The Just Shall Live by Faith — William Carrol

The Just Shall Live by Faith

Would you turn with me and your Bibles to the book of Romans? The book of Romans. And we are going to read Romans chapter 1 verses 16 and 17. Romans chapter 1 verses 16 and 17. And then I'm going to illustrate this portion of Scripture by making reference to another passage, another portion of Scripture with which we are very familiar.

Romans 1, 16 and 17, another very familiar passage. Paul is writing to the church at Rome. And he says to them, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. I want to talk to you this afternoon on the topic, the just shall live by faith. Now, there is a story in the Bible that appears in all four of the Gospels.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Actually, there are not very many stories that appear in all four. But this one does. And of course, it's the story of the feeding of the 5 ,000. And I'm just going to develop this teaching based upon pulling portions from each of the tellings of that particular story.

Going From the Feeding of the Five Thousand to the Storm

And I would like to begin with what happened immediately after the feeding of the 5 ,000. And then we'll go backward once we consider what happened after that feeding. First consider with me, Jesus with his disciples, they are on the shore of the lake of Galilee.

The sea of Galilee or the sea of Tiberias, various names it's called. And Jesus is giving them an instruction. And the instruction is very, very simple. I want you to go from here to there. Very simple instruction.

These, for the most part, are professional fishermen. So it's not a daunting task to be told to go from one side of this lake that they grew up around, that they've made their living on. It's not a daunting task to tell them to go from point A to point B.

And so I can imagine what their feelings might have been, considering what they had just experienced. They had just experienced what you and I would consider an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They might have called it a revival.

Because what they saw was pretty much everything that we would expect to see in a great outpouring. They saw Jesus leading a great many people into his word and into his truth. They saw healings and signs and wonders.

And for three days they experienced times of prayer and of fasting. In fact, after the three days, they had nothing to eat. And they saw a great miracle where Jesus took five loaves and two fish and he fed thousands.

They saw things that they had never seen before. They actually were allowed to participate in a key role in this great miracle. And Jesus told them to set the people down by their 50s and by their 100s and to begin to feed them from this miraculous provision.

And if you can imagine the spiritual high that they would have been on after a day like that. After seeing what they had seen, the faith that would have exploded in their spirit and the ideas that must have gone on in their mind.

And they probably thought to themselves, this man is still in the process of simply establishing his kingdom. What must it look like when that kingdom is fully established? And they probably thought, this is just the beginning.

I can imagine the emotion that was going on and the electricity that must have been in the air. And the faith that was rising in them. And they probably thought, well the next assignment that Jesus gives me is probably going to be something out of this world.

He just gave me an assignment to feed thousands with five loaves and two fish. But the next assignment that he gives them is to go from point A to point B. Very simply put to go home and wait for him.

It's a picture of a person who may be in a church like this. And they might experience a wonderful move of God upon their life. They might rejoice with the song ministers and they might rejoice in the word of the Lord.

And they might feel the free flow of the Holy Spirit as they give to the needy. And they might lift up their prayers in unison with their brothers and sisters. And they might come to an altar like this and feel a release from the Spirit of God.

A release of the Holy Presence. And they might rejoice in all of the wonderful things that are happening. And then it seems like there is a let down after it's all said and done. And the Lord says to you, now just go home.

And that's basically what was going on there. But the Bible says that we go from faith to faith. And we go from one experience of God's glory to another experience of God's glory. Now they didn't understand what was about to transpire.

They simply did what he said to do. He said go home and wait, they went home. He said go to the other side of the lake, they simply went to the other side of the lake. But as they were going to the other side of the lake, of course you know the story.

They went one way, Jesus went another. He sent the other people home. And he went into a solitary place and began to pray. And as he went into that place, that solitary place to pray. And as they began to sail across the waters.

Doing something that they were used to doing. Doing something that they knew how to do. Something that they grew up doing. Something that they made their living doing. The Bible says that there arose a storm.

A great storm. A storm that was so tumultuous. That these men who were used to this lake. Who made their money on this lake. Who had weathered many a storm on this lake. These men were utterly helpless.

Utterly defenseless. They had absolutely no power. You see, what they thought was happening. Was they were going from this great experience to the mundane. To the boring. To just wait until the next time God moves in such and such a way.

But God knew better. God knew that they were going from faith to faith. From one opportunity to believe to another opportunity to believe. And that there was going to be a trial in that lonely place. A trial in that boring place.

A trial in that mundane place. That they would never have expected. A trial in that place that they would have considered themselves used to. That they might have said about themselves. Well I've been through trials on this lake before.

I understand these things. But now they go home to something that is transcendent. Something that is above and beyond anything that they had experienced before. They're going into a fire that is heated seven times hotter than it was wont to be heated.

Than it was ordinarily heated. And they were overwhelmed in their own element. And the Bible says that as they were panicking on that ship. That God began to move toward them. That Jesus began walking on the water.

And you would think that they would say, Oh now everything is alright. Because I thought that I was simply going home to the mundane. But I came under serious, significant attack. But Jesus is in the midst.

And so now I can place my trust in Him. I have an opportunity. I have one opportunity for faith here. I have another opportunity for faith there. Because that is the nature of the gospel. From faith to faith.

I have an opportunity to believe Him here. And I can now begin to relax. I don't have to panic anymore. I don't have to row anymore. I don't have to bail anymore. I can trust that the Lord is going to come and do what He does.

Misinterpreting Christ's Presence in the Storm

But instead, they began to panic even more. And they began to say it's a ghost. Their superstition began to rise up in them. And began to overwhelm their understanding. And it would be a picture of a person who had just experienced a wonderful move of God in the house of the Lord.

And now they just go home because that's where they ordinarily go. And they're thinking, Oh I can't wait until the next time I get an experience with God. But right now I'll just go on and live my ordinary life and do my thing.

And all of a sudden some trial comes out of nowhere that devastates the situation. Causes panic. Causes fear. And proves that you or I are unable to handle this thing in our own strength. But Jesus comes into the midst.

And you would think that we would say, Thank you Lord for coming to me at this stage in my life. But because we might have thought along with them that this is something I should be able to handle. This is the ordinary.

This is the mundane. I've been doing this all my life. Or we might say, I've been doing this since I've been saved. It's a part of my life. I know how to do this. And all of a sudden we're overwhelmed.

Well when we feel the presence of the Lord, sometimes instead of taking comfort and acknowledging that God is here to help us and to strengthen us and to encourage us, we begin to panic even more. Thinking, I can't believe that the Lord is finding me in this kind of a trial.

See, He probably thinks like me that I should be able to handle this on my own. He's probably expecting that because I've had this amount of experience and this amount of times in the water and this amount of times that I should be able to handle this by now on my own and in my own strength.

So when we sense His presence, we tend to draw back from Him. And our superstition begins to take the place of our understanding. And when I say superstition, I mean in their case they thought it was a ghost.

In our case, sometimes we think that this is the presence or this is a sense or this is a feeling of evil. In other words, instead of thinking that God is there to help us and to heal us and to strengthen us and to encourage us and to empower us, we think He's there to condemn us and to crush us.

And instead of running to Him, we run from Him. So instead of allowing this opportunity for faith to go from faith to faith, we choose on this side to not believe because, and this is the reason that we give for not believing here, because we believed so much over there.

In other words, I believed so much over here, I'm actually ashamed of having to need God over there. Sometimes we convince ourselves that the more faith we have in the church, the less we need to trust in Him and to depend upon Him when we leave the church.

We almost think that we can live on this experience over here. And so when we find out over here that we can't live on this experience over here, we're so embarrassed by that, that when the Lord comes in to help us, we pull away from Him thinking that He's coming in to condemn us.

And so on the basis of having faith over here, we have distrust over there. We don't trust that God is going to be as good to us over here as He was over there because we think having been so good to us over here, He shouldn't need to be that good to us over here.

Having been faithful to me here, I should be able to do this on my own over there. But the Bible says that this gospel is a message of grace and it deals with the issue of one faith growing into another faith.

Peter Steps Beyond Presuppositions and Fear

Now, when you consider what happened with Peter, Peter decided after Jesus spoke and said, Peter and to the other disciples, it's me. You don't have to be afraid. Basically what he was saying to them was, I need you now to pull away from your superstition.

I need you to pull away from your religious presuppositions. I need you to pull away from all the ideas that you have about what you think God should feel right now. And I need you to look me in my face.

And I need you to make a distinction between who I am and who you might expect that I would be if I were like you. And so he says, it's me. You don't have to fall into superstitious fear. So Peter says, if it is you, let me come out into the water.

So now Peter takes another step of faith. And he comes out into the water. And he's dealing with a couple of things there. First he begins to deal, even before he begins to deal with his fear of dying, he begins to deal with his deception.

Any kind of deception that might be a part of his understanding of the nature of God. He takes his superstition, he takes his presuppositions and he puts them to the test. He faces these things head on.

He says, I thought that this presence that I felt was my adversary. I thought that this presence that I felt was my enemy. But now I know that this one didn't come to condemn me, this one came to save me.

And so he takes a step out into the water. And not only does he face any kind of presuppositions or any kind of superstition that he has, but now he also faces his heart fears. This was a man who probably spent his entire life avoiding death by drowning.

It was the way he made his living and I don't think any fisherman that's worth his weight, especially in that day, was not always taking the appropriate precautions so that they would not be claimed by the sea.

And Peter had to make a choice to first deal with his presuppositions about what God is like and then to deal with his fears. To say, Lord, if you are there, then I am there. First I have to know that God is not mad at me.

I have to know that God doesn't want to condemn me, God doesn't want to hurt me. And once I understand that, then I can say with regard to Him, if that's the case, then wherever you are, that's where I am.

And so Peter was able to say to the Lord, if you are in the storm, then I am in the storm. If you are in the wilderness, as we heard this morning, then I am in the wilderness. The Bible says that the Lord sent them into that storm.

Even as the Bible says, Why? Because you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. If you are in the storm, then I am in the storm. If you're in a time of peace, then I'm in a time of peace.

I don't want to be where Christ is not. And so, if He is there, I'm there. Peter gets off of the boat, off of the ship, and he goes into this time of storm. Simply because the Lord is there. But Peter makes one mistake.

The same mistake that you and I tend to make. And that's simply this. When he made a decision to deal with his presuppositions, and to let God do what God needs to do to cause certain belief systems and ideas to flee from us, and to be burned off of us.

When he made that decision, and when he decided that he was going to face his fears as well, I think he probably thought to himself, Well, I've committed to this. I've taken a step. I have taken a step or a leap, if you will, of faith.

And so now, as a result, I expect that things are going to begin to calm down. See, we're told in this generation, that the harder you believe, the more control you have over the situation. And for them, that's what faith is.

Faith is how hard you can believe, how much you can believe. But Jesus said that's not an issue with him. He said, faith like the grain of a mustard seed is enough to move a mountain. It's not how hard you believe, it's what you believe.

It's not how serious your faith is, it's how accurate your faith is. It's not about how you and I believe, it's about who you and I believe. You see, Peter had faith, but his faith was wrong. When he first saw Jesus, he thought he was an apparition.

He thought he was a ghost. He thought he was his enemy. He thought he was his adversary. But not only that, but he also believed that if he stepped off the ship, as long as he was with Jesus, that for some reason or another, things would begin to calm down.

But that was the opposite of what happened. What actually began to happen was it got even worse. That the winds began to become that much more boisterous. And the billows became that much more insurmountable.

And the difficulties and the hardship became that much more evident, that much more obvious, because he had to understand something. He wasn't just fighting his own presuppositions and his own fears, but he was fighting against an actual adversary.

An actual objective enemy that didn't live in his head, but that lives in an actual objective world, and that was hell-bent, if you will, on destroying him. And that the Lord had allowed this for half a minute, so that he could come to grips with the fact, that he did not have the wherewithal to do anything in his own strength, even the apparently mundane.

Even the things that seem like they're just ordinary. You and I don't have any more power to just go home and wait than we do to stand at a pulpit like this, or to sing songs like that, or to do any other thing that we do.

We have no strength to do anything in our own strength. And so Peter was asked to go. And he thought it's just another mundane experience, and all of a sudden this thing happened. And he said, OK, I understand now, I don't have the strength to do this in myself.

Let me trust in the Lord. And he finds himself, like I said before, in that kind of a situation. He's embarrassed. I believe all the disciples are embarrassed by the fact that they can't roll this thing out, and they can't bail themselves out.

They're embarrassed by it, and when they sense this presence, this presence that they knew very well, they thought that this presence was going to harm them. And he was able to overcome that, and he chose to believe against that.

He believed that the Lord was no longer, from his perspective, angry at him. In other words, he believed that God was welcoming him. And he went out and he faced his fear, his fear of dying. And the Bible says, it's by the fear of death that the enemy has men and women bound.

By their fear of dying. Not that the devil has any power. The devil doesn't have the power of death, except in this sense. He knows how to exploit our fear of death. Jesus holds the keys to hell and death, not the devil.

But the devil knows that we oftentimes choose not to hold to that or believe that, and he exploits our unfaithfulness or our doubts. That's where his power is. He's a liar. Now, you and I oftentimes will say, Okay, Lord, I'm ready to cause all of my presuppositions to bow before you.

And I am ready to walk out and trust you. I'm ready to face my fears. And we think that the waters are going to calm down because of that. Oftentimes the Lord will ask you to do a thing, a difficult thing, a hard thing.

He'll ask me to do a difficult thing, a hard thing, and we'll say, Okay, Lord, I'll do it. And we expect that just because we say, Yes, Lord, that the trials and the difficulties and the hardships are just going to go away.

Because we choose to believe a certain thing that everything is just going to happen now, the way we would want them to happen. But that's not what happened here. Like the Scripture says, it just got worse and worse.

So bad as a result, he began to look around at these things. And he realized that it wasn't changing. And he cried out, Jesus, help me. I remember when I was first learning how to drive. I think I might have told some of you this story already.

And I was about a week into my driving experience. And I was out in Denver. And I'm driving down to the church where we worshipped. And I see out of the corner of my eye somebody making an illegal turn onto the road.

And I try to swerve out of their way. And they just keep coming. So as they keep coming, I keep swerving. You know what I mean? It just didn't dawn on me to just step on the brake. Right? You know what I mean?

So, I mean, I keep swerving. And eventually I decide, you know, let me step on the brake. At first I'm just thinking, it's just an easy drive down the church. You know what I mean? It's just the mundane thing.

I mean, when I get down the church, then it gets a little bit difficult. Then I got to do this or I got to do that. But now it's just a drive down the church, you know? So I'm driving and this car pulls out.

And I try to swerve out of the way. And then I start to panic. You know what I mean? Because they're not stopping. They're still coming. And so I take my foot and I slam it down, right, on what I thought was the brakes.

It turns out that it was the accelerator. So now all of a sudden I'm going down this avenue. And it's about 6 o 'clock on the busiest street in Denver. And I'm going down this avenue at about 80 miles an hour.

And I cannot understand why my car is not stopping. It's just going faster and faster. And I'm swerving. It looks like I'm playing some sort of a video game. I'm over here and I'm over there. Eventually I'm on the sidewalk slamming into buildings and so on and so forth.

Hitting the median and the sparks are flying. I'm telling you, I'm not exaggerating even a slight bit. The police, when they came into the scene, they were, like, in awe. They saw these skid marks that looked like they went a half a mile back.

They looked at some of the buildings and they saw chips out of the wall. And anyway, it seems to me like the more I tried to stop myself, the faster I was going. And I could not believe I finally just cried out, Jesus, help me!

And when I cried, I felt like somebody took my leg and just took it off the accelerator and slammed it onto the brakes. And my car did a 180 and I found myself facing oncoming traffic like this. And everybody around was looking like they just saw some scene from some action flick or whatever the case might be.

The thing that struck me was it didn't get easier. The more I thought I was stopping myself and the more I thought I was doing the right thing, it just got harder and harder and harder until I finally realized something.

I had yet another opportunity to express faith. But now this faith wasn't in my belief system and it wasn't in my capacity to believe in that belief system. This faith was a gut cry. From the depths of my soul, it was a reflexive cry.

I didn't think about it. I just realized I had no hope but to cry out to God. And it came from way down here somewhere. You know what I mean? This wasn't one of those inaudible prayers, brothers and sisters.

This was one of those ones that you could hear. You know what I'm talking about? And I cried out, Jesus, help! And I'm telling you, I mean it. He just took my leg. I couldn't because I didn't think about it.

It never dawned on me that my leg was on the wrong pedal. I'd only been driving for less than a week. He took my leg and took it off the accelerator and slammed it onto the brake. And I know that that was the hand of God.

Hallelujah! And that's what happened with Peter. He cried out, Lord, help me! And that was the kind of faith that Jesus wanted. It was the kind of faith that we rarely use in the mundane. We rarely use when we just have to live our life from day to day.

But we never know when from day to day, from time to time, we're going to find ourselves in this kind of a storm. And Peter had an opportunity. Now, I just want to rattle off a couple of points before we close.

God's Sovereignty in the Wilderness

In other words, what I want to say is how did this man have that gut response, ultimately? How did he have this reflexive response? I want to suggest that the incident that happened before that was a means by which the Lord was able to show Peter and the disciples some things about himself that they could put their faith in.

And as a result, when the going got rough like that, especially an unexpected difficulty in what seems to be the ordinary and the mundane, they were able to cry out from the depths of their soul. Do you remember the situation?

They're going a certain amount of days into the wilderness, as we heard this morning. And they began to be hungry. And Jesus began to manifest his glory. I wonder if, you know how they say sometimes your whole life flashes before your eyes in a time of difficulty, in a time of hardship and things of that nature.

I wonder if during that time he saw something that he had seen recently. Did he see this? Firstly, it wasn't the first time. When they were in that place, when he was in that water, when he was going through that time, he could probably say to himself, this is not the first time that the Lord has led me into the wilderness.

It's not the first time that the Lord has led me into a difficult trial. And as a matter of fact, just a few hours ago, he led me and a few thousand other people into a wilderness. Into a place where we had no provision for ourselves.

So the first thing I think Peter was able to understand is this is not a coincidence. That the Lord is sovereign over this thing. You see, they went one way, he went another way. They went toward the sea, he went toward the mountain.

And he began to pray. And it seems to me probably what happened was the more he prayed, the more the storm began to kick up. Because he had a plan for them, you see. And I think Peter was able to understand something in the midst of his trial.

I'm not alone. And this is not a happenstance. This is not a coincidence. The Lord has complete control over this situation. He has everything in his hand. He has everything under control. And when I cried out to the Lord that day, I cried out because I knew, from my gut, I knew that God had control of the situation.

And if he wanted to, he could stretch forth his hands and do whatever he wanted to at any given time. Like I said, it was a gut experience because I had learned it through the course of my life. And I think Peter was able to understand that as well.

Again, the Bible says that when he fed these people, all of these people, it says his motivation was love. That he was moved with compassion. And I think Peter was able to understand something. I'm special in the eyes of God.

The Bible says precious in God's eyes is the death of his saints. It matters to God whether I live or whether I die. Whether I succeed or whether I fail. It matters to God in the exciting times and in the mundane times.

It matters to God. And he had to recognize that in order to cry from the depth of his heart. He also knew because of that situation that God had a purpose for his life. That his life mattered. Because God had said to them, I want you to help me to feed these people.

To say, in essence, in a time of difficulty, in a time of hardship, if you catch yourself in a time of serious trial. And what you thought would have ordinarily been mundane. Sometimes you and I have to remind ourselves.

First of all, God has a plan. Second of all, God has compassion. Thirdly, God has a purpose for my life. He knows what I'm here for. He's not going to let me die. He has a call on my life. Again, to acknowledge that with that purpose there is a promise.

God's Call, Provision, and the Believer's Purpose

God doesn't just call us to a thing. He says, I will fulfill that call in your life. He doesn't just call us and leave us on our own. Say, I want you to do this for me. Now get back to me when you're finished.

That's just not the way he works. But every step of the way he's with us. And sometimes in those times of difficulty. Those times when you thought, I can handle this. And this is just ordinary for me.

This is just the mundane. I'll take you to the real issues over here. But this is nothing. And then all of a sudden you find out that this nothing becomes overwhelming. Sometimes it's enough to remind yourself.

Maybe God led me into this wilderness to prove to me that I can't even do the mundane on my own. And maybe God is leading me into this place to show me his great compassion. His great pathos. That he loves me with all of his might.

And that he is not going to hurt me or condemn me. When I sense his presence coming in to a situation that I'm not very proud of. I don't run from him. I run to him. And then to remind yourself that there is a call on your life.

You have a purpose. You have a reason. God is not going to allow your life to be wasted. You are going to help other people. You're going to feed other people. You're going to strengthen other people.

And with that there is a promise. It will happen. You will fulfill your call. You will do what God has called you to do. You will be useful in the hands of the Lord. Somebody is going to heaven because of you.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And then the last thing is very simply Peter knew that God provides for those he's called to provide. That he will never ask you to do anything. Never ask you to give anything.

That he hasn't provided for you. That he won't reimburse you for. You're always going to have everything that you need. We are going into dark times, difficult times. But you will eat and you will have enough to spare.

You will always be able to eat and you will always be able to give. You will always be in a position to help other people. Understand the only thing God is saying to us, I think what we heard this morning, what we're hearing now, is that we are not going into this alone and we're going to come out a whole lot better than when we went in.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Let's stand together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. I have a very specific altar call, even though the message that I preach can be applied in a lot of different directions.

An Altar Call to Cry Out for Help

Very simply put, there's somebody in this auditorium who's saying, Brother Will, you know, I love the Lord and I'm serious about serving Him. But my most difficult times is when I leave a place like this.

And I go to just live my ordinary life. And it's at times like that when the biggest attacks come. And sometimes I find myself embarrassed even in the presence of God. And I find it a little bit difficult to cry out to Him and say, help me.

Because I've allowed myself to believe that He's come to condemn me. Somebody in this room who's afraid to go home even now, who's afraid to leave this house sometimes, because you say, as soon as I leave, the same trial, the same temptation, the same hardship is going to come right back on me.

And you say, along with Peter, God, it's good that we be here. I'd rather stay here for the rest of my life. Because you're afraid. But I want to say to you tonight, God brought you into this place to hear this thing.

That He can help you through that kind of a trial by showing you first and foremost that He has never once expected you to do even the mundane on your own. And sometimes those trials can teach you that you have no strength in yourself.

And He's asking you now to simply cry out to Him and to say, Jesus, help me. Jesus, I'm drowning, help me. If that's you, my brother, my sister, would you come to the front of this auditorium. Don't be ashamed in the presence of God.

He's not here to hurt you. Come to the front of this auditorium. We'll pray together. In Jesus' name. Amen. I just heard a word from the Lord. And I'll just share it with you. Very brief word. There was a people that had attacked the house of Israel at a certain point.

I think it was Israel. It might have been Judah. But they decided that, well, we tried to attack them over here. And they were too powerful for us. So let's just attack them over there. And they tried to attack them in the hills.

And they said, well, their God is the God of the hills. He must be the God of the hills. So we'll attack them in the valleys. And we'll overwhelm them in the valleys. And what they found is that the Lord is the God of the hills and of the valleys.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise God. Praise God. Praise the Lord. Praise God. And He's God here at church. And He's God at home. You know, as I was praying, I just felt God said some people are going home to unsafe situations.

Where unsafe people are there. And hardships are there. And difficulties are there. And I just want to pray for you. Whatever it is that you're dealing with, I just want to pray with you. Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you so much.

We thank you that you are the God of the hills and the God of the valleys. We thank you that you have all the strength necessary, Lord. We thank you that all glory and honor and praise belongs to you.