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10250 North Freeway @ West
Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484
What
We Believe and Why - Vol. II
Written by Dr.
Lester Hutson
Copyright
- Lester Hutson - 1982
This material is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced
without the express written permission of Dr. Lester Hutson.
Chapter Six
Faith, Not Presumption
INTRODUCTION: TEXT: I Timothy 1:18-19
Too many people, even believers, do not know what faith is, let alone live by it. This Bible study is designed to define what faith is and to show how it differs from presumption, which is what most people call faith.
I. LET US FIRST LEARN BIBLICALLY WHAT TRUE FAITH IS.
A. In short, faith is believing what God said.
1. We are not dealing here with the whole body of truth found in the Bible, which Jude called "The faith which was once delivered unto the saints." (Jude 3) Neither are we referring to the faith Jesus Christ had in performing His work. (Philippians 3:9) In this study, we are dealing with the beliefs a person may hold.
2. Faith, in this sense, is translated from the Greek word "pistis," which is defined by W. E. Vine in his Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, as "a conviction based upon hearing." He points out that "pistis" is always used in the New Testament as being in God. That being true, then an accurate Bible definition of faith would be that it is "beliefs or convictions based upon hearing God's word." That is in perfect harmony with Romans 10:17 which says, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Notice the two basic elements of true faith: (1) Belief (2) in God's word.
B. This simple definition of faith is repeatedly illustrated in God's word.
1. Hebrews 11 is a chapter particularly illustrative of faith.
a. Verse 1 says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." "Substance" is from the Greek word "hupostasis," meaning "assurance," and "evidence" is from "elegchos," meaning "proof" or "conviction." The basis of our assurance and conviction is faith. Without it we cannot be really sure; we have no real proof. Of course, faith comes because God said it, and since He "cannot lie" (Titus 1:2), then true faith results in true assurance and conviction.
b. The very next verse picks up the divine reasoning, and along with verse 3, shows that faith is (1) believing (2) in God's word. After all, we only have assurance that God brought the world in to existence with His word, because He said so. Consider Genesis 1. It is believing His word that gives us assurance that this is how it happened. The word of no one else on the subject would constitute proof, but God's word does.
c. God told Noah that He would destroy the world. He also told Noah to build an ark for his preservation. (Genesis 6:13-22) Noah believed God's word and Hebrews 11:7 calls that faith.
d. God promised Jacob, Joseph's father, that He'd ultimately bring Israel out of Egypt. (Gen. 46:3-4) Joseph believed that word of God and over 300 years before its fulfillment "Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence (Egypt)." (Genesis 50:25) God said Joseph's belief in His word constituted "faith." (Hebrews 11:22)
e. This same chapter gives a large number of other such illustrations.
2. Luke 5:4-5 illustrates faith, though it does not call it such. Jesus told Peter to let down his nets to catch a "drought." "Drought" is from the Greek word "agra," used only in connection with fishing and signifies the act of catching fish. Peter didn't see how it was possible to catch fish, humanly speaking, but he said to Jesus, "Nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net." Though his faith was weak (Jesus said "nets," verse 4, but Peter let down a "net," verses 5,6), it was nevertheless faith and the result was many fish. He (1) believed (2) in God's word.
3. That faith is believing God's word is seen in Peter and John, two of God's apostles. God promised them special powers to heal sick people and perform miraculous works. (Mark 16:17-18) Based on that promise of God, Peter, along with John, in Acts 3:2 said to "a certain man lame from his mother's womb," that "silver and gold have I none; but such as I have, give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk" (verse 6) Of course, the man did, (verses 7-8) because Peter and John were acting in faith: i.e., (1) believing, (2) God's promise. Anyone other than an apostle, attempting the same thing, would not have been acting in faith, for God did not make the Mark 16 promise to any one other than the apostles and those upon whom they laid their hands.
II. MUCH OF WHAT IS THOUGHT TO BE FAITH IS MERE PRESUMPTION.
A. Presumption and faith are not the same.
1. Webster's New World Dictionary defines "presumption" as "an overstepping of proper bounds; a taking of something for granted." It comes from "presume," which means to act or believe something without permission or authority. Presumptions lack proof.
2. It is true that one may believe something presumptuously and the thing may materialize as presumed, but such a process is not faith. A belief is only a matter of faith if God has said it, and the person believes it because God said it. Even if a person believes something God said, but is not aware that God said it, the person's belief is not a matter of faith. Faith is believing it because God said it.
3. That brings up the fact that belief and faith are not necessarily the same. A person can hold a belief, and very firmly so, that is not at all based upon God's word. In fact, a belief is defined as "an opinion held in good faith, without necessary reference to it's proof." Thus, a belief can be, and they often are, very presumptuous, without valid grounds for it's existence. Faith never presumes. True faith is always a belief based upon God's word. It is not faith if it is based upon any less than God's word. So a belief may or may not be in faith. It is in faith if based upon God's word. It is presumption if it is not based on His word.
4. Most people think faith is just a matter of believing something really strongly. When a loved one is sick, they convince themselves the loved one will get well. They say, "I've got faith he's going to be all right." Such a belief or conviction is not faith. It is presumption, for nowhere has God promised the sick person will live, let alone get well. People say they have faith in the economy, faith they'll make a trip safely, faith God is going to give them more money, and faith that everything will go the way they want it to go. Such confidences, or beliefs, are presumptuous and not of faith. God has not made promises of this sort, and beliefs where God has not promised are presumptions, and not in faith.
5. Now God has promised to work for our best (Romans 8:28), supply ample grace if we claim it (I Corinthians 10:13) and to give us victory (Romans 8:37). Thus, it is faith to say, "I know God will take care of me today," or "It's all going to work out for the best." God's way of caring for us may be to bring us down through manifold trials. (I Peter 1:5-6) To specify exactly the kind of situations God will bring us through as He brings us to victory is presumptuous, for He has not told us that in His word.
6. So, just believing something really strongly is not a matter of faith. It is only faith when we believe it because God said it. It is sad to realize that most of what religion and its people call faith is no more than presumption.
B. The Bible is careful to distinguish between faith and presumption.
1. Perhaps the best illustration is in Deuteronomy 1.
a. After Moses and Israel left Egypt, they came to the hill of the Amorites. (verse 20)
b. Had they gone up immediately, without discouragement, God would have given them victory against those Amorites. (verse 21)
c. But they were afraid and discouraged, and murmured against God. (verses 22-23) Therefore God withdrew His promise of victory. "And the Lord heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying, Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers." (verses 34-35) He then told them in verse 40, "But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea." Then He specifically forbade them to go up against the Amorites at that time. "And the Lord said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies." (verse 42)
d. God made a promise then He withdrew it. In spite of His withdrawal, these Israelites changed their minds, and decided they could go up and defeat the Amorites, even though God had withdrawn His promise. Verse 41 says, "Then ye answered and said unto me, We have sinned against the Lord, we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord our God commanded us. And when ye had girded on every man his weapons of war, ye were ready to go up into the hill."
e. In spite of no promise from God, they believed they could take the hill. They went bull-headedly on and the result was disaster. Verse 44 says, "And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah." Notice the same account in Numbers 14:40-43.
f. Regardless of how strongly they believed they could take the hill, their going up was not faith. Because there was no promise of victory from God, their going up to fight that battle was not faith. Instead, it was an act of presumption. God said so in Verse 43. "So I spake unto you; and ye would not hear, that ye rebelled against the commandment of the Lord, and went presumptuously up into the hill." Numbers 14:44 says, "But they presumed to go up into the hilltop."
g. How clear it becomes that just believing something strongly does not constitute faith. It is only faith if it is believed because God said it. A belief with any other basis is presumption.
2. Listen to Deuteronomy 17:11-13, "According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: Thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee, to the right hand, nor the left. And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die; and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel. And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously." The point is clear. To fail to believe and act because of what God said is to act presumptuously. It takes belief in what God said to constitute faith and adherence to His word to constitute a walk of faith.
3. The same truth is again seen in Deuteronomy 18:20-22, "But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously; thou shalt not be afraid of him." A prophet is only speaking in faith when he speaks what God says. To speak otherwise is presumption.
4. The apostle Peter spoke of those who are "presumptuous" and "self-willed." (II Peter 2:10) Anyone who believes or acts apart from the word of God falls into this condemnation to some degree. Most of us are guilty of presumption far more often than we care to admit. II Corinthians 5:7 says we ought to "walk by faith; not by sight." Walking by sight is to walk presumptuously, to walk and believe where God has made no promise. That's what most of us do most of the time, walk by sight and not by faith. We are men of presumption not of faith. Yet, we call most of our presumptions "faith."
5. King David once prayed, "Keep back they servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression." (Psalms 19:13) That would be an excellent prayer for all of us.
III. GOD'S PEOPLE ARE TO OPERATE BY FAITH NOT PRESUMPTION.
A. The means by which we are saved in the first place from sin's penalty is faith not presumption.
1. Galatians 3:26 says, "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ." Ephesians 2:8 also affirms, "For by grace are ye saved through faith;" and Ephesians 3:17 speaks of Christ "dwelling "in "your hearts by faith." Romans 3:28 reads, "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law."
2. Every believer is aware that it is not a matter of believing what he thinks, or what someone else thinks, to be saved. It is a matter of believing what God said. Nothing short of that is faith in Christ Jesus, and nothing short of that results in eternal salvation. Anything short of what God said is nothing more than presumption. A person may believe with all his heart in baptism, Buddha, good works or the Guru, but such belief is presumption not faith. And, of all who believe anything different than what God said, it can be said, "They are children in whom there is no faith." (Deuteronomy 32:20)
3. The Jews, as a whole, are a case in point. They had their own ideas about how to be saved. They didn't believe God. They are consequently still lost. The reason is stated in Romans 9:31-32, "But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not be faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone."
B. Now God insists that even as we were saved by faith (believing what God said, as to the means of salvation from sin's penalty), likewise we should live our lives by faith (believe and conduct our lives according to what God said related to the walk of a child of God).
1. The divine will and command of God is stated in Colossians 2:6, "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." We received Him by faith, likewise, we are to walk by faith. (II Corinthians 5:7) The Old Testament prophet Habakkuk wrote, "The just shall live by his faith." (Habakkuk 2:4) The Lord saw fit to have that quoted three times in the New Testament. (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38)
2. "Without faith, it is impossible to please God." (Hebrews 11:6) No wonder Jesus said, "Have faith in God," (Mark 11:22) and Paul exhorted believers to "continue in the faith." (Acts 14:22) Folks, there is nothing mystical about such advice. Here is God saying for us in all areas of life, to believe and live by His word, not presumptuously by what we think or feel or by the influences of our environment.
3. In fact, when we get to believing, or acting, apart from God's word, we are acting presumptuously and that is sinful. The Bible clearly says, "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." (Romans 14:23) Remember, it is only faith if it is belief (and consequently action), because God said it.
4. And, failure by God's people to live by "Holding faith and a good conscience: which some having put away concerning faith, have made a shipwreck." (I Timothy 1:19)
5. It is very easy to "err from the faith," (I Timothy 6:10, 21) which is simply to depart from that which is written in God's word, but the results are spiritual shipwreck. Oh, how precious the advice of Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all they ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct they paths."
6. Victory in life comes by faith, and that is believing what God said and not going beyond, which is presumption. The apostle John wrote, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." (I John 5:4) Faith will purify your heart ( Acts 15:9), and sanctify you (Acts 26:18). It will establish a good reputation for you before men (Philemon 5) and before God (Revelation 2:19).
1. Thus, what tremendous advice God gives us through His servant, Paul, in II Timothy 2:22, "Flee also youthful lusts; but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." God's desire is that everyone of His children "follow faith" not presumption.
"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"