The Basics of Faith

Dr. Charles Stanley: If we placed our trust in God, we wouldn't allow ourselves to get in the position that sometimes people often times get into. In other words, is God who the Bible says he is? If he is, listen, if my God is the God who is a life-giving God, so powerful that he raised his only begotten Son Jesus Christ from the dead, I can trust him. I can't trust some philosophy, but I can place my trust absolutely, completely and totally in this God who raised Jesus Christ his son from the dead.
Guest (Male): Welcome to In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. The third chapter of Galatians tells us the righteous will live by faith. This verse indicates that faith is of great importance to God. But what exactly is faith? Is it trust, belief, confidence? Today we kick off a challenging series that can help us understand the basics of learning to walk by faith. Let's listen in to Dr. Stanley's message.
Dr. Charles Stanley: There are two things that are absolutely essential to a right relationship with God. They are, first of all, belief that God is. Secondly, belief that God will always do what God says he will do. Apart from these two basic convictions, there is no salvation, and there is no blessing. In fact, the writer of Hebrews said it this way: if we're to please God, we must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him, or that he will do exactly what he promised. The basic foundation truth of the whole Christian life is faith. That's how we relate to God. That's how we relate to his son Jesus Christ. And yet, that is the one area of our life that probably most people either misunderstand or have the most difficulty with. Cannot trust God. Why don't I trust God? Often times life is filled full of doubt. Well, this is the beginning of a series entitled Learning to Walk by Faith. And I want you to turn if you will to Second Corinthians chapter 5. And the title of this message is Learning to Walk by Faith: The Basics. Now, what do I mean by the basics? I mean the starting point. This is where we begin in learning to walk by faith. And what I want you to note in this passage is this, that the Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians is talking to them about life and death and the condition of our body, and what is going to happen to us after we die. And in the process of discussing that, he makes one statement here that I want us to note. But I want us to look at this whole passage for a moment. He says in Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 1: "For we know that if the earthly tent, speaking of our physical body, which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, that is another body. A house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house, that is in this body, we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, shall not be found naked. For indeed while we're in this tent, we groan being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." "Now he who prepared us for this purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith and not by sight." "We're of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord." The Apostle Paul is saying, you know, there will come a time we lay these bodies down. We'll have a new body, a resurrected body, which our Lord promised and which he certainly demonstrated in his own resurrection. Paul says, we have the privilege of living by faith. We walk by faith. Therefore, we're not worried about death. We're not afraid of death. We're not concerned about what's going to happen to these bodies. We have the awesome promise of a resurrected body and a heavenly home. And he says, therefore, we're not walking by sight. We're not walking by feeling. We're not walking by the people's opinions. We're not walking according to reason. We're walking simply by faith. It is the will and purpose and plan of God that all of us learn to walk by faith. If I should ask you, is your life a picture of, could it be described as a life of one who is walking by faith? Well, probably you may think in terms of the way you think of faith, and you may say, well, yes, I do. But I want you to listen carefully, and I hope you'll jot down a few things. I want to give you a couple of definitions or so here. I want to make it as simple and plain as possible, but it's very important that we understand what the Bible says about faith, not what the world says about it. When you think in terms of the word faith, and the word believe, probably in our culture today because people say, I believe this and I'm a believer and yes, I believe and all the things they say, probably the better word is the word trust. That is, I'm placing my trust in. I am committing myself to. The word believe or trust is an action word. And if you took these three words in the Greek language, love and serve and if you put the word believe, all three of these have the same ending on the word. And a Greek ending on a word is very significant. They're all words of action. I love, if I love someone, I'm going to respond. If I serve someone, I'm going to act. If I believe, I'm going to act. For example, you can read the 40 verses of the 11th chapter of Hebrews and 19 times the Bible speaks of someone believing, Abraham or Jacob or Moses or Noah, they all believed. And when they believed, the Bible says they did something. So, in the New Testament, you can go all the way through the New Testament and every time someone is believing or placing their trust in, there is an action. It is an inner action that moves the will. And so when we think in terms of believing, it isn't some stagnant kind of belief that says, yes, I believe, never moves, never budges, no action. The very word is a word of action. Something is going to happen in your life and my life when we place our trust in, when we commit ourselves to Almighty God. Now, the issue is this, not whether you believe or not, but what is it you believe? What are you putting your faith in? What are you putting your trust in? What are you committed to? Just the idea that I believe something is not sufficient. Listen, the whole key to the belief system is who is the object? What is the object of my belief? Therefore, the only legitimate object of my belief when it comes to relationship, that is spiritual, is this: I must believe in the life-giving God who resurrected Jesus Christ his son from the dead. If my belief and my faith about my future and about my present is in anything other than that, it has substance that will, listen, that will ultimately disappear. And therefore, when we say, well, what is faith? It is a confident conviction that our God is who he says he is and he will do everything he promises to do. So when I say we're talking about the basics, I'm talking about the starting point. That faith is a confident conviction that our God is who he says he is, and he'll do everything he says he will do. Now, we said that the theme of this series is learning to walk by faith. Learning to walk by faith. And so, now we have to talk about how do we walk and what is, how do we exercise this faith that we have? Now, it is the will and purpose and plan of God that we live by faith. Well, the Apostle Paul said we walk by faith. What did he mean by that? When the Apostle Paul used the term walk, he usually referred to our conduct, lifestyle, manner of life. This is how we live our lives. And so you recall that on other occasions, he said, for example, with to walk not in the flesh, but in the spirit. We're to walk in love or walk by love. And we are to walk in the spirit. Many things he said. And what he was saying is, this should be a lifestyle. If somebody were to say to you or ask you the question, do you live by faith? I wonder how many of you would say, yes. Probably most of us would say, well, yes, I do. And what you mean is, well, I do most of the time. Or I do sometime. Or there are things that I have a difficult time trusting God for. You know what? That doesn't mean that you don't live by faith, because I'm going to come to that in a few moments. What I want us to notice here is what the Apostle Paul is saying, when he says, we're walking by faith, not by sight, not by feeling. Now, most people walk not by faith but by sight and by feeling and by reasoning. I reason this thing out and this is what I'm going to do. Often times God gets left out, even sometimes when he is included. He is included in this manner. Here's what I think I ought to do, and God, I'm trusting you to help me. Instead of saying, Lord, what would you have me to do? What is your will? What is your purpose? What is your plan? It is the will and purpose and plan of God that you and I walk by faith. Now, there are going to be those moments when all of us at times, suddenly, we may fret over something. And then we say, okay, God, I'm just going to trust you with that. Or there may be moments of fear that come. We hear about some difficult problem that's arising, and we might suddenly feel fear. But you know what should last shortly? Father, you're in charge. And it may be that when you see someone who is learning to walk by faith, or someone who is in the process of learning, we're all learning. And you don't see them wringing their hands and getting all upset and throwing a tantrum. You think, well, you don't care, you don't love me, you don't understand. That may not be it at all. It may be that they have learned to trust God. And they know that fuming and fretting and having a pity party and throwing a fit is not going to do any good, because the truth is, if my heavenly Father who loves me perfectly is absolutely in control of my life, and who infinitely in his wisdom knows the best thing every single time, can't I trust him with it? Doesn't mean it won't hurt. Doesn't mean it won't fall, doesn't mean it won't falter. Doesn't mean that at all. Because we're all going to falter and fall. We all have those anxious moments. And often times we'll find ourselves asking the Lord for things and, or maybe for somebody or whatever it might be, and he doesn't do what we want him to do it. We get anxious, we fret, we fume, we get angry at God. You know what? Doesn't bother him one bit. He knows we're going to get over it. You know what happens? It does absolutely no good to argue with God. He wins every time. You can't do anything about it until he's ready. The truth is, walking by faith is the only way to walk happily, contentedly, joyfully, confidently, assuredly, courageously, with a sense of anticipation in life. And so, the Apostle Paul said, we're walking by faith. He said, we're not afraid, we're walking by faith. Now, you say, well, now, you said learning to walk by faith. How do we learn? Well, it's very evident the very idea that we'd say learning implies that it's a process. For example, when you and I trusted Jesus Christ as our personal savior, we didn't automatically trust God for everything. We didn't do that. What happened was, we prayed, maybe God didn't answer our prayer the way we wanted him to, or we expected certain things to happen, and they didn't happen the way we expected them to, and so, you know, we had difficulty. Well, let me ask you this now, when you were born, you didn't come out of your mother's room running across the hall. Or the room, no. You came out, somebody had to hold you. Finally, you reached that day that you could stand up by yourself, and wow, what a hero you were that day. And then you took that first step. You fell down after the first step, but you took that first step. And then you took two steps before you fell. Then next thing, you could walk all the way across the room to your mom or your dad. That was a wonderful day in the life of your parents. Now you're walking. And so you began to walk by yourself. You fell down, you scratched your knee, you cut your hand, you beat up your face, and so, you know, that's part of growing up. What's part of growing up? Walking, falling, walking, falling, walking, falling, standing up, falling, running, falling, running, falling until you walk and you don't fall, and you can run, and you're not falling. What happens? You grew. It was a process. Now, how do we grow in our walk with the Lord? Here's how I'm going to learn. I'm going to make a request. I'm going to put God to the test, not trying to tempt him, but I make a request. And you know what? God answers my prayer or sees me through this. You know what happens? When that happens, one layer comes down on my foundation of faith. My foundation is built on Christ, so it's a solid foundation. But now, I've got to build on that. I've got to build on the foundation of the eternal Son of God. How am I going to build on it? I'm going to trust him and watch how he works and see him come through, and I'm thanking him for it. I'm going to observe what happened. Second thing I'm going to do is I'm going to get in his word, and I'm going to find out what the Bible says about him. Now listen carefully. If you don't know who the God is that you trust, how are you going to trust him? That's why as we said a few moments ago, all this foggy, frothy, light, non-substance belief that's going on has absolutely no credibility to it whatsoever. And there's no way to defend it. But when you and I get in the Word of God, here's what it says. The Bible says that God loves me. The Bible says he will meet my needs. The Bible says that God is holy and he'll forgive me. In other words, when I begin to look at the scriptures, here's what happens. My understanding of the nature of God, you know what that's doing? That's like pouring into my whole foundation. Pouring into my whole foundation the oil that makes everything work. Here's who God is. Here's what he's like. And if he, this is what God, this is who God is and this is what he's like, then I I can trust him. Now, the way God builds faith, as we said before and I repeat this: trouble, trial, difficulty and hardship. If I really want to understand what God is like, and I want him to strengthen my faith, I've got to be willing to get thrown in the fire. I've got to be willing to face difficulty and hardship. Listen, you don't build godly, you don't build faith that sustains you in life by simply reading it in a book. Listen, what makes it work is experience. It is experience that makes it work. But what, listen, what gives impact to your testimony? Experience. It is the fact that you've been there. You've walked through deep waters, you've walked through fire, you've walked through trials, you've walked through hardship, you've walked through those times of great need when there seemingly was no way in the world for those needs to be met, and God met them. How do we learn? We learn by living, trusting, failing, keeping our, getting our focus back on him, and moving on in life. And my friend, God will build such awesome faith. You and you see people, you say, well, I wish I had the faith that she has or he has. You know what? Faith is available to every single person. Now listen, watch this. You already have faith. When you trusted Jesus as your savior, you, listen, you're standing on the immovable foundation of faith. It's not going anywhere. Now, what you do on that is what you build into it. And you build into it a confident conviction that this God whom I believe. This God is he he is the one true God and he will keep his every single promise. Now I'm going to put him to the test. You see, he says, put me to the test and see what I'll do. So let me ask you this. Are you willing to say to him today, Lord, not for my sake but for your sake. Lord, that things in my life I can't handle. Needs I have, I don't think I can meet. Lord, I don't know how to handle these things. I've struggled. And I'll give you a little little word that I the Lord laid on my heart because I was doing the same thing. And he just laid this word on my heart: ASH. Don't be anxious, don't strive over it, and don't hurry. I keep that in mind. Don't be anxious. Don't strive about it. Working at it. Don't hurry. And for me personally, it's been a tremendous help to me. If I find myself getting anxious, it said, don't be anxious, don't strive, and don't hurry because those three things usually go together. You have to decide, Lord, I'm going to turn it over to you. Now, here's the whole issue. You listen and say amen. It's the last thing I'm going to say. Do you believe that your God who is the life-giving God who raised Jesus from the dead? Do you believe that he's who he says he is? Say amen.
Dr. Charles Stanley: Amen.
Dr. Charles Stanley: Do you believe that he'll keep his every promise? Say amen.
Dr. Charles Stanley: Now. Are you willing to tell him today, Father, I believe you're who you say you are. I believe you'll keep every single promise. I believe you're a trustworthy God that I can put my life and everything I am and everything I have in your hands, and you will take care of me. Now. Are you willing to surrender your life to that God? Body, soul, spirit, finances, relationships, marriage, family, everything. Can he handle it? Will you let him handle it?
Dr. Charles Stanley: You say, well, I'm not even a Christian. What about me? Well, simply this. Here's where you have to start. You have to ask yourself the question, do you believe the testimony of God's Word that except you're born again, except you trust Jesus as your savior, you'll be lost eternally? Do you believe that? Do you believe that Jesus Christ went to the cross and died on the cross and paid your sin debt in full? Do you believe that? You have to begin right there. If you're willing to accept that truth and willing to say to him, Lord Jesus, I confess my sins to you. I do believe what you say in the scripture. I do believe that your death at Calvary atoned for my sins. I'm trusting you as my savior. I'm trusting you that what you did will atone for my sins. I'm trusting you to forgive me of my sins. I'm trusting you to be my savior and my Lord. The moment you do that, that moment you become a living child of God. Then you begin the journey with us. We're all learning how to walk by faith.
Guest (Male): God wants us to trust him, to believe that he is faithful regardless of our circumstances. Dr. Stanley's message reminded us today that no matter what challenges believers may face, God has a plan to turn them for our good. To hear this message again, click on the link to today on radio at intouch.org and that's where you'll find more information about the forgiveness that God offers. So stop by today. If you'd like to order a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, you can order it from the online bookstore. The title is The Basics of Faith. It's also included in our teaching set entitled Learning to Walk by Faith. Our web address again is intouch.org. Or you can call or text us. The number for that is 1-800-IN-TOUCH. You can also write to us at In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357, or toll free 1-800-IN-TOUCH. Where you end up tomorrow depends in part on what you do today. That's the topic of today's moment with Charles Stanley. It's just ahead.
Guest (Male): Tired of faith feeling like a performance? Worn down by constant striving? Jesus never meant it to feel that way. His call was always to something more, to a life that's generous, vibrant, joyful, and sustainable. A real life with him. That's the heart of Follow Me, our new book created to help you answer that call. Get your copy at intouch.org/followme.
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Dr. Charles Stanley: We're to have strong convictions based on the Word of God. He's working out things that you and I would never know about in our future.
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Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch. What's the first thing you think about when you wake up? In a moment with Charles Stanley, you'll hear about his morning routine as he explained it years ago.
Dr. Charles Stanley: When you and I wake up in the morning, what is the first thing we should say? Now I would not, can't dictate to somebody else what they think, but I can tell you what I feel and I think. That is, when I wake up in the morning, the first thing I want to think about is Father, because you know what? All day long I'm going to live making decisions, meeting people, doing the work that the Lord has called me to do. And so, I know when my I open my eyes or I become conscious, even sometime before I open my eyes, I know that today I need my Father to walk with me. I know that today I will have to depend upon him and trust him for every single thing. And so, therefore, I want to begin the day where it should begin, in my relationship with him, affirming my relationship, affirming my unity, my oneness, and my love and devotion to him. We should, listen, because we're going to walk by faith. Now, what does that involve? Well, here's what it involves. It means, for example, that I'm going to be asking for his guidance today. Here's what he said: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths." I want to thank you that I have that wonderful privilege and the wonderful promise that you've given me, Lord. It means if I'm going to walk by faith today, that I am going to be seeking his mind and his heart, seeking direction for every single facet of my life. Not some things, but everything. You see, to walk by faith isn't something we do sometime and not sometime. Walk to walk by faith means I am going to rely upon, I'm going to trust in, I'm going to depend upon my heavenly Father to give me direction for the day. I'm going to depend upon him to meet every single need that I have.
Guest (Male): Learn more about the hope you can have through faith in Jesus Christ when you visit us at intouch.org. The Bible says to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. As this program helped you to do that? We'd love to know about it. When In Touch returns, salvation is a gift received by all who believe. But exactly what does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ? Well, we'll hear about that in part two of our series, Learning to Walk by Faith. Be sure to join us again for In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.