TWO Kinds of FAITH

 Faith's Secret Revealed 

THE CASE STATED

Unanswered prayers stand between the individual and a faith life.

Some have lost faith altogether. Many have turned to philosophical and metaphysical cults because their prayer lives were failures.

If we should ask the individual what he/she believes to be his/her greatest difficulty in his/her Christian walk, I believe invariably the answer would be, "I haven't enough faith. I know it is not God's fault. I know the promises are there in the Word. I have simply failed to get faith. I have prayed for it; I have fasted for it; but I don't know how to get it."

This little conversation took place between a husband and wife over the breakfast table:

"No, I am not losing my confidence in the Bible, but it does seem to me that after the years we have attended church we should have gotten somewhere.

"Today in the office the question of faith came up and I found that I had none. That is, I didn't have any positive, clear-cut faith in the Word as I have in business.

"I have faith in the things that we manufacture. I know that they will do the things we advertise they will do.

"I don't know that God's Word will do the thing that it is advertised to do.

I would like to know where the difficulty is.

"Down at the office, when we face a problem we solve it, but in our church we just cover it up. We ignore it. I have ignored it as long as I can. I must know!"

This is the reason for this book. We have written it to answer the faith problem for thinking men and women.

Chapter I, THE BASIS FOR FAITH

HIS faith business has me whipped", said a young man the other day.

"The pastor preached on it Sunday. He didn't tell me how to get faith, but he told me the necessity of it, told what it could do.

"He quoted those wonderful sentences from the lips of the Master, 'All things are possible to him that believeth.' 'If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed . . . . '

"I have tried to get it. I have done everything that I knew or anyone else could tell me, but it seems to be so elusive. Can you tell me where the difficulty lies?"

I liked him. He was so frank, so genuine. The distress in his eyes challenged me.

I said to him, "Faith comes through the Word of God.

"You have faith in the man for whom you work ; if he promises you a raise in your salary, you wouldn't question it.

"You have faith in the bank where you do business. If they told you that your account was overdrawn, you wouldn't question it.

"You know that you and your word are one. You are back of your word, back of every word that you promise.

"God and His Word are one. God is back of every Word that He promises. Not only is He back of it, but His throne is back of His Word.

"He said, 'I watch over my Word to perform it.'

"He is a business man. He knows that His Word is the foundation of everything, so He stands back of it.

"Jesus said, 'Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall never pass away.'

"This is the thing that gives faith . . . the integrity of this Word."

"Faith comes by hearing the Word, understanding it, by it becoming a part of us.

"I am going to say a hard thing. I am sure you will understand me. Lying and deceit and dishonesty are the badges of the world.

"We see it in international relationship between nations.

"They have their secret service men listening in everywhere, robbing each other of blueprints of warships, fighter planes, etc., until there is no chance of security anywhere.

"This is the reason for our unbelief. The air is pregnant with it. When we come up against the Word of God which cannot lie and cannot be challenged, somehow or other we are unprepared to accept it.

"Satan is a liar and he is the god of this world.

"Jesus came as a Revelation of Truth. He is the only one who ever made men become honest, when to tell the truth meant that they would be burned at the stake.

"Here we see the foundation of this Faith. You come to know Jesus through the Word. He introduces you to the Father.

"Then you begin to act on the Word, to test it out, as it were.

"After a bit you will find that acting on what Jesus said, or the Father said, becomes as natural as acting on the word of the man for whom you are working."

He said after careful thought, "Thank you. I believe I have learned something I have never seen before."

One Foundation

There is but one foundation for Faith, the Living Word.

As we become one with the Word in our actions, then faith becomes an unconscious reality.

You never think of your Faith, you only think of the need and His ability to meet it.

If you wish faith to grow and become robust and strong, soak in the Word, feed on it, meditate on it, until you become one with it in the sense that you are one with your business.

Find out what you are in Christ, what your privileges are, what He thinks of you, what He says of you.

You will find all this in the Word.

Chapter II, WHAT FAITH IS

FAITH is giving substance to things hoped for."

Faith is grasping the unrealities of hope and bringing them into the realm of reality.

Faith grows out of the Word of God.

It is the warranty deed that the thing for which you have fondly hoped is at last yours.

It is the "evidence of things not seen."

You hope for finances to meet that obligation ; faith gives assurance that you will have the money when you need it.

You hope for physical strength to do the work that you know you must do.

Faith says, "God is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?"

Sense-Knowledge has given to the church Mental Assent, which looks so much like faith that many people cannot see the difference.

Mental Assent is seeing it, admiring it, saying "it is true, but not in my case."

Mental Assent agrees that the Bible is a Revelation, that it came from God, and that every Word is true, and yet when the crisis comes it does not work.

It simply recognizes the truthfulness of that wonderful Book, but it does not act upon it.

Hope says, "I will get it sometime."

Faith says, "I have it now."

Mental Assent says, "It is beautiful. I know I should have it. For some reason I don't get it. I cannot understand it."

Sense-Knowledge faith says, "When I see it, when I feel it, I will know I

have it."

Real faith in the Word says, "If God says it is true, it is. If He says that 'By His stripes, I am healed', I am. If He says that God shall supply every need of mine, He will do it. If God says He is the strength of my life, He is. So I go about doing my work because He is what He says He is, and I am what He says I am."

"If He says that I am strong, I am.

"If He says that I am healed, I am.

"If He says that He cares for me, I know that He does.

"So quietly I rest on His Word, irrespective of evidences that would satisfy the Senses."

Real Faith is built on the Word.

It is untarnished by Sense-Knowledge.

It is as unconscious of itself as is the faith of a little child in its mother.

The child never says, "Now Mother, I believe your word. I know that if I ask you for a piece of bread you will give it to me." If it said such things it  would frighten the mother. She would wonder what had happened to her child.

We have built around faith a strange wordology that is like a barb-wire entanglement.

You hear men and women cry "Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief."

You hear them pray for faith.

You hear men tell God that they know that what He says is true, that every Word He has spoken is true.

All that indicates the dominion of Sense- Knowledge over their spirits, that the Word has not yet gained the supremacy in their lives.

Faith is the result of the Word dwelling in us, I don't mean the Word committed to memory.

I mean the Word lived, practiced, until it has become a part of ourselves.

We meditate in it. We think deeply in it. We feed upon it. The Word becomes a very part of ourselves; this word of Faith builds into us confidence and assurance.

Sense-Knowledge will fight every step of the way to hold us in the realm of things seen, felt and heard, but we persistently drive ourselves into the Word until the Word is a part of our being, the Word is real.

Chapter III, KINDS OF FAITH

GAVE an address on the New Creation in which I stated, without giving any Scriptural proof, that the disciples were not Born Again until the day of Pentecost, that salvation came as the result of faith in Jesus as our Substitute.

After the meeting a man said to me, "Wasn't Martha saved? She believed in Jesus. Wasn't Peter's declaration one that brought salvation?"

What kind of faith did men have in Jesus before His Death and Resurrection?

John 20:9 "For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead."

This is a part of the dramatic story connected with the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

We know that salvation is dependent upon our faith in Jesus as a Substitute for us, that He died for our sins, and that He arose for our justification.

So Martha's faith in Jesus is described in John 11:27, "She saith unto him, Yea Lord: I have believed that thou art the Christ the Son of God, even He that cometh into the world."

She did not have faith in Jesus as the One who had died and risen as her personal Substitute and Savior.

She had faith in Him as God's Son, as the Messiah that had been promised.

Apostle Peter made another confession of Jesus which is recorded in Matthew16:16.

"And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

That was not a confession that Christ had died for his sins and had risen for his justification, but simply a confession of His Messiah-ship and His being the Son of God.

There is still another type of confession in the Four Gospels that is striking.

John 6:30 "They said therefore unto him, What then doest thou for a sign, that we may see, and believe thee? what workest thou?"

Notice the expression "that we may see and believe."

Perhaps we should turn to John 20:25 and read Thomas' declaration.

Jesus had appeared to the disciples after His Resurrection. Thomas was not present. They told him what had taken place.

He said, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."

He was willing to believe if He could have the evidence.

Jesus met him. 27-29 verses "Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and see my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. 

Jesus saith unto him, "Because thou hast seen me, thou has believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."

Here are two kinds of faith in contrast.

One is Sense-Knowledge Faith, which is based upon physical evidence.

We see and believe. We hear and believe.

Jesus speaks of another kind of faith where they do not see, nor feel, nor hear, yet they believe.

The Faith that men had in Jesus during His earth walk was Sense-Knowledge Faith.

This is one of the most startling discoveries we have ever made in this faith walk.

It clears up so many issues.

The great body of the church has Sense- Knowledge Faith, rather than faith in the Revelation that God has given to us. Revelation-Knowledge Faith from heaven. 

During the earth walk of Christ the Jews were under the First Covenant.

They were under the blood of bulls and goats.

They did not have Eternal Life until Christ died and rose again, for none of them believed in Christ as a Saviour.

They did not believe in His Substitutionary work. They knew nothing of it.

Luke 24:10-3 gives a vivid picture of the condition of the disciples after the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

He had appeared to Mary and to the others.

They rushed to the place where the disciples were gathered.

"Now they were Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; and the other women with them told these things unto the apostles, And these words appeared in their sight as idle talk ; and they disbelieved them."

There was no saving faith on the part of the disciples at that time.

They did not hail Him as their Savior.

They were mystified, staggered by His appearance.

They recognized Him for they saw the evidence of the crucifixion in His body. They knew it was He.

The disciples had faith in Jesus as a Messiah, as the Son of God, but not as a Substitute, not as a Savior from sin. They saw Him as their Deliverer from Rome.

The knowledge of Christ's substitutionary work did not come to them clearly until God gave it to apostle Paul.

We have it in His Revelation to apostle Paul in the Epistles.