Living By Faith

Habakkuk 2:1-4  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. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

Hebrews 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

We often hear that we are saved by faith, but the Bible says several times that we LIVE by faith.

When a non-believer keeps pushing me to prove God exists, I eventually have to rely on faith. God makes no point of proving He exists, yet He uses Paul (in Rom 1:20) to say that the evidences of God are clearly seen in the creation of this big rock we call Earth. Not hidden, but clearly seen.

If I may use today's vernacular: any idiot can see that God exists. But when pressed, we rely on faith. In my own heart God is real, but only God sees my heart. The challenge in salvation is to get the unbeliever to "believe," not to prove anything.

If I prove to you that God exists, your faith is in your own knowledge. God is not pleased by knowledge. God is pleased by faith.

Hebrews 11:6  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.

I almost said we "fall back" on faith, but it is not a fall back position. It is the position by which we live.

So here is my assertion:
If I am not required to prove God to the non-believer, I also do not have to prove righteous living to a believer.

Let me explain:
Many things are clear as being right or wrong because God makes them clear in His Word. But, as we know, some things are clear to one saint, and not the next.

I'm not getting into specifics, but let's get personal:
If you KNOW you are going to Heaven when you die based on faith. You are willing to bank your eternal destination, a choice between Heaven or Hell, on simple faith. Then why, oh why, do you require absolute proof of what God sees as unrighteous?

John 7:17- If any man will do his (God's) will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

1 Samuel 15:22  And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

Do you really need me to post a study comparing the few times "liberty" is mentioned in the Bible compared to the hundreds of times "law" "command" and "obey" are mentioned? In the sermon on the mount did Christ speak of being lenient about laws, or did he confirm the spirit of the law to be much stricter than the letter?

1 Corinthians 6:12  All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

Yes, we have liberty, in that we are justified as righteous before God, but sin still displeases God.

If we have a desire to do anything for God, would we not want his blessing. Would we not fear that some overlooked sin would separate us from God's blessing and hinder our ministry?

Ask yourself this question: With all the distractions we have today, are we closer to God than the men of God from 100 years ago? If you said yes, then your problem is foolish pride. Again, without specifics, look at every preacher you know of from early last century. What did they say about holiness?

Knowing they didn't have TV, radio, internet, and video games to distract them, I trust their view of what holiness was.

I will get specific in an issue I myself had. I'm not real clear on why Independent Baptists preach against movie theaters. Certain movies I can understand their disdain, but they preach against the actual practice of attending the theater. I know most of their claims, one simple one being that all movies put money in the hands of the guys who make the bad movies. Well, in our day, so does buying a product promoted in the movie, even though we never saw the movie. We pickup a bag of M&M's with the candies dressed as Harry Potter without hesitation and we just helped fund the witchcraft indoctrination of our youth.
But here is what I have settled in my heart. Those who came before me were much closer to God than I may ever be. So when I doubt their stance on holiness, I will choose principle over liberty. If my own standard is already higher, I will not let them drag me away from God.

Let me give the best, yet simplest, illustration:
A Wal-mart HVAC tech was attempting to explain to my coworker and I how a giant dehumidifier transferred heat between evaporator and condenser coils without a compressor. To him, it made perfect sense, but to two filtration techs with only a working knowledge of the units we cleaned, it was ancient Greek. He finally just smiled, pressed his forefinger into his chest, and said,"Sometimes you just have to press the 'I Believe' button." WOW! You ever wanted to run shouting through a Wal-mart? My coworker was an Apostolic Pentecostal, so the analogy was not lost on him, either.

We spend so much time looking for absolutes, and we should. But some absolutes are known only to God. For those God has provided a big red button on our heart, emblazoned with "FAITH" on it's face. Instead of looking for ways to pridefully avoid the teaching of our spiritual fathers, why not just press our fingers into our chest, and say, "I believe!"

Hebrews 11:6a  But without faith it is impossible to please him: