Faith is the one thing that is essential in relating to God. The one thing without which it is impossible to lead a life that is pleasing to God.
We have only just touched the fringe of the limitless ocean, which is the potential of faith.
Faith is essential. There is no substitute for faith, nothing else will do for us what faith will do.
Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6. And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
That’s the basic condition for approaching God, the only condition upon which we can or dare approach God, because God has ruled out every other condition, every other basis of approach.
God says, if we’re to come to Him, we must believe. That’s a divine must. The Lord permits and accepts No alternatives. We must believe.
We must believe in two things. First, that God exists. I’m persuaded that most people really believe that. Even some people who call themselves agnostics or atheists.
I believe there are very few people in the world who don’t somehow or other believe that God exists. But that by itself is not enough.
Many people who believe that God exists do not meet all the requirements for coming to God in faith.
For we must not only believe that God exists, but we must also believe that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
We’ve got to come to God believing that if we do what He requires, if we seek Him earnestly, with our whole heart, without raising any barriers of inflexibility or prejudice or unbelief. If we seek Him that way, He will reward us.
You see, the ultimate object of faith is God Himself, His goodness, and above all, His faithfulness.
Faith, in the Bible sense of the word, is not directed primarily to a thing, but to a person. And that person is God.
We must believe in God’s faithfulness, his goodness, his reliability, his love, his mercy. And that’s why unbelief is a sin.
Many people don’t understand that unbelief is a sin, but it’s a sin because it denies the goodness of God. It questions God’s character. It suggests that God is not reliable, that He’s not good, that He’s not faithful, that we cannot depend on Him. And that is a sin.
So, faith goes right to the very heart of God Himself. It reaches out beyond theories and creeds and dogmas. It touches God Himself, God as a person, God as a Father. God as someone whom we can depend upon.
The word that’s translated faith in New Testament Greek is the word pistis, that word does not mean only faith, it also means faithfulness.
As a matter of fact, that’s really its primary meaning in secular usage outside the New Testament.
The primary meaning of the word is faithfulness. So, believing in God is not merely something intellectual. It is being faithful to God.
God is faithful. We must believe in His faithfulness. But likewise, we must prove ourselves faithful. In other words, what I’m trying to explain to you, and it’s something that people find hard to grasp because of centuries of church tradition and teaching,
We tend to think of faith as being in a creed, in a doctrine, in a form of theology, but it isn’t. It’s a relationship to God, and it’s a relationship in which we must meet conditions that go beyond our intellect.
It’s not just what we think or what we believe with our minds, but it’s being faithful to God.
That kind of faithfulness springs out of commitment or dedication. In other words, believing in God is not just having an intellectual idea about God, or knowing what the Bible says, or being able to quote scripture, but believing in God is being committed to God. It’s being loyal to God. It’s taking your stand with God.
It’s refusing to side with the forces of evil. It’s rejecting compromise where God’s integrity and God’s truth is at stake.
So, it’s never just a question of intellectually accepting a doctrine, but it’s a question of committing ourselves to God.
And this commitment, which is the basis of faith, establishes a direct, ongoing, personal relationship with God.
That’s what I want to emphasize in this message. Don’t think in terms of just some dogma, some creed, some intellectual acceptance of some truth. Whether it’s true or not, that’s not sufficient.
You must be committed. You must give yourself to Him in that relationship, and in return, God gives Himself back to you. It’s a relationship. It’s not a doctrine.
We’re speaking about faith as a relationship with God, not just the holding of a certain creed or doctrine or theory or theology, but a personal relationship with God.
Christianity in its totality is not primarily a religion of right doctrines. It’s a religion of right relationships. And the primary relationship is with God Himself.
If we think merely in terms of entertaining truth, we’re not putting the emphasis on where it belongs. The emphasis is on right relationships.
You see, it’s a fact of experience and observation that many people can give assent intellectually to all the right doctrines, but do not have the right relationships, either with God or with other people.
Let’s not think just in terms of what we believe. It goes beyond that. It’s in whom we believe. It’s how we’re related to God and how we’re related to our fellow believers.
If our brother or sister has ought against us we first come to them and ask them, this may be the primary reason why your faith is not working.
Think in terms of the word believing as loyal, loyal to God, loyal to God’s people. That really is the basic meaning.
Now this kind of relationship that this establishes with God is summed up in one beautiful and familiar verse of the Old Testament in the Book of Psalms.
Psalm 23, verse 1, Because the Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need-the living Bible.
Isn’t that beautiful? Because the Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need.
Now, when David says, the Lord is my shepherd, he’s not telling us his doctrinal stand. He’s not coming out as a fundamentalist, a Baptist. a Pentecostal, a charismatic, Catholic, Lutheran or any other denomination. He’s not reciting a creed; he’s stating a relationship.
The Lord is my shepherd. I belong to him. I’m submitted to him. He cares for me. I know him personally.
That’s what I’m talking about. That’s what real faith is at its basis. It’s that relationship with God.
And notice the total security that that relationship can give us. Because the Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need. I shall not want.
If David had added anything after I shall not want, he would have spoiled it all. If he had said, I shall not want money, I shall not want food, I shall not want clothes, whatever he added would have limited it.
But he says, I shall not want, period. I shall not lack. The supply of all my needs is guaranteed out of that one relationship. The Lord is my shepherd.
That’s what men and women are craving in our society. It’s security. And they are often looking for it in the wrong place.
True security grows out of that personal relationship with God. The Lord is my shepherd. It’s faith in God. Faith in His faithfulness.
That’s the basis of our approach to God, our relationship with Him. It’s faith, commitment, loyalty, faith in His faithfulness.