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 two of a message that was first preached on November 4th, 2018 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Reasonable trust. You see, it's not absent of foundation.
Here's the truth of the matter. Only intelligence can provide information. So if you think faith is just simply a leap in the dark or blind faith just, I hope this is true. I don't really know why I hope so, but I hope this is... That's not faith at all. There is information.
Information has been given to us. So this is a picture of complete trust or confidence in someone. That's a picture of faith. So when you are walking by faith, let this picture come to mind. In my day to day, do I walk by faith? Do I trust God?
Do I trust the information he has given me? Many today pit reason against revelation because faith is based on revelation. It goes the second definition from Google, which is a good definition, actually. But they pit reason against revelation because the materialist worldview is the prevailing, the predominant worldview today, at least in popular culture. The materialist worldview is what I would call is what is called scientism, which teaches that anything that can be known can only be discovered through science by use of the senses. That's scientism. Here's the problem. That statement itself was not discovered through science using the senses.
It can't be true. They are not willing to recognize revelation that there is an infinite being. And like I said before, information can only come from an intelligence. There is an infinite being who has made himself known. He made all that is and he has made himself known to us. That's why the Sunday night seminar beginning tonight is The God Who Speaks.
It's described a little bit on the back of your bulletin. So look at that when you leave here today. Consider that because it's going to be discovering, unpacking, exploring the evidence for the authority of scripture and why scripture is to be brought to bear upon our lives. The God who speaks and that's what he is. Reason, using our reason to believe means that there is a logical component to it. Do I believe? Do I trust that which does not violate the law of non-contradiction?
Is it logically consistent? Now, not based on my understanding, but does it contradict itself? But also faith can be enigmatic, can it? There is mystery there. So we understand that there is faith, but there is reason, but there is mystery. There is a mysterious element of faith.
Why? Because we have limited understanding. We are limited, but we are also tainted. That's why we cannot be our own reference point. I cannot be the arbiter for my truth.
I have to trust something. I'm quoting John Lennox here as people would put reason against revelation. He says this, you must use your reason to read revelation.
It's true. He says, I have never yet met a person who read the Bible without using their reason. It is part of being uniquely human. No other part of creation can do this because we are created in the image of God with this capacity to reason.
Did you know that there has never yet been discovered the canine philosophical society? We are human. We are made as a gift of God with the capacity to reason and we use our reason to know God's revelation. But God's revelation doesn't originate with us.
It originates with him. So it cannot be reason alone. It cannot be reason alone because we are insufficient to be our own reference point.
Paul says, why does one still hope for what he sees? That's that mysterious element to faith because God is infinite and transcendent and he has a perspective and a purpose that is beyond our complete comprehension. So we have to trust him for what we cannot see even though he can. That's what makes faith objective. Some people would argue and say that faith was just purely a subjective thing. That's only true if your faith is in yourself. If you are the originator of your faith, of what you trust, then it's purely subjective. But the fact that it is objective means that there is information outside of us, knowable by all of us that we can trust. That makes it objective.
Let me give you an example and I've used this before. How many of you have flown in an airplane? I love taking off with the hope that I'm going to land again. Now, what if the pilot comes on and he says, well, now listen, folks, we're going to be flying through the night across the Atlantic Ocean, which I've done numerous times. And the pilot comes on and says, you know, as we're flying at 37,000 feet at 600 miles an hour, the first officer and myself will not be able to see a thing. But, you know, we're just going to hope we get there.
What would happen if there would be a mass accident for the door, right? Is that what's going on? Let me ask you this question. As the plane is flying at night over the Atlantic Ocean, 37,000 feet, 600 miles an hour, can the pilot see anything? Not outside the window he can't. Does that mean he's blind? What does he have? He has information. He has information. And guess what he has to use to interact with that information?
His reason. And that's why, so far, every time we've taken off, I have also been able to land safely in the airplane. Because the pilot, though he can't see where he's going, whether it's darkness or clouds or whatever, he can still land that airplane because there is information. You see, the ability to reason itself is a gift from God. And so, as we come to Hebrews, we're going to be studying this, we're going to be studying the book of Habakkuk and then Psalm 37 after that, which gives us beautiful pictures of what it looks like to live by faith. But for the definition of faith and some examples of that, we're looking at Hebrews chapter 11, which some expositors have called Heaven's Hall of Faith.
And it begins with a worthwhile definition here. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. So faith is, first of all, substance. The word in the ESV is assurance, that word substance of things hoped for.
The word is hupostasis. It means the ground on which one builds hope. The grounds, the ground upon which one builds hope. We need hope. Every human being has a desperate need and longing for hope, meaning we're not just existing stagnantly, we're going somewhere.
We are on the move to somewhere. That's why we have this need for hope within us. And so we have this expectation. And what is the ground of one's expectation, just like the illustration of the pilot? He hopes to land the plane safely on the other side of the Atlantic. Is it all just left up to, well, I hope so?
No. See, that's not faith. He has to trust information, as do we. So it says faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. Conviction, elenkos is the word. It means to be convinced of their reality.
What? Of the things unseen. There's a lot of things that you and I cannot see. There are many things that we can. Some of the things that we can see are revelation that has been given to us, information. And with the things that have been given to us, the information that has been given to us, we can trust that and the information of the things that we have not seen, whether it's what's coming down the road or what is our destination or what is the reality beyond life under the sun. Much of that has been revealed.
Not all of it. But what we need has been revealed. And when it speaks of the things unseen, it speaks of all that does not fall under the cognizance of the senses, meaning very clearly that we can learn apart from the senses by reason. It's not imagination.
It's what? It's revelation. Faith is not just simply following my imagination.
That would make it utterly subjective. But faith is following information. I want you to remember that faith is following information. We're going to study this a little more as we go through Hebrews Chapter 11. And just to let you know, I'm going to have to edit the recording here. But in the first service, I didn't come close to making it through the sermon.
OK, so I'm just letting you know that we have to cut it off early. But it says here faith is, it speaks of faith with hope and assurance. 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.
