Heart-Faith and Not Mind-Faith - Part 4 — Zac Poonen

Righteousness Received by Faith Rather Than Self-Effort

Why is it some of them are nicer people than some of us are? Why is it some of them are holier than some of us are? Why is that? Why is it some of them seem to come to a life which we never seem to come to?

That's something we need to think about. Here is the answer. They got it by faith. Whereas Israel tried to get it by their own. They were absorbed in, it says here in the Message Bible, instead of trusting God, they took over.

Pursuing Holiness Without Losing Contact With God

And they were absorbed in what they themselves were doing that they didn't get in touch with God himself. They were absorbed in their doing this thing right and doing that thing right and they completely lost touch with God.

You know, it's really possible for us to pursue righteousness and have no contact with God. That's a great danger, the warning that we get from here. You can pursue, you want to be holy here and you want to be holy here and you want to be holy there and you have no contact with God at all.

That's what we are warned here. And then you stumble. It says here, they were so absorbed in their projects for God that they completely didn't notice God at all. And so, he goes on in saying, there was a difference in that righteousness which Moses proclaimed in chapter 10, which is verse 5, based on the law.

Heart Faith in Romans 10

But this, which we are proclaiming now, in verse 8, is a word of faith. And what is it? If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and now notice the next phrase. Two very important things to notice.

First of all, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Number one, where do you believe? Not in the mind. In your heart. And there's a world of difference between believing in the mind that Christ died for you and believing in your heart that Christ died for you.

When you believe in your heart, something is born, something happens. A connection is made. I mean, it's like the difference between having electricity and understanding the theory of electricity. In the mind, you can explain everything about electricity and there's no connection.

There's no light. So, there's a lot of difference between faith, which is in our mind, and I feel that with many, many Christians, and perhaps many of us, what we call faith is in our mind. Ah, you know that Romans 6 .14 says, sin shall not have dominion over you.

Yeah, I believe that. Sin shall not have dominion over me, and I'm convinced about this and that and all the other things I hear about faith and the meanings, and I think I got it. Well, it's obvious you haven't got it because you're still defeated by sin.

And many other things, we say, yeah, I believe. Well, we don't really believe because it's in our mind. It's not in our heart. And so we see here, if you believe in your heart, and the second thing you notice here is, not believe that Christ died for our sins.

Believing in the Resurrection for Salvation

Now, we would think that is what we should believe. But no. It says you've got to believe that God raised him from the dead. It's the resurrection. Then you'll be saved. Now, if you were witnessing to somebody, how many of you would think of telling him, you've got to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead.

Have you noticed in your witnessing to people that you almost never talk about that. You're saying, you've got to believe that Christ died for your sins. That's not what it says here. If you want to be saved, you've got to believe that in your heart, that God raised him from the dead.

So there are two very important things here we've got to understand about faith. One is, it is in the heart. And second, the emphasis is not on the death of Jesus, which is important, but the resurrection.

And of course, the resurrection means the death is included. But if you only speak about death, resurrection is not included. If you say Christ died for our sins, okay. But if you say Christ was raised from the dead, then it includes both, because he was dead and he was raised.

So one includes both, but if you talk about Christ died for our sins, it's only one. So you've got to believe that God raised him from the dead. That means he died and he was raised. So faith is these two things I hope you will always remember.

It's not in your mind. It's in your heart. Very often we think we have believed, but it's in our mind. And that's why we don't get it. You say, I believe God for this. Nothing happens. The prayer of faith shall save the sick.

Jesus’ Victory Over Death as the Answer to Every Problem

Where? Faith where? In the heart, not in the head. Then you'll be saved. So then it says, if you, verse 11, if you believe in him like this, you will never be disappointed. I am firmly convinced that all of us need to ask God to give us more faith in the fact that Jesus conquered death.

See, man has many problems. You and I have many problems in life. And, you know, some very pressing problems. It could be a sickness that's never healed, or it could be a financial problem that's pressing.

But of all the problems that you can ever think of, we can say the biggest is death. There's nothing more serious than death. I mean, if you have a financial problem, that's inferior to death, right? Which is more serious?

Your child is sick or your child is dead? Or which is more serious, that your daughter's got a financial problem or your son's got a financial problem or he's dead? There's no problem more serious than death.

It is the greatest problem of all. Everything else is inferior to that. So when it says Jesus conquered death, it includes all the other things. Have you noticed in the Old Testament it says, you read that in 1 Samuel 17, that when David killed Goliath, who was number one, what does it say?

All the other Philistines ran away. They couldn't stand there when their leader was dead. So when it says Jesus conquered death, which is man's greatest problem, that means he can solve every other problem.

We've got to see it like that. That's why the resurrection from the dead is so important. And that's the proof that God can solve every problem because he solved man's greatest problem. So we have to really seek God and say, Lord, is there something I have missed on earth?

I want to seek you about it. And that's why the devil leads us into so many different avenues concerning faith. See, if I would ask you what is the biggest enemy of faith, what is it, unbelief? Let's turn to Proverbs 3.

Trusting God With the Heart

Proverbs 3, even though this is Old Testament, sometimes I feel Proverbs is the one book in the Old Testament which is like a new covenant book. God gives his grace to the humble. It's in Proverbs. It's amazing.

It's in Proverbs 3 .34. He gives grace to the humble. It's quoted in the New Testament. It's amazing. These things are in the Old Testament about the tongue. Death and life are in the part of the tongue.

James says if you can't control your tongue, your religion is worth zero, it means you're dead. It's in Proverbs. Proverbs is an amazing book. It's like a new covenant book in the Old Testament. See what it says in verse 5.

Trust in the Lord with all, not your mind, but your heart. That's amazing. That in the Old Testament there's a verse like that. We missed it. We put faith in the mind when it should always be in the heart.

And we think we've got faith, but it's only in the mind. That's why we don't get something. You say, Lord, I believe. You said nothing is impossible to the one who believes. Yes, but where? You believe in the mind?

Everything is impossible to you. But the one who believes in his heart, nothing is impossible to him.