R410 Faith With Vision

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton and a message called Faith with Vision. We'll be headed to Hebrews chapter 11 in just a moment, but you're listening to Dr. Don Wilton, well-known author, evangelist, pastor, and his recent book, Saturdays with Billy, is one you can take a look at right now at www.tewonline.org. I want you to take a copy of God's Word this morning and turn with me to the letter to the Hebrews in chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11, I want to speak to you about a very difficult subject, faith with vision.

Now friends, anytime we talk about vision, we're going to struggle somewhat, because it's one thing to say that you and I believe in God, it's one thing to say that we have put our faith and our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, but it's an entirely different thing to have the vision to be able to do what we know God has placed upon our hearts without knowing where we're going. I read his great servants by the name of Isaac. You can read about Isaac in the book of Genesis. His is a remarkable story about faith with vision, but I think that the consummate act of his vision is expressed here in the hall of faith.

Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 20, look what happens, read it with me. By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, not regarding their present, but regarding their future. He was looking ahead, and in fact, if I might just tell you for a moment, when Isaac did this, he was a very old man. In fact, the Bible says that he was blind in his age, he was very weak, he was old and not too long after this, he was carried into the presence of Almighty God. Here in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 20, by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau with regard not to their present, he had already done that, you remember, but with regard to their future, with regard to a time that he wasn't even going to be around to enjoy.

Isn't that remarkable? It was going to be something that Isaac would never benefit from himself per se, because he would have been with God in heaven. Faith with vision. Number one, you must hear above the noise.

There are many voices around. If you want to put your faith to work, you've got to listen to God above the noise. Number two, you need to obey God contrary to human reason.

There are many opinions today, but God's opinion is the one that we need to listen to. Number three, we need to do despite the lack of company. If you're going to put your faith to work, you've got to do what God wants you to do, even if you're by yourself. Number four, you need to go on despite potential opposition and discouragement, perhaps even here today.

There are some of us who this week we faced discouragement of some kind or another, perhaps a setback, keep on, don't give up. Number five, if you're going to put your faith to work, you must accept God's judgment without questioning His justice. And number six, you must look ahead to the promises of God.

Why? Because God is the God of covenant. God is the God of promise.

God is going to do exactly what God says He will do. And so it is that we now come to this question of vision. And that's a difficult subject to deal with. Can you imagine going to someone who has been diagnosed with cancer and saying to them, I want you not only to have faith, but I want you to exercise vision. I want you to look ahead beyond your current circumstance. Saying that to somebody who's in a lot of pain and who has been diagnosed with a terminal disease is not a very easy thing to appropriate in the practicality of our lives, is it? Can you imagine going to a businessman? And I'm going to say to you, if you're in business today, I want to encourage you to take your faith and combine it with vision.

Why? Because they are synonyms. They are inextricably intertwined with one another. Faith and vision are amalgamated together in the heart of God's people.

They are one in the same thing. If you want your business to grow and to expand, if you want your profits to exceed your losses, if you want to do much better at what you're doing, you must not only believe in your product, you must not only believe in the people who work for you, but you must exercise vision. You need to step beyond the boundary of human limitation and analyses. You need to defy the odds. You need to counteract the bookmakers.

You need to develop a mode of practicable denial that gambling ever works because it doesn't. You need to come to a fresh understanding that God does not accommodate the state lottery in any form or fashion. God is not the God of good luck. God is the God of absolutes. God is the God of covenant. God is the God of absolute certainty. God is the God who says, listen, I do what I do because I am who I am.

That's this God. And in so doing, we are encouraged to bring faith and action together. Here in the summary statement about Isaac in the letter to Hebrews, we are brought to focus on Isaac's most important characteristic, his faith and vision. He pronounced blessing on his sons, not for the present, but for the future.

Why? Number one, because he had faith in God. And number two, because he believed God's predictions. Well, let's talk about it for a moment this morning, as I'm going to suggest to you that in order for us to have faith with vision and in order for our faith to have vision, we must employ several biblical principles. We must have a groundswell of understanding.

I'm going to give them to you. I'm going to give to you seven biblical principles about faith and vision, and then we're going to talk about it together. Number one, a believing faith is seeing. A believing faith is seeing. And some of you are going to say, now, wait a minute, pastor, I know what faith is, but how can I bring faith and vision together?

I'm going to say to you that what Isaac teaches us and what God's word fundamentally expounds to us is that a believing faith is seeing. Number two, a living faith is pleasing to God. Number three, a submitting faith is doing. Number four, a testing faith is strengthening. Number five, a dampened faith is defining. Number six, an accepting faith is accomplishing. And number seven, and I love this, an aging faith is ultimately honoring to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let's have a look at this just briefly this morning. Number one, faith with vision. Principle number one, a believing faith is seeing.

This man Isaac was remarkable. If you go back to Hebrews, if you just flip over the page with me, Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 1, look at that. Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Now there are two functional elements that come into place here. First of all is a living hope and second of all is a bland hope.

There are two elements here. First of all, God's word tells us that we need to have a living hope. What is a hope? A hope is looking forward for something out there.

But the second thing, God says if it's going to be faith and vision, we've got to be willing to be unable to see. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that? I went to the Nautilus Fitness Center yesterday, which is my favorite place to go and work out and try and get the cobwebs out of my mind. And there was a man there, very fine gentleman who was blind. And he got on that treadmill next to me and my wife and he was jogging on that treadmill, holding on. He was blind and I couldn't help thinking.

Here I am trying to shed a few pounds and trying to at least lighten the load somewhat and trying to not look like a beached whale and trying to be concerned about everything pertaining to this machine that's got me running at 150 miles an hour. And I've got a man next to me who can neither see nor know in any kind of detail the details that surround him and yet the urgency and the apparent joy and all the things that went on with this man as he stood there, a blind man jogging on a treadmill next to me, challenged my heart. God's word says, listen, if I'm going to have faith with vision, I've got to be willing to be blind. I've got to be willing to put my complete faith and trust in the God in whom I have placed my faith.

You see, what is the adage that we hear in the world today? It's simply this, seeing is believing. God's word says, uh-uh, believing is seeing. Most of us today, myself included, you come to me and you say to me, listen, Don, I've got this and this and I promise you, you can do that and that.

I'll say, let me see it and if I see it, I'll believe it. Now, do we believe God or don't we? Do we believe that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or even think? Do we believe that or don't we? What is God telling us to do?

God is saying to us, listen to me, friend. It's not seeing is believing, believing is seeing and if you have given your heart to Jesus Christ and you trust him implicitly, rest your case. Principle number two, a living faith is pleasing. Love this passage here because the Bible says to us, my friends, that our vision is not based upon our success. Our vision, the exercise of our faith is based upon our willingness to live out our Christian experience.

Look at Hebrews chapter 11 and verse six. What does it say there? Without faith, it is what?

See that there? Everybody got a Bible this morning? Without faith, it is occasionally impossible to please God. Without faith, you might just run into trouble.

What does it say there now, folks? Listen, we're a Bible believing people. Without faith, it is impossible to do what? To please God.

Moms and dads, watch me. If you're a parent and you are bringing up sons and daughters, if you don't exercise faith with your sons and daughters, you cannot please God. Business person today, if you are a business person and you have a Christian business and it is run on Christian principles and you are honoring God with your life, if you do not exercise faith with vision, you cannot please God. Church, First Baptist Church of Spartanburg, South Carolina, if we are not prepared to put our faith into action, we cannot and we will not please God. That's what the word of God says. We've got to be willing to say it is our living faith. It's not whether we are successful.

Isaac certainly failed many times, didn't he? Doesn't mean to say that we're always doing things well, but God wants us to live our vision. A wise old man said to me many years ago, he said, Don, if you want to be a visionary, you need to put your belief into practice. You need to believe implicitly that God is able, period.

That's putting your belief into practice. That's being willing to say, listen, I know that I'm hurting physically. I know that I've been diagnosed with cancer. I know that I have heart disease. I know that I'm going to face surgery. I don't know whether I'm going to get better.

I don't know whether God is going to heal me. I don't know what's going to happen down the road, but I do know that I belong to God and I am in the palm of his hands. That's a living faith. That's a living faith. Folks, you can turn on your television set today. You've got preachers on TV who are denying a living faith.

They saying, listen, why don't you just come up on the platform here? I'm just going to cast my hands on you. I'm going to blow in your face.

You're going to fall over. People are going to catch you and you're going to be healed. Not because of anything that you've done, but because God has got to heal you.

That is not a living faith. Listen, friends, the Bible teaches divine healing. God heals us because he's God. And if I'm going to put my faith and vision together, it means because he is God that I rest my case. He's God.

Forgive the interruption. We'll be back with more of today's message with Dr. Don Wilton in just a moment. But as we rest our case in God, we know that in this life we face opposition, but we do not face it alone. We can be fortified. If you haven't heard about it, this is a wonderful resource from Dr. Wilton and Dr. Wiersbe.

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That's 866-899-9673. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. God came to Moses and said, Moses, go and get the children of Israel out of Egypt.

Can you imagine that? That's a living faith. A man, he could, you talk about a stutter and I cannot talk and I cannot speak and I cannot sing and I cannot walk and I cannot do all these things. He said, Moses, listen, man, throw that rod down and pick it up. You've got in your hands the rod of God. Now go.

Now go. Number three, a submitting faith is doing. Isaac's faith, my friends, was not inventive. No, sir.

He didn't invent anything. See, we think if you want to have vision with your faith, you've got to be an inventor. You've got to be the next Livingston, I presume. You've got to be the next great missionary to China. You've got to be the next pastor.

You've got to be the next, no, no, no. Bible says a submitting faith is doing faith. That's a vision faith. His faith, Isaac's faith, was not inventive. It wasn't creative.

It wasn't adventurous. I want you to just think about Mount Moriah. Genesis chapter 22. Abraham came to Isaac and said to him, Isaac, I want you to walk with me up Mount Moriah. I'm going to tie you up, put you on an altar and I'm going to stab you to death because God told me to do it. Now, what would you do if your daddy came and asked you to do that? You'd say, could we sit down and have a little talk about this, Dad?

Now, folks, I want to show you something. How old was Isaac when Abraham nearly offered him as a living sacrifice to God? How old was he?

33 years of age. I see pictures all the time that have this little boy on an altar. He wasn't a little boy, folks.

He was a 33-year-old man. This was a man who was living his faith. And what about his faith? His faith and his vision was a submitting faith. Abraham exercised the initiative Isaac submitted.

That's bringing faith and vision together. How old was Isaac when he met Rebekah, girls? When he met this beautiful young lady and fell in love with her and married her, how old was Isaac? 50 years old. No, some of us think he was 14 and 15.

No, he was 50 years of age. It was 17 years after he was nearly sacrificed, but God provided the way on Mount Moriah. We're talking about a man here, folks, who brought his faith and his vision together. A submitting faith is doing. Number four, a testing faith is strengthening. A testing faith is strengthening.

I've mentioned Mount Moriah. He was tested. What was the result of the testing of the faith of Isaac? The strengthening of his vision, the strengthening of his walk when he met Rebekah at the age of 50.

You can go and read about it in Genesis chapter 24. His faith again was tested, and what about here at the end of his life? He was an old man. He was blind. He was weary. He was incapacitated. He was weak, and yet he was tested.

Listen to what Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 6, chapter 1 and verses 6 and 7. In this you have reason to greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These trials have come...

Here it is. You're ready for this. ...so that your faith, if greater worth than the gold which perishes, even though refined by fire, may be proven genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. What did Peter say, the apostles say?

He said, listen. He said, if you want to translate and amalgamate your faith into vision, you've got to understand the principle that a testing faith is strengthening. People from time to time say, why is this happening to me? Perhaps because God is strengthening your faith. I had someone come to me just a couple of days ago and say to me, Pastor, please help me to understand this. I'm trying to live according to the Word of God.

This is what I've done. I've been faithful. And yet all these things are happening. And I had been reading this passage and I looked at him and I said to him, my dear brother, far be it from me to ever say this to you because of your predicament. But I want you to know that your faith is being tested. And when your faith is being tested, you know what's going to happen? You're going to be strengthened. Now we're going to see how this works in a moment because we're going to get up to the final few moments of Isaac's life. And that's when we're going to rarely see a light shine.

A light shine. Number five, fifth principle, a dampened faith is defining. A dampened faith is defining. If you go back into Genesis, remember when Isaac was going to bless his first born son Esau, and how Jacob deceived him and he ended up blessing Jacob instead of Esau. His faith was dampened. Go and read it for yourself.

In fact, folks, if I'm not too unclear here, I think I read in between the words there a little bit. I think Isaac was a little bit miffed that he ended up blessing Jacob instead of Esau. You see, his faith was dampened. But what came out of that? The strengthening of his vision.

The solidifying of his faith. Someone told me one time, listen, the quality of your faith and vision is not determined by when you're up, it's determined by when you're down. You see, folks, it's easy to win the national championship in football. But I'll tell you something, it's not easy to lose it. If you want to see the quality of a football team and its program, watch it when they're winning the national championship. It's easy to run around the end zone, holding up number one and telling everybody how wonderful you are.

It's another thing entirely to sit on the bench having been beaten. You want to see the quality of someone's life, watch them when their faith is dampened. What does the Bible teach us? When our faith is dampened, it defines us.

It sets those marks of excellence. Number six, an accepting faith is accomplishing. Paul put it like this. He said, all things work together for the good of those that love God to those who are the called according to his purpose. Isaac was willing to accept whether on Mount Moriah, whether with his sons, whether he was hunting Rebecca, it didn't matter what circumstance he was in. The Bible says an accepting faith is accomplishing. And then there is a final principle here, an aging faith is ultimately honoring.

Do you know that here in Hebrews chapter 11, as we read in Genesis, Isaac was a very old man. Folks, I tell you what, there is something remarkably significant about senior adults who have walked with the Lord Jesus, who have loved him, who have proved him, and then are there cheering others on and saying, you can do it. You can do it. I know you can because I've been there. Listen, I can call my sons and daughters and you can call your sons and daughters in and give them every kind of advice you want to, but I'm going to tell you something folks, there is nothing more significant than when granny and grandpa walk in and grandpa looks at that grandson and says, go for it, son. Go for it, son. Go for it, son. You can do it. You can do it.

Go for it. Go for it because I know, I know that God is God. Indeed, trusting that God is God and God is using this broadcast to let you know he loves you and has a plan for your life. You've heard the teaching and the preaching from Dr. Don Wilton from the pulpit.

Now he steps in the studio to share his heart. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin and by faith I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. If you just gave your life to Christ, praying along with Dr. Wilton, or maybe rededicated your life, you need to know that not only are we excited, but the angels in heaven are rejoicing for your choice to follow Jesus. We have great resources we'd love to put in your hands. Dr. Wilton has prepared just for you if you'll call us and let us know you gave your life to Christ today. Our phone number is 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. Or you can meet us online as well. Our website is www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org. While you're there, sign up for the daily encouraging word. Email and discover more great resources like the new book from Dr. Wilton on Saturdays with Billy. About his time with Dr. Billy Graham. All those resources are on our website at www.tewonline.org