Faith

Prison Sermon by Jim Carmichael

May 2017

What is faith

What does Faith consist of?

I would like to start by giving a description of faith as I have observed it in Scripture, and we will start in Genesis 2:7 for you see, I see patterns in everything and I see a pattern set before us in the very beginning.

Genesis 2:7  And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

God, formed the Body, and then breathed life (himself, for God is life) into the body, and from these two elements, came a living soul.

Let me illustrate this, if we have nails and boards, and assemble them in a certain way we will have a box, remove the nails, and we no longer have a box. It takes the combination of the two elements for the third element, namely the box to exist.

It takes the two elements; the body, and the spirit for the living soul to exist.

By now you’re wondering what this has to do with faith, so lets look at James 2:28 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also

James just compared works to the spirit, and again in Revelation 14:13 Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.”

Ecclesiastes 12:7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

God gave the spirit…

And where do the works come from?

Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

The pattern? The body when it receives the spirit becomes a living soul, the belief when it receives the works, becomes a living faith.

So, let’s make this statement when the element of Belief and the Element of Works come together comes the third element:  a living Faith.

Faith is the most crucial foundational pillar of our Christian life. All rests upon this one attribute, having faith.

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (NKJV)

It is a fundamental duty

John 6:28-29 Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”(NKJV)

And, Christ says;

In 1 John 2:3  Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.(NKJV)

So is it just hearing? Or might there be more, or maybe the word hearing has a little more depth to it than just hearing someone talking about it.

Just as belief has a little more substance to it than just believing, for even the demons believe, but are not saved, no they tremble…

James 2:14-17 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead..(NKJV)

James 1: 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.…

So we learn from these two verses we shouldn’t expect to receive anything from God if we doubt, and any faith without works is dead, and we can’t expect to be saved with a dead faith, so without works we should not expect to receive anything from the Lord… And yet, there is so much we do want to receive from Him isn’t there, we want Him to hear our prayers, and we want them answered, generally for a desired result, but we must expect and accept a no occasionally.

There is one thing we want from faith we do not talk about much, and that is the moment to moment peace of mind that all is well, God is in His place and overseeing our activity, and that no matter what happens it will be to his perfection and our eventual benefit, and that when that fateful day arrives, that last day on this earth, we know we do not have to fear it, for we have that total conviction; that absolute knowledge where our next place in eternity is… heaven.

Many here seek freedom, but are you seeking the true freedom, the true freedom is in God, and eventually eternal life in heave.

Psalm 56:3 Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You(NKJV)

We want that faith, just as the apostles did;

Luke 17:5 And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”(NKJV)

2 Corinthians 5 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.

Galatians 5: 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.

Hebrews 11 as most of us knows gives example after example of those who walked in faith, and what their act of faith was, and we must follow their examples.

So, we want God to hear us, but how do we gain that faith, that faith that is stronger than ajax as the old saying goes.

We want God to do it for us, just to give it to us, and to some extent He will, but as in everything else, action is required on both parts. And we also know there is a growing, we grow in our faith.

Well, we already know we must do works for our faith to be a living faith, and when it is living we need to know how to strengthen it, what our part is, that is.

I had a person tell me once to never pray for added faith, that is when trouble comes, because that is often how God strengthens us, is by testing us, pulling us, pushing us, and so on. I read a story about faith once that included a story about a hatching egg, if you help the chick out of the egg by breaking the shell for it, the chick will not survive, it is the struggle to get out of the egg, breaking through the shell that gives it the strength it needs to survive, and that is how faith is strengthened, through struggle.

So go ahead and pray for faith, and when difficulty arrives at your door, just thank God He has heard your prayer.

Most of you know my focus here is teaching classes on apologetics, which is the Greek word for apologia which means to give a legal or logical defense. This also increases faith, strengthens it because it gives us that intellectual knowledge and power to defend what we believe, not only to the non-believer, but to ourselves during moments of doubt. At those times, instead of falling back we can fall forward, knowing beyond any doubt the bible is provable to be the inspired word of God. Our faith, our belief, is not a blind faith, no it is based upon solid historical, scientific, and prophetic facts, unshakable facts, undeniable facts… it is the truth.

With all that said, I want to take a look at another path to faith, knowing the word. It makes sense doesn’t it, we should know what it is we are defending? God gives us wisdom…. How? Maybe by the inspiration to study His word. To know it so well that it is literally a part of us, that it becomes part of our DNA.

I recently had my DNA checked for genealogical purposes, and wouldn’t it have been cool if it said I was not only 25% Scottish, and Irish, 50% French/ German, 10% Spanish and Portuguese’s, and less than 1% African, Jewish,  but also 100 % Christian, well that’s a physical DNA, and I bet if we could have our Spiritual DNA checked we would find out we are 100% Christian… Sons and Daughters of God….

In the beginning I quoted Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.(NKJV)

How do we seek Him? What is the most basic way to learn about God, or for that matter anything at all?

Study the words written about the subject, and in this case God is the inspiration of every word written in this book we refer to as the scripture.

So let’s take a look at what the scripture tells us about studying the word.

Principles Governing Kings

Deuteronomy 17:14 “When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,’ 15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16 But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall not return that way again.’ 17 Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.

18 “Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. 19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, 20 that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.

Growing in the Faith:

How strongly does God feel about us knowing His word?

Deuteronomy 6: 4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 27:8 And you shall write very plainly on the stones all the words of this law.”

2 Corinthians 3:3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

Has anyone here ever stated they knew a song by heart? It means by memory doesn’t it, and it the same here, know it by memory.

We are told to have the words on our hearts… First Question… Why?

1 Timothy 1:3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. 5 Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, 6 from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.

We are told to have the words on our hearts… 2^nd Question… how do we get them on our hearts? And, I am talking about the scripture, we all know we can’t just hold the bible up to our head and all of a sudden we know them…. And there are very few who can just read the word and retain it, in fact the average is around 8 times that you must read the bible to even start grasping it… so let me share something with you from outside scripture about physically writing something, so that it becomes engraved upon your heart, in other words, committed to memory…

Writing and Remembering: Why We Remember What We Write

Dustin Wax

The following are excerpts from the actual blog:

In a nutshell he writes in his blog after a study he performed on memory, he found that those who take notes and those who don’t

1. both remember about 40% of what they hear, however those taking notes remember the key points, those who don’t take notes remember random pieces of information.
2. Writing something down helps us to remember (I was once told by a school principal that I should use blue or green ink, it helps in the memory department, and to write in caps or small caps).
3. When we take notes, though, something happens. As we’re writing, we create three-dimensional relations between the various bits of information we are recording.
4. 3-D tasks are handled by another part of the brain, and the act of linking the verbal information with the 3-D relationship seems to filter out the less relevant or important information
5. What this and other tests suggest is that when we write — before we write, although indistinguishably so — we are putting some degree of thought into evaluating and ordering the information that we are receiving.
6. That process, and not the notes themselves, is what helps fix ideas more firmly in our minds, leading to greater recall down the line.
7. But there’s something else going on, too.
8. When we write something down, research suggests that as far as our brain is concerned, it’s as if we were doing that thing.
9. Writing seems to act as a kind of mini-rehearsal for doing.
10. visualizing doing something can “trick” the brain into thinking it’s actually doing it, and writing something down seems to use enough of the brain to trigger this effect.
11. Again, this leads to greater memorization, the same way that visualizing the performance of a new skill can actually improve our skill level.

How does this help our faith

It was when I spent hours every morning just writing scripture that I found the most joy, and beyond that, I can honestly say it was exciting like a great adventure, and it was this activity that led me from being a pew warmer, to being active in the church, to do what I could to obey the sacred duty to take the word to the world as commanded in Matthew 28: 18 – 20 and to do it without fear, on the contrary with great courage, and excitement.

It is this one activity that helped my faith grow more than all other activities, and by the way, it is one of the works, and commands of Christ.

Let’s recap and call it a night:

Belief and Works are the two components of Faith

Pray for additional faith and expect the trouble that follows that will strengthen your faith

Know how to defend the faith, and by the way we are teaching apologetics right here in this room on Monday mornings starting around 9:15

Physically write the words on paper so they have a better chance of being “written” on your hearts/

The result will be a well-rounded three-dimensional unshakeable faith, the faith needed to be heard by God, the knowledge needed to be heard by other inmates, the Faith needed to get you through the moment to moment trials you face, the Faith needed to please God, the Faith needed to keep you on the narrow path to lead to eternal life in heaven where there will be no more tears, no more pain, and no more death.

And, I’ll see you there.