FAITH – THE STUFF OF HEROES

By the late Pastor F. W. Dowsett

What is Faith?

The Epistle to the Hebrews is, in my opinion, one of the grandest books of our Christian Bible. Apart from its central theme covering the entire glory and majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ, it teaches us more about the subject of FAITH than can be found anywhere else in the Scriptures. The faith of which it speaks is no ordinary faith. It is not a faith based simply on doctrine. It speaks of a faith based on conviction. It is not a faith based solely on miracles, but rather a faith based on absolute impossibilities. The eleventh chapter of this Epistle, on which this and possible subsequent articles in this series will be based, quote seventeen specific instances of faith, all of which had two things in common. Firstly, every person mentioned had a total conviction of the ability of God to do what He said He was going to do, even though in most cases it seemed, from a human point of view, totally impossible. They didn’t think in terms of ‘miracles’. They just had an overwhelming conviction that God would do what He promised as a normal consequence of the fact that He WAS God. We don’t read that they knew that God would perform a miracle in order to achieve what He had stated. They just believed that He would do it. Period. As far as they were concerned, if God promised to do something, then what else would one expect but that He would do it, And that’s one of our big problems today. We won’t believe that God will, or even can, do something unless He performs a miracle. Thus we find that all too many people today end up worshipping the ‘miracle’ more than they worship God. In fact, they find that they cannot worship God unless He performs miracles. No miracles, No God. That was certainly not the attitude of our forefathers. Secondly, in every case quoted, the person mentioned had an unwavering conviction and commitment to proceed on the basis of this faith. They never questioned what God said. They just went on with it, as though it was the most natural thing in the world to do.

So in order not to confuse the popular religious application of faith with that which is defined in God’s Word, let us keep in rnind these key verses recorded in Hebrews 10:23; and 35-39;

‘Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)’

‘Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.

For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure In him.

But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul’

These verses form a ‘bridge’ between the ‘Faith we Profess’, and the ‘Faith by which we Live’. Faith alone is not sufficient. It is not the Bible way. We read in James 2:17-20,

‘Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and 1 have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.

Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

But wilt thou know, 0 vain man, that faith without works is dead?’

The passage to which we referred above teaches us five requirements.

1. We must hold fast our faith with confidence, or boldness. We cannot afford to be blown about by every wind of doctrine. We must never lose sight of the fact that what we believe becomes the foundation of our faith, which in turn, becomes the basis of what we do – our works. This, we are informed, results in us gaining a great recompense of reward. We are very amply repaid for our boldness in direct proportion to the degree of our boldness, which by the way, should never be confused with arrogance.
2. We are to exercise patience. This is a basic nature of faith. We must allow God to carry out His will and purposes in HIS time, not as and when it suits us. Patience is a continual growing procedure. This is why we read in 2 Peter 3: 18; ‘But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.’

We do not acquire instant perfection in anything. It has to be worked at.

3. We must maintain our vision of what lies before us, the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. We read in Habakkuk 2:1-3;

‘I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.’

Titus 2:13 confirms our vision;

‘Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.’

4. We must live by our own faith, not by that of someone else. There is no such thing as ‘proxy faith’. We read in Habakkuk 2:4; ‘the just shall live by his faith.’ The quality of our life is proportionate to the level of our faith. The ‘just’, or ‘righteous’, must live in accordance with their faith. And let it be noted that this faith is not static. It is ongoing, and on-growing. We read in Romans 1:17; ‘For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.- as it is written, The just shall live by faith.’ But faith is not the only thing that grows. Iniquity also grows. As Paul records in Romans 6:19; ‘I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.’ Never let us forget that God has no pleasure in those who, through iniquity, lift themselves above TRUTH! (Romans 1:18).
5. We must always guard against ‘drawing back unto perdition’, that is, letting our faith lapse. ‘Perdition’ means loss, destruction, and ruin – the loss of all we ever had, or might ever have.

So what is this FAITH which we must guard so jealously?

We read its definition in Hebrews 11:1;

‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’

Phillips translates this as follows;

‘Now faith means that we have full confidence in the things we hope for; it means being certain of things we cannot see.’

As the apostle Paul expressed it in 2 Corinthians 4:18;

‘While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal’

How can we ‘hope’ – have an expectation – for something for which we don’t believe? If we are like the Saducees, who didn’t believe in a resurrection, how can we have any faith in a future resurrection of the dead? If we believe that the Kingdom of God is up in heaven somewhere, how can we have any faith in its establishment down here on earth where Christ Himself said it would be?

On the other hand, how can we have ‘faith’ if the things we can see don’t instil within us a certainty of conviction regarding what we cannot physically see?

It was the fact that the ‘elders’ – the leaders – held firmly and without wavering to their expectations and convictions as to the absolute faithfulness of God to carry out His stated will and purposes, which became the basis of their reputation.

This was, as Jude recorded, ‘The Faith Once Delivered to the Saints’! As we previously pointed-out, this was not a faith based on doctrine. It was a faith based upon conviction. It formed the basis of Jude’s exhortation as found in the third verse of his epistle:

‘Beloved, when 1 gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.’

This conviction was absolutely necessary in order to understand our ‘common salvation’, that is, the promise of the position and condition of safety which pertained equally to all to whom it was promised, as recorded in Matthew 1:21, and Psalm 98: 1-3:

‘And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.’

‘0 sing unto the LORD a new song:. for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.

The LORD hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen.

He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel:. all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.’

Now Faith is Obtained

This is the next important question. It’s one thing to know that Faith exists, and even what it is. But how to obtain it can be, to many, quite another matter. The definitive answer to this question is found in Romans 10: 17;

‘So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’

The word ‘hearing’ means ‘being informed’. And the source of the information must be ‘The Word of God’. Thus, faith can only be obtained by understanding, or being informed by, God’s Word. It has very little, if anything, to do with what man says. None of us will ever achieve true faith by listening to, or accepting, ideas and ideologies formulated and expounded by man. Many people, from the earliest times right up to our present day, have postulated upon their own theories of what they think God means when He says something. To listen to some of them, one could be excused for concluding that God really doesn’t have a clue as to what is happening, or of what is to happen in the future. What doesn’t sound too nice, we sanitise. What doesn’t suit the particular doctrine we want to believe, we spiritualise. And those who are not prepared to agree with every fanciful idea that is proposed, we ostracise. Don’t worry about what God has to say. The requirement for today is ‘Political Correctness’. We must bow down to the will of man, in preference to the will of God. And we wonder why we walk in spiritual darkness.

Throughout the ages, God has spoken to and through many different people, in many different ways, under different circumstances, and on many subjects. This fact in itself has led to many and varied ideas being promulgated, particularly by those who wish to draw attention to themselves by virtue of the ‘original’ explanations which they expound. They are experts in the manner by which they present themselves as being so clever as to be able to think up all these seemingly complicated methods and calculations just to explain the simple statements of God’s Word. It is for this reason that we must be so very careful in what we accept from modern self-styled prophets. It is a constant warning throughout God’s Word.

God’s Word is very clear; it is very concise; it is very positive; and it is very consistent. Not once has God ever contradicted Himself, nor has He ever changed His plans. ‘I am the Lord. 1 change not’ is as true and relevant today as it was since the dawn of time. The dubious honour of  ‘helping God out’ by changing what God said into what they think He should have said, has been abrogated by man.

What God requires is that we believe His statements, not rnan’s. We need to follow the commandments which God has set down for us, rather than the traditions of man. And there’s nothing new in this. Jesus had exactly the same problem at the time of His first advent.

We should also recognise the fact that ‘believing God ‘is not necessarily ‘believing an accepted religious or denominational doctrine.’ ‘Believing God’ is not necessarily believing in the teachings of any particular person, irrespective of how wonderful they sound, or how charismatic the personality of that individual may be.

If our faith sterns from a belief based on ‘doctrine’, we could be in serious trouble. As we previously stated, what we eventually believe becomes the basis and criteria of our faith, which in turn becomes the motivation for everything we subsequently do throughout our Christian walk.

Let us consider the following illustrations.

1. Today, man’s teaching is about the essential goodness of man. But when I turn to Romans 7:18 I read ‘For I know that in me dwelleth no good thing.’
2. Today, man’s teaching is the doctrine of evolution. But God’s Word teaches me that He created all things. (See Gen. 1:1; lsa. 45:18; John 1:3; Col. 1:16; etc.)
3. Today, man’s doctrine is ‘multiculturalism’; that all religions lead us to God. But when I read John 14: 6, Ifind that God’s doctrine is that no man can come to the Father but by and through our Lord Jesus Christ.
4. Today, man’s doctrines teach us to worship God with rock bands and ‘pulpit platitudes’ and over-emotional excesses. But when I read John 4:24 I find that God’s way is to worship Him in spirit and in truth. Whatever happened to reverential awe and respect.
5. Today we are taught to ‘adjust’ God’s Word to suit what we prefer – especially if it’s going to augment the offerings. We ignore the exhortation contained in 2 Timothy 4:2-4: ‘Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having Itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.’
6. Today, many preachers try to convince us that things are getting better, apparently because we have Jesus reigning in our hearts. That’s strange to me, as when I read 2 Tirnothy 3:1-5, I find the following statements:

‘This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away.’

7. And when it comes to God’s eternal covenants which He made with our fathers, we are told that:

(a) When God used the word ‘forever’ to such people as Abraham, He only meant ‘for the lifetime of the person to whom He was speaking at the time.’ (that was one that a full-time ordained minister threw at me)

(b) That Israel became so wicked that God realised that He could do nothing with her and so had to change His mind and give all the promises He had made to a new organisation which He called ‘the church’. And so it goes on ad infinitum. Whatever happened to His Word revealed in Hebrews 6:13-14:

‘For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing 1 will bless thee, and multiplying 1 will multiply thee.’

Get your Bibles out and read the certainty of God’s wonderful and eternal promises set forth in Jeremiah 31:35-37; 33:17-26. Do they sound like some temporary aberration on God’s part to you?

Analyse every one of the above examples and ask yourself this question. Will any of these alternative beliefs alter my faith in any way? Will my future actions, or works be in any way affected by whatever level or degree of faith to which I have attained as a result of these different beliefs? Of course they will. You either believe what God says, or you believe what man-made doctrine wants you to believe. But please don’t have the audacity to blame God if things don’t turn out as you would wish in your life simply because you chose to believe man’s doctrines instead of God’s.

The Importance of Faith

‘But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.'(Hebrews 11:6)

As we see, we cannot please God, or even approach Hirn, without possessing faith. It is clear from the above text that there are three absolute, non-negotiable requirements which we must exhibit, in order to demonstrate that we have the necessary faith required to please Him. Firstly, we must believe that God actually exists. This does NOT involve giving mere “lip service” to the concept or possibility of His existence whenever it suits our purpose. It means that we must live our lives in the full assurance and unswerving acceptance and confidence of His everlasting and ever-present existence. Secondly, we must believe that He is the only true and living God, accepting absolutely no compromise with other religious faiths. Thirdly, we must believe – constantly living in the full assurance and expectancy of – the reward He has promised to those who diligently seek Him with all their hearts. This reward is not to be looked upon as some prize we have won as a result of our own efforts, but rather as a result of our confidence in God’s absolute and unfailing faithfulness to perform ALL that He has promised.

This was the secret behind every incident, and every person, listed in the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews.

They believed in the absolute existence of the One, Immortal, Invisible God, and lived and breathed an unshakeable assurance in God’s ability and intention to carry out, what to them, was the seemingly impossible.

This was the stuff or substance of the Heroes of Faith.

Remember, that all these folk were normal human beings, just like you and me. If we wish to emulate them, and share in their rewards, we must take full heed of the exhortation which we quoted earlier in this study, as recorded in 2 Timothy 4:1-5:

‘I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;

Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.’