Faith has in view past, present, and future. It often looks back to creation and the making of all intricate and powerful things, and through faith it is obvious to us that God made these things, that everything was framed by his word. We look back to things from our perspective that God has done in the past. We look back on Bible history and it encourages us to see the power and blessing of God in answering prayer and bringing about wonderful things. Most of all we look back to Calvary, and we think of the offering of Christ and all that he has done for his people. Faith also looks at the present. Like those mentioned in this chapter we face many trials and we must respond to them by faith. Faith wants to please God and so searches diligently to discover his will in each situation. Our faith looks ahead and draws encouragement from all that is prepared for us and we trust him entirely. It is the very opposite of the doubt that entered the Garden of Eden and the mistrust.
Secondly, faith is nourished by the word of God. Here are those promises. Here is the history of God's goodness, to his people. Here is the record of the Saviour and his ways and his work. Here all the precedents of blessing, here is all the information about heaven. How can you have faith, if we do not use the word of God considerably? Read it with a list of questions to provoke your attentiveness. Do you always have room in your mind to identify a promise? What doctrine is here? What example does this Bible character set for us? What duty have I omitted, or what duty am I being urged to carry out? How am I being reproved by this passage? What view of Christ is there in the passage? This is your grid for looking at Scripture. You cannot increase your faith by willpower, but chiefly through your knowledge of God's word and your reflection on all that it says to you.
Faith is undermined by sensationalism, desiring to perceive things by felt sense. Today many try to build up faith by taking an interest in signs and wonders, people who claim they can work miracles. People who claim that they received special signs of great significance today. People can tell me stories of amazing occurrences and they can do things before my eyes. They can slay people in the spirit and whole rows will collapse and fall down. ‘That will build up my faith.’ No, it won't; it will undermine your faith, because that kind of thing is sense, not faith. Faith operates by spiritual sight, which makes things real to you by the work of the Holy Spirit. If you find some substitute for faith such as signs and wonders, emotionalism, or imagined wonderful coincidences, it weakens faith. That is what the people of God tried to do while Moses was on Mount Sinai. While he was obtaining from God the Ten Commandments, the people were saying to Aaron, ‘Give us a god we can see and touch; make a golden calf which is visible.’ And of course it was evil, and it was condemned. It is happening all over again today. ‘Do not tell me that I must believe God's word and meditate on it, and the Holy Spirit will fan into a flame that gift of faith which I received at conversion. Give me something I can see and touch, give me wonder workers, give me these boastful characters who claim they can raise the dead and slay people in the spirit: that will build up my faith.’ No, it won't. It will train you to depend on something other than God’s word.
Faith must centre on Christ. It reflects upon Calvary and the price of salvation and the love of Christ. You think of him during the course of his trial, so called, and you remember that wonderful event.
Faith secures a reward. It was rewarded in the case of these men and women of old and it will be rewarded in your life. ‘But I thought I was saved by grace through faith and after that God will be pleased with me because I serve him and do certain things for him.’ No, God will be pleased with you because of your faith, because you trust him no matter what, and you reflect and rejoice in the things that he has promised you.
Faith grows; it develops. Abraham exercised faith, and he went out and obeyed God. Where he was going he did not yet know. He knew that God would lead him, but he had no sight of it. His faith increased; his vision was made clearer. He went out not knowing whither he went, but after dwelling in that land of promise he knew clearly what he was looking for: ‘A city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God’.
Faith sanctifies. Now some people teach that we are sanctified by faith, and they understand it wrongly. They say, you don't have to do anything; you don't have to try to be holy; you don't have to live a righteous life and struggle and strive. Just trust God and he will make you holy, he will do it all. No, that is a wrong view of sanctification by faith. Here is how faith works in sanctification: I hear the commands of God, my conscience is moved by the Holy Spirit when I'm about to do wrong. and I strive to resist that temptation, praying to God for help. Yes, and the Holy Spirit will help me, but I have something to do. I must stop that wrong word. I must stop that wrong deed. There is effort required by me. Where does the faith come in? It believes that God will help me when I call upon him. The realisation that he is with you and is watching you makes it harder for you to sin.