Sermon Archives (April  28, 2002):

How Faith Works - Part 1

Good afternoon church.  (Corinthians 13:13)  “And now remain in faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”   But what would cause you to love?   The word teaches (1 John 3:14) “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren.”   Why love the brethren?  Because God’s word says that you should love the brethren.   But for you and I to know that we should love those within Christ requires first knowledge of the word, and second belief that the instruction is correct.  But there is a third ingredient as well.   Love requires more than knowledge and belief.   Love requires action.  (Galatians 5:6) tells us “faith works through love”.  That is the act of loving the brethren requires faith.

Beloved, will you bow your heads.  Heavenly, Father, we begin on a journey today:  Knowledge, belief, leading to faith.   Let ever believer hear this word and the world as well.  Teach us Father by your word How Faith Works, and how we can grow in faith.  And all God’s children said, “Amen.”

Beloved, we start today on a new series entitled How Faith Works.  (Galatians 5:6) states “faith works through love”.    Love requires more than thinking, more than belief.   Love requires an action, a working, and a performance that is accomplished by the act of “faith”.   Faith then cannot be passive, but rather faith is active, up front, the doing of something.

Let us define our terms.   “Faith” comes from the Greek word “pistis”, and means a moral conviction especially of a religious or Godly truth, such as a reliance on salvation through Jesus Christ.   “Belief” comes from the Greek word “pisteue”, which means to have faith in a person, concept, or thing.

Faith then and belief are quite similar, in that they are derived from the same Greek word;  “pistis” for faith, and “pisteue” for belief.   But here we see a difference; “belief” like love requires faith.   Remember “belief” is defined as “faith in a person, concept, or thing.”  Faith then is an integral part of belief.

Like two sides of a coin, to believe, you must have faith.   Faith is an action on a belief.   For example, we know that food provides nourishment to keep us alive.   But merely knowing a thing, is different than acting on a concept.   To actually stay alive, you have to eat the food.   You have to go beyond knowing that food is for nourishment, and act on that knowledge by actually eating the food.   In other words you must have “faith” in what you know, and act upon that knowledge.   Action then on knowledge is the evidence of “faith”.

For example, Satan the Devil and all his demons know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the messiah, and the savior of all creation.   To Satan the Devil this is a given fact.  But despite that true knowledge, has Satan the faith to believe that Jesus Christ is his personal savior.  No!  He neither has that “faith” nor that “belief”.   To have a “belief” one must have the “faith” to act on known knowledge, like the faith necessary to actually eat food.

85% of those who live in California don’t attend church.   They may reason, “Well, God knows my heart….  God knows my heart.”   Yes, the population knows that Jesus is God’s Son, that he is the Christian savior, but do those 85% who don’t attend actually have a “faith” that qualifies as a “belief”?   How could they “love the brethren”, if they don’t find it advantageous to be around the brethren?   The Christian population knows that God heals, and yet Christians die left and right.  Why?    Because they don’t act on that knowledge, they don’t apply healing in their lives.   (James 1:22) “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only.”

Knowledge alone will not change your circumstance, but faith – the action of applying knowledge – will.   Consider this wisdom.  (Matthew 6:27-31)  “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”   Worrying is just thinking, not doing, not acting.   Worrying then, the absence of action, stands then as evidence of being of “little faith”.  The alternative to worrying, or just thinking about your state is this.  (versus 31-33)  “Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' for after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”   Seeking is an action.  The instruction is to “seek first the kingdom of God”.   What will be the result?  This action will cause you to acquire all the things that the Gentiles seek.   This action as opposed to worrying and thinking is presented as the antithesis to “little faith” and therefore “great faith”.

Faith unlike knowledge is visible.  (Mark 2:1-5) Jesus “entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them. Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven you.’”

“Jesus saw their faith”?  Really.  What is this faith that Jesus could see it?  Four men believed that Jesus could heal.  Since they could not get to Jesus through the crowd, these four men got up on a roof, broke a hole through the roof large enough to lower a man on a stretcher through the hole, and then in fact lower the paralyzed man down for Jesus to heal the paralyzed man.  “Jesus saw their faith.”   In other words these visible actions Jesus recognized as “faith.”

Here at God’s Church, we have a magnificent Deaconess, Marina Ramos.   Marina believes that faith in Jesus Christ is essential, not only for her family but for you as well.   She manifests that faith by making the best rice in Los Angeles, which we serve to the poor, and homeless of LA.  You cannot only see Marina’s faith; you eat that faith every time you go through the food line here at this outreach.   Faith then becomes visible, tangible, manifesting itself obviously to all that are around it.   Not one of "little faith", but one of "great faith".