Sermons
Walking By Faith
Series: The Way Of SalvationWALKING BY FAITH
Sermon By Terry Siverd
Cortland Church of Christ / December 08, 2019
In this second half of our series on The Way Of Salvation we have been emphasizing qualities or attributes
(maybe the best word is virtues) that need to be cultivated following our our baptism.
Baptism unites us with the salvation that comes through Christ Jesus.
Baptism is vital to our salvation.
Acts 9:1-18 records the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, who soon came to be known as Paul the apostle.
Saul of Tarsus had a grand epiphany (actually a theophany) - - he met Jesus on the road to Damascus.
He was traveling to Damascus to “capture” Christians.
At that point in time he was a strident enemy of the early church - - their chief antagonist.
On that day Saul saw The Light. He met up with Jesus.
This introduction came in the form of a light from heaven that flashed all around him.
He heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
Saul was dumbfounded and asked, Who are you lord?
The heavenly voice responded saying, I AM Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
Rise, and enter the city and it shall be told to you what your must do (vss.5-6).
Saul did what every devout Jew would have done: with blinded eyes, he heeded the Voice
and proceeded into the city just as directed. There, he began fasting and praying.
God sent a man named Ananias to give Saul instructions.
Ananias told Saul to arise and be baptized and wash away his sins (Acts 22:16).
Saul's baptism into Christ Jesus was essentially a new birth.
A year or so earlier, Jesus had spoken to Nicodemus about the necessity of being “born again” (Jn.3:1f).
Years earlier, Saul had been born of a woman, born under the Law - - born into Judaism.
The guidance Saul received from Ananias led him to be born again, of the water and the Word/Spirit (Eph.5:26).
Throughout their history, Jews considered themselves to be born into Judaism by means of lineage or genealogy.
Saul's baptism into Christ, like our own, began a whole new way of life for Paul.
But, as we have pointed out repeatedly, baptism is but the starting point for our new life in Christ.
In one of his epistles, Paul speaks of rising up (from baptism/death) to walk in newness of life (Rom.6:4).
He expands on these expectations regarding this newness of life in Rom.6:12-13 - -
Do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting
the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to
God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Our current sermon series is now exploring what it looks like to walk in newness of life.
We have been looking at two primary texts - - one from Colossians and one from Galatians.
In Col.3:12f, Paul depicts this newness in the form of clothing or adornment worn by Christians.
He writes about “putting on” a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one
another, and forgiving each other...and beyond all these thing, put on love...and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.
In Gal.5:22f, Paul pictures this new life with an image that he calls “the fruit of the Spirit”.
In this text Paul delineates: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
FAITHFULNESS, gentleness, and self-control; He adds, against such things there is no law.
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Please open your New Testaments to Hebrews chapter eleven.
This morning we want to speak about FAITHFULNESS.
The title of my sermon is, Walking By Faith.
Technically, one could make a distinction between the words, “Faith-filled” and “Faithfulness”.
From an English language point of one, one could describe the non-believing husband of a Christian woman by saying, “He's a faithful husband - - he doesn't cheat; he truly loves his wife; he treats her respectfully; he's fully committed.”
In this sense the word faithful connotes that he is steady, trustworthy and honorable.
But the faithfulness that I want to speak of this morning is not alluding to one who is just “reliable”.
From the Biblical perspective, the deeper meaning of faithfulness is to be be FAITH-FILLED.
Has someone every asked you, “What does it mean to have faith?”
It's not always easy to answer this question in a simple way, but I'll try to do so in this morning's sermon.
Do you have FAITH?
Are you a man or woman OF FAITH?
Are you a FAITH-FILLED person?
In 2Cor.13:5, the apostle Paul gives this exhortation:
Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!
Here then are two key words to use in our self-examination.
FAITHFULNESS REQUIRES TRUST
Heb.11:1 begins with a definition: faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
The NIV renders this verse: faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Biblical faithfulness requires that we trust God in that which we cannot always see.
Many of us have been influenced by a pull-up-our-bootstraps mentality.
By this I mean - - life is hard and if you want to get ahead, you're going to have to make your own way.
Yet true faith and faithfulness often requires a “being” or “doing” that is not always spelled out.
In Heb.11:7 we read a singular summary of the life of Noah.
By faith Noah being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his
household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
Some of you have seen the replica of the ark down in Kentucky.
Can you imagine the many years of toilsome labor that would have been involved in the building such a ship,
especially without the assistance of a slew of skilled craftsmen and without electricity and power tools?
Now add to mix, the thought of a flood so great that this ark would be your only means of salvation.
Some argue that in the antediluvian age there had been no rain - - that prior to the flood,
the earth had been enveloped and sustained by a kind of embryonic moisture.
Gen.2: 6 speaks of a “mist” that rose from the earth and watered the garden of Eden.
The hallmark of Noah's faith was that he trusted God's word.
A second illustration of the importance of TRUST in the cultivation of faith is found in Heb.11:8-12 - -
By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was
to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.
Abraham's degree of trust is magnified when we realize that his inheritance was bound up in a promise
that God made to him, that his descendants would be like the stars of the sea and the sand on the seashore.
This promise was given despite the fact that Abraham and Sarah were quite old and still childless.
And beyond all of this, Abraham was traveling toward a goal that was quite mysterious.
He was in pursuit of a city whose architect and builder (was) God.
FAITHFULNESS REQUIRES OBEDIENCE
You may have noticed this second key word when we read from Heb.11:8a - - Abraham...OBEYED.
In Rom.10:17 Paul states plainly, Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
This hearing is not just “hearing” it is obeying.
James 1:22 urges us to prove yourselves does of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
Heb.11:4 states,
By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous...
That which made Abel faithful and righteous was that he did things the way God directed him.
Frequently people get frustrated because they conflate FAITH with FEELINGS.
Our emotions are important. We would never want to encounter a cold and lifeless faith.
But faith is much more than a feeling.
Feelings can be so fleeting (here today and gone tomorrow).
Sometimes our feelings get out in front of our faith and sometimes they lag behind our faith.
Many cloud and confuse the concept of faith and faithfulness.
Yet Biblical FAITH is really not complicated.
In a nutshell faithfulness is summed up in two words that are both easily understood:
TRUST and OBEY.
Faith is not a blind leap in the dark, but it does demand a trust that sometimes evades our full comprehension.
In 2Cor.5:7 Paul declares, We walk by FAITH, not by SIGHT.
I am so glad Paul words things the way he does.
I like this image of WALKING by faith.
Our journey to greater faith is not a sprint, it is a walk - - and it is a walk that all of us are capable of doing.
We walk, and in walking daily with the Lord, we grow step by step in trusting and obeying God.
So, are you ready for you exam?
Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves!
Do you trust God?
Do you obey the Word of God?
You might say, this is the easiest test I've ever taken. Yes! Yes!
The difficult part of the test is that we need to take it daily.
How do you answer when things are going bad?
Can you answer “Yes!” when your days are really, really difficult?
If we can answer “Yes, I'm trusting and obeying!” on a daily basis this will not
only empower us in the here and now but it will lead us to a very happy hereafter.
