Faith Renewed & Exercised Psalm 44:17-26

Text: “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now (when faith is renewed) mine eye seeth.  Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job 42:5-6.

Good morning, tried and tested Christian!  Your faith in Christ and mine has been sorely tried ‘in the furnace of affliction’, by trials, tribulations, testings, temptations, hard oppositions and, if we are honest, too many personal failures too. 

However, by God’s Sovereign and ever-given grace, you and I have come once again to our Spiritual senses; put off all attempts to break our faith; and ran into the arms of our Saviour, Jesus Christ for the Eternal security that He alone can give.  That’s the victory, dear friend!

The Psalmist, after having listed his experiences with the oppositions of the world, flesh, and Devil (verses 9-16) – and having allowed his human, natural feelings to make him fear the worst – he is drawn compassionately back, by faith, to the Source of all his Divine help.

No matter how far we allow ourselves, the world, or Satanic forces to dread the worst, our faith in Christ and His Divine Victory at Golgotha’s Cross, will always lift us back up and point us in the path of God’s will.  Faith overcomes all obstacles.   Praise God!

“For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.  Who is he/she that overcometh the world, but he/she that believeth (trusts, and continues to trust) that Jesus is the Son of God?”  (1 John 5:4-5)

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is (exists), and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

Where then do we initially get this necessary FAITH?  Faith to believe and receive Salvation in Christ alone; through His Atonement Sacrifice at the Cross alone; by God the Father’s Sovereign grace alone; and according, at all times, to His Sovereign will alone; and for His greater glory alone?  

You and I have many questions, but God’s Word alone has all the vital Eternal answers!  We see all things clearly, when we look with the eyes of true faith!

10.  Faith: the gracious gift of God.  (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Text:  “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:7-8)                                 

Definition of the term:  Nothing interprets, or defines, Holy Scripture better than Holy Scripture.  Therefore, we find a profound, yet perfect, definition of the concept of Christian Faith in God’s own Word. 

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”     (Hebrews 11:1)

Faith, thus, can only be understood as a Supernatural quality, something that God alone gives to those whom He desires to give it.

Being defined as ‘...the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’; we comprehend that it is a Divinely given gift without which we never can, nor ever will be, Eternally saved.

Faith is defined, in the general sense, by theologian Alan Cairns of Faith Free Presbyterian Church, Greenville, South Carolina, as ‘...the assent of the mind to the truth of something of which we do not have an immediate conception, whereas knowledge is the perception of the truth of something of which we have an immediate conception.’

Faith, according to Thomas Halyburton, one of Scotland’s greatest theologians: ‘...the grace of faith is basically a hearty approbation of God’s method of saving sinners.  We may define it as the work of the Holy Spirit, His gift to God’s elect, enabling them to believe as true whatever God has revealed in His Word and to accept, receive, and rest upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and Eternal life.  It is never alone, being always accompanied by repentance, and producing good works.’  God’s people say a hearty ‘Amen!’ to this truth.

“Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”  (James 2:17-26)

Faith, the true genuine, God-given article, is ‘...the faith once delivered unto the saints.’  (Jude 3)  It is a true faith that will never depart from God’s Word as the only means of obtaining it; and those genuinely possessing such a Divine gift will never, even upon threat of torture or death, ‘...depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron...’  (1 Timothy 4:1-2)

“So then, Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”  (Romans 10:17)

In this sense, we understand more clearly what the great apostle Paul was fearlessly declaring when, not long before he would be martyred for having such faith, he cried: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have KEPT the faith...”   (2 Timothy 4:7) 

The Divine Giver of this Supernatural faith has therefore KEPT Paul Eternally ‘...through faith unto Salvation...’.  Praise His Name!  (1 Peter 1:4-5)

Faith is an absolute necessity for Salvation, we cannot be saved without it; and without it, we can never ‘...please...’ God.

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is (i.e. that God actually exists!), and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”  (Hebrews 11:6)  (See the full doctrine of Faith on our website www.ulsterchristians.org)

Thought: “Verses 17-19 Neither the persecuting hand of men nor the chastising hand of God relaxed ancient, singular saints.  Believers resemble the moon, which emerges from her eclipse b keeping her motion, and ceases not to shine because the dogs bark at her.  Shall we cease to be professors because others will not cease to be persecutors?” (William Secker 1660)