The Challenge of Faith

Introduction

Our Heavenly Father, we come into your presence thanking you for each new day of life that you give us for this day of worship that we’ve had with your people. We pray that the things that we talk about tonight will give us strength, will nurture our confidence and faith in you, that we might be believers in the midst of a world that generally rejects you. And we want to be strong as we live for you each day. And so we pray for your help and guidance and be with us as we worship tonight in the name of our Savior. Amen. I just realized I did not account for the opening prayer in my preparations. So after Dean’s first two songs, we’ll have another prayer by the one who has been designated for that.

As I mentioned this morning, we’re going to talk about tonight the challenge of faith. We live in times where unbelief is on the rise. That is, more and more people who either reject the idea and notion of the existence of God or they simply reject the Bible as the message from our Creator. Why is that? And I did some research this week, and some of the thoughts that were expressed was the problem of pervasive secular humanism. That is the focus of everything is on a horizontal plane without much consideration of the vertical. That is God. It’s all about man and what man does and the thoughts of man rather than the thoughts of God. There is also a contributing factor of new age and eastern religion.

I think all of us have learned more about Buddhism, Hinduism, and Far East religions than we ever heard about when we were young. Islam. I mean, Islam was something that we didn’t even talk about when I was a kid. And so this different and new kinds of religion, people investigate that. They want to know more about that. And they might even investigate that more than they do something that’s been a part of our culture here in the United States of America for centuries. There’s also the aggressive rise of new atheists. It seems that there are more and more scholarly works that are coming out to support the idea of rejection of belief in God. I have some of those books in my library. So the aggressive rise of new atheists, also the postmodern rejection of absolutes.

You’ve heard the term postmodern. You’ll hear people say we live in a postmodern world. And it goes with that thinking that there are no absolutes. You get to decide what is best for you to do, for you to believe, and add with all of those things the problem, a severe problem of biblical illiteracy. People know less about the Bible in this culture, probably, than in any generation that has lived here in the last couple of hundred years. And so the fact that people aren’t acquainted with biblical contents is a part of the issue that gives rise to unbelief. And I would just simply add to that the neglect of biblical information. If we are not exposing ourselves regularly to the marvels of Scripture, we will find ourselves in a vulnerable place when it comes to these false and different ideas or the rejection of God Himself.

Neglect fosters vulnerability. And that’s why it’s so important, as we talked about this morning, for us to participate regularly among the Lord’s people so that we’re getting the input in our thinking from God’s word that we need a sufficient amount of that. And I like this. Somebody mentioned this, and I thought I won’t throw it up on the screen. Even those who claim to be Christian are not fully convinced of, as we talked about this morning, the morality of the Bible story, the purity to which it calls us. There’s sort of a half-hearted adherence to the biblical message. That there’s some of the ideas that we embrace, but a lot of it, well, you know, you can take it or leave it. Say that you believe in Jesus, that he lived, that he rose from the dead, but the rest of it’s pretty much whatever you want to do with it, getting back to the postmodern rejection of absolutes.

Degrading morals. The more behavior becomes inconsistent in society with the biblical standard, with the righteous standard, there’ll be more of a consideration of, well, maybe there’s not a God after all, and along with that, the disintegration of the family. So what is faith exactly? If you were going to give a definition, of course, the first place we might go is Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 1. And I want you to get this firmly entrenched in your mind. This is what faith does. When we talk about having faith before God, faith is, and that tells us that’s what it is.

It is the confidence. It is the conviction that we talked about this morning. It is the assurance of things hoped for. It is an absolute confidence that God has great things in store for us, that He is providing great things for us. It is the conviction of things.

Oh, for a faith that will not shrink.

Number five oh one, if you’re following along the books, number five zero one for I believe when we behold the wonders of creation the blood that loon the rain was the face of God and our perpetual way Shine, we cannot doubt that our control it all I believe I stand up in once we have his own no fine and I mortal calculation could bring the truth we are within his word in every trace of nature of the race such thy voice oh God in the street Lord I believe I believe I cannot die for me when we perceive the thing that is gone in wins the soul from the God was cause we must be able to make sure I want believe and cause for I believe that’s I believe This time we’ll be letting another word for there.

Let us pray. Our Father in Heaven, we thank you for this day, and now the second time in the day that we can come together as your family of Christians here at Decker Prairie to worship you, to learn from your word, to grow stronger in our faith and love of you and for you. We thank you for the many blessings in our lives. We thank you for sustaining us through difficult times. We thank you for the jobs and the homes that we have. And we thank you for this, our family. We pray that you will help us to show you in our lives and all that we do. That we will show others that you are first in our lives by our actions and by our deeds and what we say, and that we might help spread the kingdom, and we might help others find you so that they too can be saved.

We ask that you’ll be with us as we continue through this lesson and through this service tonight that we will dedicate ourselves to you in it and in our lives throughout our lives always. Forgive us of our sins, and I sons we pray. Amen.

1. Creation Declares the Existence of God

How about Romans chapter 1 and verse 20? Since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature has been clearly seen, understood from what has been made so that they are without excuse. He says in that text. There is ample evidence just in the world around us that declares the existence of God. Now, we might not by that, we would not by that be able to know what all of his will for us is, but we should be able to conclude that our surroundings are extraordinary, that they are not the product of chance, but they are the product of an intelligent God who is powerful, who has created all that is, including ourselves. The latest scientific projections suggest that our universe not only contains countless stars, but billions of galaxies as well.

Now, this is mind-blowing. If you just consider the galaxy that astronomers say that we live in. And it’s a great candy bar. The Milky Way. Boy, you all are half asleep tonight. The Milky Way galaxy, the Earth, that’s our Sun, is within that galaxy, and there’s perhaps as many as they would suggest 300 billion stars. Just in the Milky Way galaxy. In fact, they would suggest that the Milky Way galaxy is a Titan among galaxies, that it’s not the norm. That perhaps the normal galaxy, again, this is from those who are scientists who look into telescopes and project such things on the basis of what they see. That the average galaxy has about a hundred billion stars. Our Milky Way, they suggest, has 300 billion stars.

And they further suggest that in the observable universe, that is the amount that they can see so far, they guess that there are 10 billion galaxies just in the observable universe, and they are conjecturing that some are called like fluffy galaxies.

And so the suggestion is that in regard to stars, not universes, this first number is not universal, galaxies. The first number is galaxies. The suggestion is that there is likely around, and this is just a guess, a billion trillion stars. That’s a number that you couldn’t fathom if you tried.

Okay? That’s the estimate of scientists about the vastness of our universe. And so when I consider that, and its wonderful design, its beauty, I think of Psalm 147, verses 4 and 5. His understanding is infinite. Great is our Lord and abundant in strength. He counts all the stars, and he knows them all by name. What an amazing, powerful, and large God. We serve. And so when you consider the vastness of the universe and where we are in it, as one book about such things calls us the tiny pale dot in the midst of our solar system, much less in the midst of our universe. I mean, think about how small. As big as the earth is, it takes you what, 80 days to go around it?

2. Do Not Mistake Silence for Absence, Nor for Approval

And there’s so around the world in 80 days. Well, in a plane, you can go a lot faster, but it’s huge. It’s big. I don’t even want to get out of the United States, and it’s big enough for me. But it’s still vast. And yet the earth in relation to just the observable universe, not what might actually be out there, is so very small. You can’t even see it between my thumb and index finger. You can’t see it. And so here’s the problem people have. Billions of galaxies, billions of stars. And yet, not a peep from our creator. Where’s God? This one who’s created. You’re saying that the evidence is there, Romans chapter 1 and verse 20, that you ought to believe in God, but where is he?

I’ve never heard his voice. I’ve never seen any visible evidence of his presence. How can a great God be so silent? It’s as if he started it all if he really does exist. And he just winded it up and let it go without much comment. Especially in the last 2,000 years. So the first thing I would say about that. Do not mistake silence for absence, nor for approval. And I’ll take you quickly to Psalm 50 in that regard, where people began to construe that their behavior was alright because God didn’t say anything. Because God says, I kept silent. Oh, since God isn’t punishing me on the spot, since he isn’t obliterating me for the behavior that I’m doing, then it must be okay. And the point of this in Psalm 50 is beware, lest he tear you into pieces.

He will set the case in order before your eyes. Just because you do something and you’re looking around for punishment, as I’ve said before, no lightning bolt comes down from heaven and strikes you dead on the spot. Doesn’t mean that God hasn’t tallied it, that he hasn’t noticed it, that he’s not going to hold you accountable for it, or that he’s not there, that he’s off on vacation somewhere. And not tending to his universe.

In Jerusalem, we’re saying. We saw that in our study of Ezekiel. The Lord does not see. And then there’s the passage in Lamentations. And I don’t go to lamentations very often. Lamentations chapter 3, verses 24 through 26, where Jeremiah affirms his faith in a seemingly hopeless situation with little visible evidence of his care. Now he’s receiving revelation, so Jeremiah knows for sure God is there. But he affirms, the Lord is my portion. Therefore I have hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the person who seeks him. It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord. So Jeremiah looks around. He sees the awful destruction. He’s been prophesying about the awful destruction that is coming. And as he writes the lamentations, it’s fully square in his mind, as it is either coming or has come.

And yet he says, I wait on the Lord. I wait. Just because there’s no visible evidence, and just because God hasn’t awakened you in the middle of the night and said, Hey, Tony, here I am. I’ve got a word for you tonight. Just because there’s no neon sign in the sky that says, hey there, I know you’re going through a rough time, but I’m here. I love you. Just because there’s no visible evidence of his presence. Doesn’t mean he’s not there. And then there’s the mocker’s question. In 2 Peter chapter 3. Where’s the promise of his coming? I do think it’s important to notice that their question is prefaced by this statement that they are individuals who are followers of their own lusts. And thus the mocking.

They’re really more interested in their own desires, but they say, okay, God has just wound this thing up. It goes on day after day like it has for years. Nothing happens. Where is the promise of his coming? Well, the answer is supplied to the question. Begins with a history lesson and words about a promise. The history lesson is remember the flood? People didn’t think that day was coming either. And it came and destroyed the world. And the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire. A fire that God has promised. And he said, I’ll tell you this. Some things have escaped your notice. And I would just pause with that phrase and say, when people succumb to unbelief, it is because some important facts have escaped their notice.

Maybe it’s because, like the mockers, they want to follow after their own lusts. But there are things that they’re not observing that they ought to be observing. And one thing you need to observe, while God is not talking to me on a regular basis, at least not audibly, he is talking to me on a regular basis in his revealed word. A day with the Lord is a thousand years, a thousand years is one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as men count slackness, but is long suffering to us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And so instead of saying, Where is God? He’s not talking to me. He’s created this whole universe. He’s this powerful, yet he doesn’t even talk to me.

Not a fee. Not a peep from our creator. Is he really there? Instead, you ought to say, Well, I’ve got to be ready. Because a fire is coming that’s going to end all of this. And when God breaks his silence, woe to those who have not readied themselves. What manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conduct and godliness. And we talked about that this morning. 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 11 is that text. I’m reminded of the Star Wars Rogue One movie. The best thing about that movie was K2 SO. He was awful. And I love it when Cassian Andor summons K2SO with the ship so that they can be rescued from prison while the Death Star is destroying the planet Jedda.

3. God Deems the Evidence Sufficient

And he says, I am waiting here. I’m standing by as you requested when Cassian calls him. And he says, But there may be a problem on the horizon. There’s no horizon. And what he meant by that is you then see the planet is just being destroyed. And if they don’t get out of there in a hurry, they’re going to be destroyed. And ultimately, that’s what’s going to happen to our planet. That’s 2 Peter chapter 3. Ultimately, there’s going to be no horizon. And yet people say, well, but I need more evidence. All I can suggest to you is that God deems the evidence sufficient. Despite a host of prophets in the era of revelation, and we said, Boy, wouldn’t it be great if we had prophets in our prophets, I would believe.

If we had direct revelation from God, okay, but the scriptures are complete to do all that God wants them to do, and thus the prophets that we read about in New Testament times, prophets that we read about in Old Testament times, their voice is no longer necessary. God’s ultimate word has been revealed. But even in the era of revelation, can I suggest something to you? It wasn’t a prophet a minute. It wasn’t a prophecy a minute. Every day, every generation had access to a prophet. No. As many prophets as there were. We read through the Bible. Oh, there’s prophets upon prophets, upon prophets, fall prophets. But we’re talking about thousands of years. There were periods of time, long periods of time, where there wasn’t a prophet.

Like when Samuel comes along. The story of God speaking to him. And Eli has to say, well, say, speak, Lord. Your servant is listening. That whole chapter is prefaced by the fact the word of the Lord was rare in those days. Or precious, the King James Version says. But the idea is there wasn’t much prophetic voice in those times. And then God comes and he speaks to Samuel. That’s probably not the best illustration. The best illustration may be what we call the intertestamental period. Even from Jewish sources, they acknowledge that from the time of Malachi to the time of John the Baptist crying in the wilderness, the prophetic voice had vanished. One of the reasons why when John came prophesying in the wilderness, everybody got excited.

And they went out to it. Okay, he said, well, but that wasn’t that long. I mean, from Malachi to John. Oh, really?

How about roughly 500 years? Maybe a little less. Oh, in the whole scope of history, that’s not very long. But, okay, think about that. The United States of America has been a country for 242 years. So double. Double the time that the United States of America has existed. There’s no prophetic voice, perhaps, for double the time that we’ve been a nation. That’s a long time for silence. Is it not? Silence was normative. More so than prophecy. And I would further say this. When people say, I need more evidence, I would say that seeing miracles was never normative. That is, it wasn’t just miracle after miracle all throughout history. We read in the Bible, remember, this is a very condensed version of history. This is history from God’s perspective, the history that matters.

But this, I mean, think about it as a history book. This is the Cliff notes exponentially. This is very short. I know it’s a big book to us, but in terms of the history of the entire world, listen, I’ve listened to teachers in history classes go on and on and on, big books written about the Civil War. Thad has 25 of them. Just the Civil War. I don’t know, he may have more than that. That’s one little air in history. We’re talking about the history of humanity here. And so we read the Bible, oh, miracle. Miracle. Oh, look at all these miracles. Now, first of all, when miracles were done, they were done locally, only within the vision of those who happened to be present, like the walls of Jericho falling flat.

How many people saw that? Well, there was the Israelites, and there was people there. That’s a lot less than all the people in the world. And even in the days of Jesus, when he’s going around, he’s performing miracles everywhere, oh, but man, miracles everywhere. Just in Palestine. Unless you journeyed from Rome, from Greece, you didn’t see miracles. You only knew about miracles if the apostle Paul showed up, or some other apostle or some other miracle worker ultimately came. It’s not like every miracle Jesus did was seen by all the population of the world. I would suggest to you that not only was prophecy not normative throughout history, but seeing miracles was not normative, but apparently the evidence was sufficient to produce belief. That’s why John wrote his gospel, or the gospel of John was written.

4. Incontrovertible Evidence: Trustworthy Historical Eyewitnesses

That you might believe. And believing, you might have life in his name. And so I want to suggest to you that there is incontrovertible evidence that should promote faith. And I know what you’re thinking. I want that car.

Man, you’re just not with me tonight. It’s not a car, it’s incontrovertible evidence. It’s not a fancy car. It’s a word that points to evidence that is so conclusive that there can be no other truth in the matter. Truth so strong that it overpowers any contrary evidence, and it would direct the fact finder to a specific and certain conclusion. The fact is that the Bible is filled with trustworthy historical eyewitnesses. And that’s what Peter says in 2 Peter chapter 1. We did not follow cleverly devised tales. We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Peter said, Me and James and John, we were there, we saw it, Jesus was transfigured on the mount. You should believe. No prophecy of scripture is many private interpretation. But holy men of God, moved by the Holy Spirit, spoke from God.

I am an eyewitness. And so I’ve said this many times. I’ll say it again. When you reject Jesus, you not only reject Jesus, you reject the Apostle Paul, you reject the Apostle Peter, you reject all the spokesmen of the Bible who said they spoke from God. You reject Moses, you reject Abraham. You reject it all. Either these are legitimate eyewitnesses to the works of God and the promises of God as they have revealed and confirmed those things to us, or it’s all a bunch of fiction. I think the evidence is incontrovertible. Unless I see Thomas said.

5. The Most Thunderous Proof Is the Resurrection

What does he owe Thomas? But that’s what our God does. He condescends to the request for us. Not just Thomas. It’s after that, just after that the author says, these things are written that you might believe. And so many have pointed out that Thomas doubted so that we might believe. Two large proofs of God’s existence. Creation. In verses 1 through 6 of Psalm 19. His word. Revelation. The rest of that chapter. And the most thunderous proof, the evidence, is the resurrection. Or resurrection period. There was the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter that was only witnessed by a handful. But even more, I love Matthew chapter 27 in this vein. When you read the story of the crucifixion, and we’re going to talk about it in class coming up in a few years.

When Jesus cried out with a loud voice in Matthew 27 and verse 50 and yielded up his spirit, behold, the veil of the temple was torn into. All those things that happened, I am riveted on verse 52 and 53. And the tombs were opened. And many bodies, I don’t know how many that is. I’d like to know a number, but it just says, many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep, holy men of God and women of God. Many of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many. Now, how do you talk about something like that as sort of a footnote to the crucifixion? It’s a couple of verses.

It’s like a footnote. Oh, by the way, when Jesus died and the Baal of the temple was written too, there was this massive resurrection that took place. All of these dead holy people of Israel, they came up out of the tombs and they started appearing to everyone. Can you imagine the response to that? The excitement that was generated over those resurrections, not to mention the resurrection that’s about to take place that is going to change the world, the resurrection of Jesus, which is the most powerful proof that God is who he says he is, and his word is reliable and true.

I believe in Jesus.

I believe in the words of war to I believe that the death ear and I believe we may turn for me. I believe that we spoke to last I believe that we raise up and I believe that we’re one day for Mount And I was found and I answer for me. Resurrection number two four nine two four nine so when Jesus and read the so When I shall lie, when I should leave the Lord will be sent from heaven with the shall to take away the stone.

6. Every Eye Will See Him

Not only do we have the resurrections that I mentioned, certainly the resurrection of Lazarus would be further testimony to the power and reality of our God in heaven. I like the point that we sang in I believe in Jesus about the effect, the message of the gospel, the resurrection of Christ and his death, the effect that it’s had on us. So often people talked about the proof is in the great changes that it results in people’s lives. The great transformations that occur as they submit their lives to the risen king as another evidence of the power and fruitfulness of God’s word. But I wanted to mention this concept. Every eye will see him from Revelation chapter 1 and verse 7, as he’s saying about 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse 16.

This is really an involved explanation that I’m not going to do at this time because I didn’t know how long this was going to go. But let me just say this.

People should know who are informed that this is the working and act of God. And this is based, this statement is based on Zachariah chapter 13 in a text that talks about the vindication of Jerusalem. Well, in the book of Revelation, the vindication of Jerusalem is not about the city of Jerusalem, it is about the new Jerusalem that is being vindicated because of her persecution by all of the enemies of God in the book of Revelation. And so God acts, and it is going to be observable and known that it is God who is wreaking vengeance on the adversaries of his people. That’s just the short of that. But here’s what I want to say about this prayer. All such figures like this, like the new heavens and new earth and things that we read throughout Scripture, all such images like this have a basis in a literal fulfillment.

And what First Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse sixteen is telling us that a day is coming when there will be a shout from heaven, a trumpet will declare the coming of the Lord, and he’ll be seen in the sky, and every eye in that day will literally visibly see the Lord. And so do not mistake the silence now for the shout that will be heard by the whole world. And I believe that day is coming, and I believe the righteous will ascend to glory.

Conclusion

There are so many assaults that come upon the people of faith as they strive to live day by day. Sometimes we’re questioning ourselves, is it really worth the effort? Is it is it worth all of those assemblies and sitting through all of those sermons that Tony preaches, even the ones that go 35 minutes? I mean, is it is it really worth all of this effort? Shouldn’t I just live for myself? Do what feels good in the moment, be my own king. I want to tell you get to be a king for a very short time. Just ask a guy who was a king. Nebuchadnezzar. Look at Babylon the Great that I built for myself. Then he had seven periods of time that weren’t so good.

After that, but even then, as he was restored to a kingdom, it was a very short time, and he was gone. He’s been gone for 2500 years. King for a little while, but I want to tell you the king of kings reigns forever. And what you need to do in the midst of Satan’s assault. In the midst of the questions and the concerns, whether I should stick this out, whether I should keep plugging away, whether I should keep trusting in that which I do not see, or I should just give it all up and start walking after the things that I do see, walking by sight. Whenever you’re tempted to do that, I want you to think of a lesson like I preached tonight. And understand this.

How many more years or days you have left, but I’m going to tell you how you live. And I’ve already let the cat out of the bag. One day. One step at a time. I can’t worry about what the life of faith is going to mean in the year 2030. I only need to think about July 15th, 2018. And the life of faith I’m called to live the rest of this day. And then when the next day comes, if it does, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. I live that day. One day. One step at a time. Knowing that this journey, you know, none of us are going to get to heaven in the end and say, oh man, I had to pay too much to get here, isn’t it?

It wasn’t worth it. Oh, the pain and the struggle. Nobody says that in glory. But I’ll tell you what you will do if you reject the life of faith. You’re going to ruin the day that you made that decision. And you’ll ruin it forever. The journey is worth the effort. And it is the ultimate investment. One day, one step at a time. If you need to respond to the invitation, it’ll stay in the same.