that they would take his bones back to the promised land. What is that? That's faith.

It's acting on information. It's not just wishful thinking. And then we can talk about David. He mentions David here in verse 32.

David, pretty much in passing, like there's just way too much here to talk about. Now David is a wonderful example of faith, isn't he? Because the story that we've all learned from Yehi to a grasshopper is David and Goliath, right?

I just need to slay the giants in my life. What is David and Goliath about? What kind of faith did David have? What was the basis of his faith?

We know the story. There was a small valley there and the Philistines and the Israelites were opposed with each other. And what was common in those days is they would pick one person to come down and fight each other. And whoever won, that nation would serve, would find the other nations subservient to them instead of, you know, whole armies wiping each other out.

It was for the preservation of people. And so the Philistines chose Goliath, a worthy candidate. He comes down and he is bad-mouthing the army of Israel. Now David is still fairly young, right?

And his dad sends him out to check on his brothers. David is anointed to be king. And his dad sends him to check on his brothers and he hears Goliath taunting the Israelites, the armies of Israel.

Now I want you to notice something. Do you remember what David said? Who is this Philistine who defies the armies of the living God?

Who is this uncircumcised Philistine who defies the armies of the living God? Did you ever notice the faith in that statement? You see, when we talk about David and Goliath, we put the focus on David. Oh, he just really believed in himself.

That's why he took up five stones. No. He thought maybe Goliath had brothers. You see, David's belief wasn't in himself. It wasn't a, I can do this.

No. Who did David trust? He trusted God. And it's reflected in this statement.

Who is this uncircumcised? What does that mean? This man is not in covenant with God. We have a covenant with God. God has made specific promises to us. And David believed them. What were the things that David believed? What were the things that God had said?

Well, you go back all the way to Genesis chapter 17 and the covenant that God had made with Abraham and then Deuteronomy 28 through 30 and the covenant that God once again reiterated to the people of Israel as they were going into the promised land. This is your land. And when you follow me, no enemy will stand before you. God said that.

David believed it. Now, there's more. Joshua chapter one, verses three to six, go into this land. Do not fear. Be faithful.

You will, if you follow the Lord, you will be, have good success. So there's that history. And then also in Deuteronomy chapter four, your eyes have seen what the Lord did. So not only is there a promise, but there is in history all the evidence that you need that God keeps his promises. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did.

David knew all that. That's why he asked the question, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he would defy the armies of the living God? You know what he's asking?

What is this puny mere human doing bad-mouthing God? That's what David asked. All the promises that God has given and Israel believed in Jehovah God, right? God had made, you say they all had these same promises. They all were under the same covenant, all had the same promises, all had the same information about what God had done in history.

And what were the, what was the king and the armies of Israel doing? They were shaking in their boots because yeah, I know all this spiritual stuff, but there's a real person over here we have to deal with. That gets down to the nitty-gritty of life where the rubber meets the road, doesn't it?

You know what's going on here? And this is where we conclude today. I know preacher doesn't mean anything when he says that.

Listen to this. What is the story of David and Goliath about? With all of this information, David believed what Israel believed. David believed what he believed.

He acted on the information that he trusted. That's living by faith. God has given us information. God has spoken. And it's not like we need to figure out what God is trying to say. Listen to me. God has spoken.

What are we doing about it? So I really strongly encourage you to be a part of the discussion and conversation tonight, The God Who Speaks. I think you will find it very informative and encouraging with elevating our trust in the Word of God.

It's so important that we know God according to His self-disclosure because if you don't know God according to His self-disclosure, your faith is going to be hard because you're probably trusting in a God who's created in your image, the God of your imagination. That makes faith hard. There's a reason why faith is hard sometimes and I'm not saying sometimes it's not because we as human beings, we have a tendency to trust other things. And to the degree that we trust other things along with God that makes our faith hard.

Don't you think about that. So we're going to study the book of Habakkuk. We're going to study Psalm 37, pictures of faith, what it looks like to live by faith. Are you ready to make assessment in your own heart this morning? What are you trusting? What is the basis of your hope? Do you know God's self-disclosure? Do you trust God or is your faith more about your calculations? Are you ready to be honest enough with this question? Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.