Faith — Gareth Evans

We are blessed this morning with a number of visitors among us. I'm not going to take the time out to introduce them all, but I would ask you, please, before you leave today, to greet them and get to know them.

One of the joys of Christian fellowship, you know, is meeting other brothers and sisters in Christ. I find that a great joy when I meet you, new friends. I've made so many new friends in the past month, and I always love it when I meet new Christians.

Christian Fellowship as Servanthood

Because, you see, one of the reasons I go to church is to get my feet washed. I mentioned this to you the first time I was here, I think. And when Jesus washed his disciples' feet, he said to us that we are to do the same to one another.

And though it's a blessing to be in a church where maybe that is practiced, and I have been in about two or three actual foot-washing ceremonies, it's been a great blessing. But I think, really, what Jesus is saying there is that we are called to be servants of one another, to refresh one another.

One of the blessings of church is that we can fellowship with one another afterwards, greet one another, encourage one another, and you may not know what a blessing you could be to somebody else this morning as they leave the service.

I imagine that almost every congregation in Nanaima today has people in the congregation who need their feet washed. They've been through some valley this week. They've been through some hard places. You can't be in this world very long without the dirt of this world rubbing off on you.

And so I would encourage you afterwards to spend a little time in greeting one another, getting to know one another, and particularly those who are visitors among us. Larry mentioned that we had the joy of visiting with Tim earlier this week.

He's got a multi-coloured, technicolour leg that is broken, and all colours of bruises you could imagine. It was good to be there to encourage him. Also, we went to visit Norman Barr, as some of you may remember his widow, his wife, who used to be cabinet of this church.

I think it was Elaine or Evelyn, I can't remember the name. Then he wanted to express to you his appreciation for this church and what it meant to his wife, and so I thought you'd be interested to know that some of you may remember him.

And then last night, Carson, I went to visit Avro Palbrigg. And she's in very good spirit. She's very immobile. She's a very slow walker. But she again expressed her love to you and just wanted us to express that to you.

So I'll tell you that. She would love a visit. I'm sure if some of you are able to visit with her and some of you remember her, it's a good time to be there. Before I turn to the world this morning, I want to pick up where Audrey introduced us a couple of weeks ago, to the praying through the 1040 window.

Prayer for Muslims and the 10/40 Window

You may not know, some of you may not know, the 1040 window are those horizontal lines of latitude across Europe and into Asia, between the 10th parallel and the 40th, in which 90 of the Muslim world existed there.

Certainly the prayer place, all the religions of the world are represented there. There's great persecution for the church there. But it's a window into which there are many opportunities. And I know people right now who are working in many of those countries as school teachers, as businessmen, but really there to represent the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And for those of you who did pick up the books, you will know that today we're beginning that 40 days of prayer through the month of Ramadan to pray alongside the Muslims who are praying, but we as Christians are praying for the Muslim world.

And today's subject is Uzbekistan, for those of you who got the book. But also in the little booklet, there was a prayer request for those Muslims in Canada. And I would like to just read out what this week's prayer requests are to give you a focus, maybe during this week for you to be praying.

I'm just going to read a few of these things. There are more than 15 mosques in Greater Vancouver. There are six in Edmonton. There are four in Calgary. There are two in Winnipeg, 12 in Montreal and 30 in Toronto.

We're encouraged to pray that the Lord would break through the hearts of Muslims in Canada with his truth. Pray that the Canadian church will cultivate love for local Muslims and take active steps to encourage their members to reach out to their Muslim neighbors.

There are 400 to 500 Turks in the Greater Vancouver area and only one known follower of Christ among them. No one is rich in them. Please pray for power to break through tradition and fear. Pray for those who are currently preparing for overseas career work among Muslims.

Pray for many more workers to be raised up to work among Muslims both locally and internationally. There are 800 ,000 Muslims in Canada and that number is growing. Few Canadian churches intentionally reach out to local Muslims.

Pray that many more would see their call and among these least reached in their midst. Samir is a Christian worker from Egypt. He has an internet ministry and Arab-speaking television and radio broadcasting in the West and in the Middle East.

Pray for Samir and for his radio work that they may have open doors and effective witness. Sean and Iris and Thais and Vivian are in Calgary reaching Muslims and new immigrants through personal contact.

Pray for wisdom in responding to the many requests for assistance from inquirers. Also pray for new believers, deepening of friendships and opportunities to share the love of Jesus. There's a prayer request for Canada for this coming week and maybe they slip through your mind but please I would encourage you in your private prayer time to remember the Muslims of Canada and if you are praying through the 40 days as I certainly shall be I encourage you to be remembering these people and particularly those working among them.

It is encouraging if you read this book and certainly encouraging I was in West Africa for a number of years to see the large number of Muslims today who are coming to faith in Christ through visions and dreams in direct answer to the prayers of God's people.

So please pray not only for the 1040 window but for Muslims in Canada. That's the pastor's promo for this morning. So I encourage you to be doing that actively. I'd like you to turn to the book of Ephesians and I'm going to quote my text which I've taken for the last three weeks again.

Faith, Hope, and Love in Ephesians

Paul's prayer for the Ephesian church. Having heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus this is chapter 1 verse 15. Having heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and your love for all the saints I do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of glory may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of himself.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling. Just go as far as that. Here in these few verses we have those three jewels of the Christian faith faith, hope and love.

We find them of course in that wonderful chapter on love in 1 Corinthians. But I have found at least seven places where Paul and Peter has linked those three jewels together. I think we as a church and we as Christians really do need to study to grasp what those jewels are that these men are speaking about.

I want to speak much on hope. I find very little preaching on hope in the church and I want to speak much on hope over the next couple of weeks but in introduction to that I need to speak first about faith and today I want to speak on what it is the faith without which it is impossible to please God.

The faith of which Paul speaks where he calls us to walk the walk of faith to live the life of faith. What he means when he talks about works of faith. Now the difficulty we have in the English language English is a very irregular language.

It is not an easy language for students to learn because there are so many irregularities in it. But it is also a language that is very weak in many of its ability to describe and explain things. Let me give you a simple example.

We read about the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus sat down and taught them saying St. Matthew's Gospel chapter 5 introduced the Sermon on the Mount. The Greek word there that is translated Jesus sat down is what they call the imperfect tense.

It means that Jesus was in the habit of sitting down. Jesus used to sit down. Now in the Spanish language it has two different tenses which make that very clear but the English language doesn't make it clear.

And we immediately get the impression Jesus sat down once and taught them saying and then he's got about 15 sermons linked into one digit. Whereas the Greek very clearly shows that Jesus was in the habit of sitting down and teaching them these things.

Very different emphasis. And English is very weak in that. It is very weak in the use of the word faith. We talk about the Muslim faith the Jewish faith, the Christian faith. We talk about a dog being faithful to its master.

We talk about a picture being a faithful representation of the person whose picture it is. And we have the word faith and faithful very often used in our language in many different ways. And we have brought that over into our Christian understanding of faith.

And so I want to speak about what it is I believe the Bible is teaching about when we have these teachers consider faith in the Bible. Paul said we are justified by faith. He says that several times in Ephesians and in Romans.

James however says that you say you have faith I want to see your faith in action because faith without works is dead. And immediately we have a conflict between Paul who says you are justified by faith not by works lest any man should boast.

And James who says you say you have faith I want to see it in your works for faith without works is dead. Now which of those is right? The conflict is only in English. The Holy Spirit certainly wasn't confused when he penned those words or led his men to pen those words.

Because I believe this word of God is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Do you? He doesn't make mistakes. So if there is a conflict apparently in what these two men believe then really we need to look at them and see how the conflict is resolved because it surely must be resolved because the Holy Spirit didn't put the conflict there.

Those who follow Paul who are Pauline Christians as most of us are, probably all of us and follow the teachings of Paul and revel in the writings of Paul we might look at the book of James and say that really shouldn't be in the Bible.

Martin Luther said that. The book of James is but a book of straw he said it should not be there. Well with due respect to Martin Luther who was a great man used mightily of God I think the Holy Spirit is probably a little wiser than Martin Luther was and the Holy Spirit thought it should be there.

Those who side with James and believe that your faith should be evidenced in works maybe even to the detriment of faith and the emphasis of works they would call Pauline Christians like you and me fundamentalists with a little bit of a disdain.

Well I'm a fundamentalist Christian who believes in the book of James and I also believe in the writings of Paul particularly when it comes to matters of faith. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John chapter 3 verse 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whosoever believes in him should not perish and have everlasting life.

Now if I link those words of Jesus with the words of Paul then obviously being justified is based upon my believing in him. Jesus later talking to his disciples said these words to his disciples go into all the world and preach the gospel he who believes and is baptized shall be saved.

Paul goes further and says he who confesses with his mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believes in his heart shall be saved. But to the Philippian jailer after the earthquake shook the walls and God broke into that prison releasing Paul and Silas he says to the Philippian jailer if you believe you shall be saved and your household.

Now it seems to me in reading those stories concerning being saved they seem to say some different things. Am I saved by believing? Am I justified by believing? Do I need to be baptized in order to be justified?

Do I need to confess in order to be justified? So what is faith? Is faith confessing and believing? Is faith believing and being baptized? Is faith simply believing? What is faith? The faith that pleases God.

Without which I cannot be saved for I am justified by faith. Which is correct. I may ask the question another way which is in error. Or may I ask the question yet another way is it possible that they're all correct?

They're incorrect maybe only in the confusion that they raise in our minds. Such confusion actually was evident in the scriptures. Now I use an NASB. I want to make it very clear I am not a one Bible translation man.

But one of the reasons we have so many translations in English is because of some of the confusions with words. And many people today don't read the King James Version because well that's old English and every year we get older the book gets more confusing.

I confess I like the King James Version. But I can find things in the King James Version that don't mean the same today as they did when they were written. Just as I can find things in a NASB version don't really mean the same things as what I think King James was saying or the version some years ago.

Translation, Context, and the Meaning of Faith

Let me give you one example. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 23. Just an example. Look at it with me. I love the book of Hebrews that's what I'm teaching in adult class at the moment. Does anyone here have a King James Version?

The old King James Version not the new and the old King James. Would you be willing to stand for me I know you would. You sing from the bottom of your heart you sing out beautifully. You can stand up and speak for me to the people.

Just read for me chapter 10 verse 23 in the King James old King James Version not the new King James Version. Nice and loud. Did you hear that? Let us hold fast the confession of our faith without wavering.

I mean our Christian faith is something we want to confess. The only problem is that in the Greek the word faith is not there. The NIV tells you what the real word is. What does the NIV say? Some of you followed that in your scriptures and it did not say faith did it?

Hope. Well is faith the same as hope? The Greek word is elpis which is hope. It is not pistis which is Greek for faith. So why did the King James Version translators say let us hold fast the confession of our faith?

The reason being that they thought hope isn't something you confess. But faith is. Now other versions later use the word hope because that is the correct word. I am just showing you the confusion that you may get particularly if you are the kind of person as sadly many Christians are who take one verse from the scripture and build a whole doctrine around it.

The reason we have cults and sects in the Christian church is because exactly that. Somebody has taken a verse of scripture which blessed them and they built a whole following around that verse. Don't bother me with the context.

Don't bother me with other verses. I believe that Jesus is coming soon. How many of you believe that? Now in the views concerning Jesus coming soon there are those who are called pre-tribulationists.

I am not going to embarrass you by asking you how many of you are pre-tribulationists. Probably most of you believe that Jesus will take us and rapture us out of the church before the tribulation. There are however in the evangelical church many Christians who love the Lord just as much as you and I who believe that we will go through the tribulation.

They are called post-tribulationists. There are many however who believe that we will go through three and a half years of tribulation followed by three and a half years of being raptured. Mid-tribulationists.

There are those that are called pan-tribulationists. Have you heard of them? They are the ones who believe it will all pan out anyway. Now I am not going to tell you which of those schools I lean toward because I know if I tell you that I am going to get two or three people afterwards coming up to me to try to show that I am wrong.

And I can tell you what books you have been reading or film strips you have been watching. I was in Australia and a man came to Australia who wanted to teach on the Jewish view of the second coming of Christ.

I thought that would be interesting. And I went to hear him. He spoke for two hours the most fascinating lecture I have been in for a long time and I was struck not with the verses that he was saying and quoted as proof but the fact that I had never heard those verses before.

I have become more struck whenever I listen to people talk about a pre-trib, a post-trib, a mid-trib whatever position they hold I am far more struck with the verses they don't quote than the verses they do quote.

We are very, very good at using a few verses to justify what we believe and ignoring everything else. That's what we tend to do. Faith. There is much confusion about the use of this word. Let me tell you four things that faith is not.

Four Things Faith Is Not

Faith is not belief. The devils believe. If you went around Canada today and interviewed people as some of these surveys do they will come up with reports they will tell you that 80 of Canadians believe that Jesus rose from the dead.

It makes absolutely no difference in their life. It certainly hasn't got they haven't got the faith without which it is impossible to please God. They believe. But it means nothing more. Faith is not belief.

Secondly I would suggest to you that faith is not presumption. Having met those presumptuous Christians who operate faith like this I have been praying for God to heal my eyesight. The word of God says if I pray, believe in if I have faith God will answer my prayer.

Therefore I'll smash my glasses. That's called presumption. That's not faith. Presumption is a sin. I know of churches in my common denomination of churches in BC that were growing large and so the Board of Elders decided they would build an extension to the building to be a one million dollar extension.

But as they planned they decided to build bigger and bigger and bigger. God was in it. God was blessing the church. So they built something like a five or six million dollar extension. How many of you remember the year in the 80s when the mortgage rates went up to 26, 27 percent?

That was the time. Suddenly the local lumber mills closed down. True story. The churches were on an eight million dollar debt mortgage. People in the church now lost their jobs. A lot of people moved out because they didn't want to be in a church encumbered with a burden like that.

And then suddenly everybody was blaming God for not coming through. God wasn't in it from the beginning. They thought they were operating faith. They were actually operating presumption. Faith is not presumption.

Faith is not belief. Faith is not hope. They are two different jewels. To say that I've got faith that God is going to do this when really it's something I'm hoping is not faith. Somebody is sick and you're praying for them and you're hoping God will heal them.

That is not faith. It is hope in the natural sense. Not in the spiritual sense. And faith is not positive thinking. We have churches built about positive thinking. They're called word of faith churches.

The business world will tell you what you think you are, you are. And so we brought that into the church. And if you're sick just believe God that you're not going to be sick. That's the devil telling you you're sick, you're not really sick.

They often go by words like name it, claim it churches. They call name it faith and so they claim it. Now let me not be too severe on these people because they do have a grasp of scripture that maybe we need to grasp as well.

But they're not operating in faith. If you confess with your mouth that you're not sick then you're not sick. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is your riches and therefore you're not living in poverty even though week by week you're not getting enough money to put food on the table.

Faith is not positive thinking. You cannot think yourself into health. You cannot think yourself into prosperity. You cannot think yourself into answer prayers. Faith is not these things. I'd like to take as my second text.

Am I allowed a second text? I mean many pastors in England have one. Can I have a second text? I'm going to take a second text. I'd like you to turn to the book of Thessalonians please. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 8.

Since we have a day let us be sober having put on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation. As a breastplate of faith and love. We all acknowledge that love is an attribute of the heart.

I love you with all my heart. Nobody ever said I love you with all my head. Though love should also be part of that. We have no problem with recognizing that love is an attribute of the heart. But this scripture would say to me that faith also is an attribute of the heart.

For the breastplate of faith and love covers the heart. It does not cover the mind or the head. Hope has got far more to do with believing than faith has. This is why the scripture uses the expression if you believe with your heart.

I was trained as a physicist. I taught physics in secondary school so you've heard me say it before many years. I was used to teaching scientific facts. And I could teach things such as the law of gravity or whatever you like.

Electromagnetic laws whatever it is. I was teaching facts that I could very fine prove. And I believed things. I believed that the planets rotate around the sun and we can describe mathematically their orbit.

If I took these keys out of my pocket and I dropped them they would fall to the floor. Certain things I believe with my head. I come to believe in them because it's a rational thing to do to believe in them.

I've seen it operate and so rationally I believe that's going to happen. My wife keeps telling me I'm too logical. That's who I am. Praise God. I think too much. She's far more intuitive than I am. I'm a head person.

I believe with my head. That is not Christian faith. I believe Christian faith to be an attribute of the heart. Let me show you why. I see three aspects of faith in the scriptures I would like to take you to.

Saving Faith and the Fruit of the Spirit

I have three references if you'd like to turn with them and make notes of them. Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9 verses you will know very well. By grace you are saved through faith. And that which is of yourselves is a gift from God.

How many of you believe that verse to be true? How many of you have experienced that verse to be true? Praise God. My second reference is found in Galatians chapter 5 verse 22. The works of the flesh are these but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith.

I know some people say faithfulness because they think of faithfulness as a characteristic of people but it's not faithfulness it is faith as a fruit of the spirit. I did tell you the story I'm not going to repeat it about the garden I had in Toronto watching the branches trying to straighten.

Did I tell you that story? I tell so many stories I'm sorry I keep repeating myself. We watched this branch on a rapple tree for those who were not there when we were newly in Toronto we heard a strange noise and we looked and my wife and I were sitting on a garden seat and we heard this strange noise oooohhhh and we looked and we saw the branch of our apple tree swelling and out popped this beautiful red apple laughing at Cindy you don't believe me?

Then another branch was swelling oooohhhh and out came this beautiful red apple and all over the apple tree the branches were straining themselves to produce apples. Isn't that foolish? You know that's not true you all think that's a very foolish illustration the truth is this however that many Christians are just like our apple tree they think they can produce fruit by straining.

You cannot produce the fruit of the spirit by any effort of your own. The righteous man or woman is like a tree said the psalmist planted by the river of water that brings forth fruit in season the tree does not strain to bring forth the fruit it just abides by the river and allows the river to produce in the tree the character of the tree.

When you and I are Christians and the spirit of God dwells in us he is the river of water that produces the fruit of the spirit as we abide in Christ as you abide in me said Jesus and I abide in you you should bring forth much fruit.

You cannot produce the fruit by your efforts. I'm going to have joy in my life even if it kills me. I'm going to have faith to believe. Brother you're not feeling well. You need more faith. That might be absolutely true but you cannot produce one iota of faith.

My third reference is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 concerning spiritual gifts. As you go down there we read these words for the manifestation of the gifts of the spirit in verse 7 and 9. To one is given the manifesting of the spirit for the common good of all.

To one is given a word of wisdom another word of knowledge another faith. Let me give an illustration of the gift of faith. The board of an inner city church decide that there is a lot of problem with the inner city kids around their church.

The Gift of Faith in an Inner-City Church

They decide they have to do something about these children to reach them. They're sniffing glue and they're shooting up. So at the board meeting they're very sincere shall we say 6 men on the board or 6 people on the board they raise a question about possibly bringing in a young worker a pastor to reach these young people.

One of the men said we can't afford it. We don't have enough money in the budget or the bank. And that's a true story true. So the pastor says I want you to go away this week and I want you to pray about this and let's meet next Tuesday.

Come together the following Tuesday. And as they walk through the door you a little fly on the wall that can read their minds. First man is against can't afford it. Second man comes in he's for it. Third person comes in for it.

Fourth person is against it. The fifth person is against it. And the pastor doesn't know which way to go. You think to yourself however are they going to resolve this. The pastor said let's pray. And they pray.

And he said Larry what do you think. And Larry shared his thoughts and he said what do you think. What do you think. And as they go around the circle one of those who came in against I don't know pastor but I came in here and I feel that we couldn't do this.

But as I've listened to Larry and Peter speaking you know I think we can. I know we should I think we can. And suddenly they're unanimous. They all agree that they're going to do it. Why. Because God has given them the gift of faith operated for that circumstance.

For that time it could be different circumstances. Maybe praying for a sick loved one. And suddenly God gives you the deep assurance of faith that this is going to happen. That's the gift of faith. So we have what I call saving faith.

And sadly most Christians maybe the word most small letters yeah most Christians live their lives operating in saving faith. They trust in Jesus for their salvation. They trust in Jesus. Is there some way he's got an influence in their life.

But they really haven't grown into a walk of faith to really know what it is to know him. They haven't developed the fruit of faith in their lives or the spirit of God has they never operated in the gift of faith.

They haven't seen it operate. But as I look at these three aspects I'm struck with this one thing. All three have their source in God faith. First thing about faith we can ever learn the faith that pleases God is the faith that has its source in God.

Abraham, Rahab, and Faith’s Source in God

Paul speaks about faith being justified by faith. He has several chapters on faith and he likens faith. He takes the example of Abraham the patriarch of the children of Israel who left Ur of the Chaldees not knowing whether he was going being moved by the spirit of God just as Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness after his baptism.

So Abram was being led by the spirit though he did not know God. He worshipped false gods in Ur of the Chaldees. They were magicians and soothsayers. They worshipped false gods. But Abram is being led by God because God has chosen out for himself a man from whom he is going to birth a nation from whom he is going to bring the Messiah.

And all of Abram's life. You see him progressing through the place of learning more and more about God. He pretended his wife was his sister so that he would escape the earth twice. He did that he had to be reprimanded by heathen kings for his lack of trusting God.

He is not a trusting God but he is living the life of faith because God is moving him. God is doing something through this man. And Abram uses this as the example. James uses Abram as the example too.

But he has a second example about faith. He talks about Rahab. What a strange choice. If I were looking for examples in Old Testament history for men of faith I would look at men like Daniel. But Daniel is never mentioned as an example of faith.

But Rahab is Rahab was the woman in Jericho when the spies came she hid them under a bale. She was a traitor to her own people. She was known as a prostitute. Whether she was or not that is not certain.

She lived in a house on the wall so she could look out. But something within her was saying that these two men who had no threat to her people. Jericho was a secure city but she knew something about their God.

And she betrayed her own people because she was being opened up to a revelation that God was making herself through. She is the example. I often ask people to give me a definition of faith and they come up with words like this where faith is a substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Hebrews 12 1.

And I ask them what does that mean. And they don't know. Isn't it easy to quote a verse to define something without really knowing what it is saying. What is the evidence of things not seen. What is the thing that we hope for.

The substance of things hoped for. Have you ever seen a child as Christmas approaches or birthday time approaches particularly in a Christmas tree and he has got all those lovely coloured parcels under the tree and little Johnny sees his name in that big box and he is longing longing longing for the day when that box will be given to him so he can tear that brightly coloured paper off and see the substance of what he hopes for.

That's a gift. Things you long for and wait for and finally receive and it becomes substance in your hand. That's a gift. What about the evidence of things not seen. Well the bible even quotes that verse it says by their fruit you shall know them.

The evidence of what God has done in your life and mine is evidence in the fruit that flows out of us. You can do works and people think you're a fine Christian. But if deep inside nothing has happened by the spirit of God there will be little evidence in fruit in your life.

You're not going to be a transformed changed man or woman. But the evidence of things not seen is fruit. And all I'll write into the Hebrew as you're saying is that faith is a gift substance of things.

Hope is a fruit evidence of things not seen which is exactly the same thing as Paul has said a fruit and a gift that have their source. If you find the examples of ray of the harlot striking and Hebrews 11 quite striking because Daniel's not there and a few others I would have chosen are not there.

And if you read to the end of the book of Hebrews chapter 11 you will find that by faith women gave their children up to the mouths of lions. People were persecuted and put to death. They were torn asunder by faith.

It doesn't say that in the in the in their suffering they had faith they believed. It doesn't say that it says by faith. They give them up because God was doing something through them. The source of our faith was God.

He was doing something through them that they could not understand any more than Abraham understood what it was when he left the colony. But God was doing something God was operating in faith. It's striking also to look at the six examples that Jesus has concerning men and women of faith.