Welcome to Fife's Pulpit again. My name is Pastor John and it really is good to have you with us wherever you are to join with our small group, our small fellowship, of whom I would say the world is not worthy of them. Quoting from Hebrews chapter 11. What I have to say today is very, very, very simple, and I will repeat myself often, but I do that because I want to, what I would call, sharpen the point of the pencil, to keep chipping away so that we all understand these basic truths. I've been dealing with many Christian basic truths that we should know as Christians. And one I want to deal with this morning is the whole matter of faith, what it really is. So Romans 10 verse 13 says this, for everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. How then can they call upon him and him that they have not believed in? How can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. But not all obey the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord who has believed our message. So faith comes from what is heard. And what is heard comes through the message about Christ. It's as simple as that. I want you to turn to Hebrews chapter 11, the great faith chapter. I've already quoted a little bit from that to talk about my own fellowship here, that the world is not worthy of them. And I would list our group here amongst some of these faithful people too. But I want to think about one particular character from verse 23 of chapter 11 of Hebrews. By faith, it says, Moses, after he was born, was hidden by his parents for three months because they saw that the child was beautiful and they didn't fear the king's edict. By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter and chose to suffer with the people of God rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. For he considered reproach for the sake of Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, since he was looking ahead to the reward. So by faith, he left Egypt behind, not being afraid for the king's anger, Well, Moses persevered and as one who sees him who is invisible. By faith, he instituted the Passover and the sprinkling of blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch the Israelites. By faith, they crossed the Red Sea as though they were on dry land. And when the Egyptians attempted to do this, they were drowned. There we have the picture of Moses. It moves on then to Jericho by faith. The walls of Jericho fell down. Okay. Here is a question for you. What is faith? Now you might think what a strange thing to ask a Christian. We all know surely what faith is. Or do we? It is my belief that like our understanding of our enemy, so many Christians have a blurred view of exactly what faith is. How would you define faith then? Well, I think most of us would say that faith is believing. And that's right and that's okay. But believing what? Does it mean that you just believe something nice will happen? and then you think intensely about it, or that you believe you will be healed without a doubt, is faith then just another word for intense, fervent belief? But so if you don't get what you want, or you don't get healed, then it's obvious you didn't have enough faith, or you have not believed as strongly as you should have. If only you'd believed a little harder, then maybe it might have happened. So what passes as faith today has often to do with our feelings, the intensity of them, our emotions, and our really willing hard that something will happen. So if it doesn't happen, then we simply say, well, obviously I didn't have enough faith. But what I want to say to you is that biblical faith is almost the opposite to what many people think today. You see, biblical faith has an object. It is faith in God. It really has little to do with how intense we believe that something will happen. It is nothing to do with wishful thinking. Biblical faith is solid. It is objective and it is firm. In Hebrews, we are told that it is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see. And Paul tells the Romans that faith originates or comes from listening or hearing the word of God. Now, here is the key, really, to our question, my question, what is faith? Biblical faith is faith in God, what He has said. Even if we cannot see Him, we read His Word, and in that we trust and we hope. But in so doing, we are trusting God who said it, as God and His Word cannot be separated. You see, understand this. What God says is an expression of his very person. God and his word are linked. And that's why the devil will attack the word of God. And if he can disprove any of the word of God, then he has disproved God. But it is an expression of God's very person. And to trust in what God says is to trust in God himself. That is biblical faith. So how do I get faith? You get faith by reading, understanding what God says and believing completely in that. Simples. I read, I understand, I believe it. I act upon that word and in so doing, I am believing God. I am believing and having faith in a living word and a living God. So I rest upon what God says, not upon the intensity of my emotions or what I want, but objectively, solidly, logically upon the objective, solid, logical word from the mouth of a living God, a God that nevertheless I cannot see, but I trust what he says. So Paul says to the Romans, this is how you were saved. You heard the word about Christ and you believed it as the word of God to you. And the word faith in the Greek New Testament is the word pistos, which simply means believing, confiding and trusting. It is used when a person believes that someone will honour their promises. I believe that you will do that. I believe what you say is part of your personality and I know your personality, I know you as a person, therefore I believe what you said. So, biblical faith has an object. It is what God says and upon that you believe and trust. Now that brings me to an important but logical point. If biblical faith is in what God says, then there can, in one sense, not be true biblical faith outside of the word. Oh yes, faith exists, but biblical faith is just that. It has as its object what God says, therefore it is faith in God himself. Now, here is something of great importance. If we do not read or we do not preach the word of God, then how can faith be operated? If you and I do not read the word of God, how can we know what God says? Then how can we know and exercise faith in the word what he says if we don't know it? Churches that believe the Bible, preach from the Bible, either by systematic exposition or thematic work or principles from that word, are exposing their people to what God says and therefore promoting faith. So a good preacher will explain what the word means and its context. So everyone can know how to use that word and apply that word in context, exactly what God is saying and therefore have faith in what God is saying and act upon that. So he will say, the preacher will say, here is what God says. This is the correct understanding of it. This is how it is meant to be applied. So believe and have faith and we'll sing the closing hymn and go out into the world. Let me show you then how this faith works. I want to show you that very, very simply and I could choose anywhere really in the scriptures, but I want to show you basically in the life of Moses and we'll just fleet through it very quickly and from Hebrews in particular. Now he and his mother saw and understood the promises of God, as Hebrew says, from a distance. They had the promises of Abraham, they had the promises of Joseph, and they had the promises of all the other patriarchs that God had given them. Now the mother of Moses, I believe, believed that God had said to her, that her son would be special. And on the basis of this, she and Miriam, who was the faithful sister of Moses, who was a woman of great faith in the promises of God, that God handed down to them, they acted. They knew if they were caught, they would die. But they believed God and God's promises of a deliverer. Miriam was saying later on that she knew that her brother would be the deliverer. This trust in what God had said by Joseph was that you meant it for evil but God meant it for good. Now he would be aware of and probably related it to his present situation of evil. That God was telling them that out of this good would come. So the life of Moses is one of faith in what God told him. Moses would have given up in the wilderness if he depended on his own strength or his own emotions. This dependence upon what God said came out in Moses' understudy, didn't it, remember? Joshua, who followed Moses when Moses went into the tent of meeting, Joshua was outside waiting. When Moses went up and up into the mountain, Joshua went partially up and waited. He was a man that learned. And when Joshua entered the land and he conquered it because God had told him to be strong and he acted upon that alone because he'd seen Moses do exactly the same. So I want to give you three simple things, three points. that show you what faith in God is, and faith in what God said, how it drove Moses on and on, to that which he couldn't see, yet he hoped for, and to do things that he built his life upon, because God had said it. Now, what true faith in God had said and promised led his life? Firstly, and these are so simple, really are, let's sharpen the pencil, dear folks, What faith, firstly, enabled and strengthened him to give up? Simple. Secondly, what it enabled him to choose? Thirdly, what was the overriding principle that drove him on? But you already know that, but I'm going to underline it again for you. Firstly, what faith enabled and strengthened him to give up? Basically, He gave up some things, and verse 24 says, by faith when he came of age, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He'd been drawn out of the water. That's what the name Moses means, to be drawn out of the water. He'd been adopted into Pharaoh's house. But Moses knew what God had promised, that he would bring good out of evil. And also we read that Moses, later we read, he took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry my bones up with you from here. Now Moses knew that. That's why he took the bones of Joseph. This was God who had told him these things were to come to pass, and he was acting on them. So Moses knew what God had promised and Egypt was not Israel's destiny, but he was brought up with all the privileges. He was taught to fight like an Egyptian, to be a warrior. He was taught all about arts and the magicians and medical things of the day. He had it made. He was a ruler in the greatest nation of its day. Yet, he knew that was not God's destiny for him or his people and believed God. He believed that when God says, you go into the wilderness and worship me, that was what God said. So he turned his back upon all the prestige that the world offered and led God's people. Do you know, I wonder if many or even any of God's leaders today, would turn their back on fame, just as Moses did, because God had said this was not their destiny. He gave up the worship of false gods. How many of us would do that? How many of us would really give up? Do you know, my wife asked me a question the other day. She said, tell me, If God told you to give everything up and go and do something different for him, would you do it? And I said, of course, I would have no option. That's what I would have to do because God has said it and I have faith in God, however feeble I am, and I will do it. I will do it. Moses gave up pleasure. Let's be clear about this. He could have anything he wanted. The world was his oyster. But we read that in Hebrews, he chose to suffer with the people of God rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. Why? Surely because even before the burning bush, He knew God's word. Well, he wrote the first five books anyway, so he must have known all of that that went on before as he recorded it. And he knew that the people will go into a land reserved for them, flowing with milk and honey. So he gave up the fleeting pleasures of the day. He gave up the flesh because he believed, God, there was something better. He also gave up riches. Verse 26, the treasures of Egypt. And boy, there were a lot of them. Like Christ who left the splendor of heaven and came to earth. Moses exchanged Egypt's gold for the desert sand. Fine wines and drinks for tepid warm water. A soft bed for a rock. palace for a tent. In all of this he was a type of Christ, the most humble man on all the earth. Notice that Moses deliberately chose to give these things up in a belief that God wanted his people to leave and that covenant promise made by Abraham must be fulfilled. God had said it, therefore he must do it. He didn't refuse the glories of Egypt because he was getting too old to enjoy them and his lumbago and his arthritis was hurting him, therefore he couldn't enjoy the pleasures he wanted to. No, no, it was nothing like that at all. But he was quite a young man, really, in those days' standards. He didn't refuse them because he thought he might soon lose them if there was a new Pharaoh. He didn't refuse them because he was hot-headed. No, he thought, he read, he studied, he understood. He knew what God had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And he knew the bones of Joseph had to go. And he knew that God had told him that he wanted his people to come out into the wilderness to worship him. Moses' belief in what God had previously said and then what he said by the burning bush was enough for him to exercise completely faith and act upon it. Secondly then, what did this faith enable him to choose? What does faith in God often offer us in return. Well, if you look at what faith in God made him choose, it's really odd, isn't it? He chose hardship, opposition, and affliction. He chose the company of a bunch of rebellious slaves who were to die eventually in the wilderness. He chose scorn, rebellion from those he cared for and wanted to leave, those he stood before God. And when God wanted to destroy them, Moses stepped in and he says, well, I know they're hot-headed and that, but please spare them. He was such a man. Faith enabled him to choose those things. Faith does this, you see. For when you believe in what God had said, nothing else matters. Moses believed in a promised land, God had promised Abraham, and all the riches of this world meant nothing to him in comparison. Again, look at the Book of Conquest. We could go on to Joshua, one of my favourite books in scripture. Strange, isn't it? Well, I love the Psalms, but two narrative books that I enjoy most of all are The Victories of Joshua and The Failure of Jonah. I suppose that about sums me up properly, most of us really. But look at Conquest of Joshua. What was it that motivated Joshua and drive him onwards? Surely it was the absolute faith in what God had said when God said to him, Joshua, take off the shoes off thy foot, because this place you stand is holy and place the calf that is the bottom of your bare foot upon the ground. And I have given you this land. Be strong and be very courageous. I am with you. And Joshua looked at the impossible girded up his loins, strapped on his sword, and turned to Israel and says, right, lads, let's go. It was not wishful thinking. It was not human resolve, because God kept saying, Joshua, be encouraged, be encouraged. He told Israel to encourage Joshua. That was not human resolve, but faith. God has said it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Thirdly, and we're rushing through this, I know, but I'm trying to sharpen the pencil. What is the principle that moved Moses and others? Well, I don't need to tell you, do I really? It's simple. God had said it. So I do it. Backed by the covenant promises made to Abraham on the basis of this, Moses had faith in what God had said and underlined to him in Midian, it was like for him, I like to look at it like a telescope. He looked through it to see the land of promise, what God had promised. And as he looked through this telescope of faith in what God had said, he didn't see the desert. He saw only the land of promise. He didn't see the rebellious people, but he saw the promises of God could be fulfilled in them. He took his telescope of faith and he looked forward to that which was there. He looked forward to that which was there for him and everything else around the side he didn't see. He just moved forward. And at the Red Sea, he didn't look back and see the might of Egypt behind him and the sea in front of him. He looked up at what God had said and knew that God would do it. Go, for I am with you. Come into the desert to worship me. Ah, but you see there's a sea in front and there's thousands of hooting and hollering mad Egyptians behind me. No, Moses, you were looking up in the wrong direction. It is not backwards or what lies ahead in your way immediately. Look up, hear my word. And you know, as all the people moaned and Moses came before the Lord, he fell down before the Lord and asked what he should do. The reply came, astonishing reply from God, but not really astonishing when you think of it. He says to Moses, why are you crying out to me, Moses? Get up. and get Israel to break camp. In short, Moses, I have already told you. You are to go into the desert and worship me. What are you doing on your knees? What are you doing seeking my face of what to do? I have told you what to do. All you have to do is do it. Believe in me, what I have said. So he did. And he believed. in God and he believed God and by faith the Red Sea parted. Nothing was going to stand in the way of this man and faith. So what is biblical faith? Surely it is a belief based upon the rightly understood, solid Word of God. And it has to be rightly understood, of course. You can't just jump a piece out of context. You must understand it. And that's why ministers are here to help you, and books are here to help you understand. And the Spirit will give light too. But that way, it's a trust in the God who spoke it. It is not working yourself up emotionally, or keep on repeating, this will happen, this will happen, or that will happen, that will happen. But it is a logical, sensible thing. For God is an eternal God, who is pure, and who is right in all that he says. So he can never lie, therefore his word stands forever, as Jesus says, and He has given us that word, then it is logical that we can rely upon it. It is sensible we should act upon it, for faith is not, not a jump into the dark unknown, but a step into the light. Like Peter in the storm, when Jesus said, Peter says, is this you, Lord? If it is, beg me to come. And the Lord Jesus looked at him and he says, come. And so he just got out of the boat and came. Until, of course, he took his belief away from Christ's word to the waves and his faith sank. but faith is believing. Jesus says, come, you come. Jesus says, go, you go. At the moment, we travel on. God has promised that he will never leave us or forsake us. We are his sheep. We are engraved on his hands. And all these statements are for us, so that we have faith in them, we believe them. Also, he has told us Through his words to his disciples, I believe he told us too, that he has gone to prepare a place for us. A place that even Paul couldn't even begin to describe, so beautiful that the words of scripture cannot even themselves fully describe the beauty and the pleasure of what lies ahead for us. There's plenty in what God says, those promises us such a glorious future. So, what you have to do, you see, is to start looking through the telescope of faith to the land that awaits, O blessed land that is ahead of us, and press on through the hot desert. You look through a telescope, focus upon something in the distance, and you will see nothing of that which is around you at all. Start looking to the promises of God. You will be with me. I will be your God. You will be my child. I have prepared a place for you. We believe it because God has said it. Get the telescope out and start looking. The lack of the word of God today, I think is seen in a lack of faith in God's above God's people. It is biblical faith we need today. to be able to stand like Martin Luther on God's Word and say, look, here I stand and I can do no other. So help me, God. I've got faith in what God has said. So understand the basics of personal faith. When first the Spirit opens our eyes, wins our hearts, we then hear the Word saying, repent, turn, believe in Christ, And this is applied powerfully by the Spirit. We understand then this is God speaking to us. And our wills respond then by exercising saving faith based upon what God had said. Something He'd said many times to us in the past, but this time the Spirit of God was open in our hearts. Then we continue our Christian lives in exactly the same way. We read and hear and understand what God has said, and we believe it in our understanding, in our hearts, and we act upon it with our wills. There we have prophet, priest and king again, don't we? There's more to it than you think. More to it than you think. We believe in our understanding, we love in our hearts, and we act with our wills. See, this is not a vague thing, but a belief in what the Word says. and therefore a belief in the person of God who said it. As scriptures rightly say, without faith, this is Hebrews 11, six, without faith, it is impossible to please God. Now, from what we've learned so far, that's logical, isn't it, surely? For faith acknowledges God, it acknowledges his word, and therefore it must please him. So if you want to please God, then read his word, believe it, act by and upon it. And the God whom you trust, although you have never seen, but hoping, will be pleased with you. You see, because one day we will not need faith, we will not need hope as it says in 1 Corinthians 13, for we shall have sight. We will see no longer through a telescope. We can put the telescope down then, and we will see face to face. At the moment, we just see through the telescope at a distance, but then face to face. And as the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, that three things are here, faith, hope, and love. And faith and hope will disappear when we see him face to face. the greatest of these is love. Love will remain. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Then act in faith and believe and live your life as if love were the most important thing in the holiness of God. So there we are. That's a very, very simple study, isn't it? Embarrassingly simple. Have I sharpened the pencil enough? Have you got the point? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes through the Word of God, and we hear the Word of God, we understand it, we trust it, we apply it, we believe it, and then we act upon it. That's me done. I hope that's been helpful for you. That is the basis of simple biblical faith. Let me pray. Father, increase our faith by increasing the word. Help us to study your word. Help us to know your mind and therefore have faith in what you say and act upon it. And now may your blessing, the blessing of Father, Son and Holy Spirit rest and abide upon each one of us, both now and forevermore. Amen.