BY

Brother John S. Peake

AS GIVEN AT THE

ROCHESTER ANNUAL FRATERNAL GATHERING

1955

As brethren and sisters of Christ we should have a lively interest in these words of Paul. To the Galatians he said (Gal. 3: 26-29): "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." And again from the chapter read in your hearing we repeat (Rom. 4: l6): "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all."

What is this faith of Abraham of which the Apostle writes, and how does one "walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham which he had being yet uncircumcised?" To answer these questions let us very briefly look at the manifestations of Abraham's faith as recorded in the scriptures. "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed: and he went out, not knowing whither he went." (Heb.11: 3). To leave Ur, the center of civilization and of pagan worship, and to go into the unknown demanded obedience at the risk of personal danger. In the land of his sojournings he received a promise that the land should be his for an everlasting possession, even though he received in his whole lifetime "not so much as to set his foot on.''' He was promised that his seed should be as the stars of the heaven in multitude and as the sand which is upon the seashore innumerable, yet he had to wait nearly 25 years from the giving of that promise, until the birth of Isaac. Abraham thus had ample time to doubt God's promises and to conclude that since he and Sarah were so advanced in years no child could be born to them. But what saith the scripture? "And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb; he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was also able to perform.” (Rom. 4-: 19-21). As a final evidence of Abraham's faith let us consider his greatest trial. As the time drew near when Abraham might expect to see his seed multiplying we find God demanding on unheard-of thing, the offering in sacrifice of the seed of promise. If the waiting for the birth of this promised seed was a perplexing trial to Abraham, what about the order to destroy this precious seed? Yet we find Abraham obeying this dreadful command which would appear to spell disaster for the rest of the promises "accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead from whence also he received him in a figure." To go to this extent in believing in the justice, the righteousness and the faithfulness of God was to exhibit to the limit of natural human capacity the true meaning of faith. Having acquired and developed through such patient obedience and trial on unshakable faith, Abraham was then able to look ahead with spiritual vision to Christ's day and be glad. Having taken God at his word, he could picture his multitudinous seed and rejoice in the hope of the blessing of all the families of the earth through him and his seed. He could visualize himself raised from the dead to inherit the land for on everlasting possession. "And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness." Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." (Rom. 4: 22-25). Paul continues into the next chapter: "Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand —."

As we analyze the faith of Abraham we see that he believed God and lived in full accord with the commandments and promises he received. God's word was to him the assurance that things would be even as he had promised them, and Abraham conquered all doubts and perplexities by patient self-control and obedience. Thus it would appear to us that the problem of faith resolves itself into two major problems, the problem of spiritual vision and the problem of self-control. These are problems which face us and which you and I must solve each for himself. Faith is an attainment. It is not something we were born with, such as we might be born with a talent for music. We are not born with attainments. We acquire them only through labor and training.

If faith is something which we must acquire individually, how do we go about acquiring it? We must all agree that the very beginning of faith is knowledge which must first be acquired, as it is written: "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Rom. 10: 17). The assimilated knowledge received into a good and honest heart becomes belief, and belief if thoroughly tested and proved ripens into conviction. Without the conviction of truth there can be no spiritual vision, for this conviction of truth becomes "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." It is the foundation upon which faith like Abraham's may be built. As the Apostle Paul wrote (I Cor. 3: 10-13); "According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now If any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is."

The thought seems never to occur to some of us that we can acquire a considerable knowledge about the truth and still be totally without faith. The notion, all too prevalent among us, that because we can distinguish between truth and error and have been baptized we are therefore of the household of faith is entirely unjustified. Faith involves more than knowledge. It involves more than belief. It involves more than conviction. It involves more than baptism. James said to those content with nothing more than belief and baptism (Jas. 2: 12-20): "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe and tremble. — But wilt thou know, O vain man that faith without works is dead?" To believe without building faith upon the foundation of conviction is to possess nothing but a foundation. It is what James styles faith without works. God wants believers of truth, but infinitely more he wants doers of truth — people who are true through and through. Paul tells us that we must build upon the foundation of belief in Jesus Christ and furthermore that we must take heed how we build thereupon. In other words, it is your problem and mine to build wisely and carefully with the best materials at our command. Though the choice of the materials is up to us, the test of fire which will reveal the quality of our building will be entirely impartial. How then do we build our belief into faith? Building implies labor, and labor takes effort. There is no magic lamp which we can rub, no magic words that we can incant, and letting things take their natural course results only in degradation. The labor here involved lies principally in thought, the quiet turning over in our minds of the things which we learn from the scripture record. We call it meditation. Having thought things through, we can then intelligently put them into practice and hereby make them a part of our habit pattern. According to the quality of our thinking so will be the quality of our building and hence of our faith. To give the matter little thought and effort is like building with hay or stubble. Such produces no work and as faith is practically dead. The fiery trial will destroy it. To think and to labor hard, while seeking guidance from above, is like building with gold, silver, or precious stones. As you and I face our responsibilities there is no alternative to thinking our belief into faith.

Round about us we can see many sincere and God-fearing people whose efforts at serving God betray an almost complete lack of the kind of thinking of which we speak. They believe with all their hearts, but what they regard as faith is nothing but a combination of stimulated emotions and blind trust. How can such attain unto the saving faith of Abraham? They have no foundation of truth upon which to build, and anything short of this foundation can produce nothing better than a psychological shot in the arm. Granted that we can be helped psychologically to endure trials and disappointments which would otherwise overwhelm us, such psychological helps ends with death, if not indeed much sooner. The benefits of true faith, on the other hand, are eternal, and nothing short of the power of God can have any effect upon us after death.

The importance of scripture study in this building process is obvious, but the importance of meditation and practice may be somewhat less so. To overlook these necessary steps is to lose the benefit of our study. As James says (Jas. 1: 22-24): "But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." Even the simplest truths demand extensive thought before they are thoroughly mastered. We find this true even in everyday life. Carpentry, for example, is a relatively simple trade, yet even Einstein in his prime could not have taken tools in hand and have done a so easy to understand superficially, but it is in the practice of his simple commands that we find so much difficulty, for they run counter to our natural desires and impulses. Yet if we meditate upon them, we can come to realize that they are not arbitrary or unrealistic. Instead, meditation shows them to be the most practical way for our ultimate good. Jesus said (John 14: 21): "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me — ." Meditation is the surest way of making his commandments ours. It is necessary preliminary exercise to keeping them in practice. The spirit of Christ in the Psalms says (Psa. 119: 97), "O how I love thy law! It is my meditation all the day."

In these days of rush and distraction the time for study and meditation is hard to find. In fact, we might say that meditation is almost a lost art. The competition to attain or maintain the standard of living temptingly portrayed by clever advertising plus the noisy pleasures and general excitement of the times have left this generation by and large a mass of spiritual mites. But where is this utter materialism leading us? "What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" Material possessions are harmless in themselves provided we have faith, but if they drag out our hearts with them, and rob us of our precious time for study and meditation upon the word of God, we have not the spirit of Christ, and we will never attain unto saving faith. If it takes thought to acquire spiritual vision, what does it takes to achieve self-control, that other most difficult element of faith.

If someone were to ask you what it is which makes you do things you know you should not do, you might reply either that you did so without thinking or that you couldn't help doing so. If thoughtlessness is the explanation for your act, it is certainly obvious that thinking can be the only remedy for future mistakes. If, on the other hand, you could not help doing so, the reason is probably that the stress of emotion impelled you to do it. Emotion is the most difficult of all our drives to control. Uncontrolled emotions are perhaps responsible for more sin and suffering than any other cause. Faith is not merely a matter of belief and trust. It is likewise a matter of being faithful and obedient to divine low. Being faithful and obedient demand control over emotions, and this is perhaps the greatest problem of our lives. It must be said in all fairness that there are good emotions as well as bad ones, but somehow we just don't have much trouble with the good ones getting out of hand.

The question now arises as to how we are going to get control of our emotions. Admittedly, this is a very difficult problem. Jesus solved the problem perfectly, and he was able to say to his disciples (John 16: 33); "— be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." But Jesus was perfect, and we are not: Yet we can do somewhat about it. John says (I John 5: 4); "— and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." Faith is then the secret to overcoming the world. Faith involves self-control, and this self-control is achieved only by sober thinking coupled with prayer, for this is something in which we must have help — God's help. Furthermore, our thinking must be positive thinking, that is thinking with a positive and constructive goal in mind. Negative or destructive thinking will not get us anywhere at all. Such does nothing to help us gain control over our emotions but instead pampers them and is actually controlled by our emotions. Anger, fear, pessimism, bitterness, and destructive criticism are examples of negative attitudes which do not help faith but actually lead to sin.

In the magazines these days we hear somewhat about the power of positive thinking. One Dr. Norman Vincent Peale is making quite a name for himself by expounding this approach. Most certainly positive thinking, even of Dr. Peale's variety is beneficial, but we must bear in mind that his prescription amounts merely to a psychological gimmick. It is not based upon the hope of Israel, and since it lacks this only sure foundation, it has no eternal value. Essentially what Dr. Peale is teaching is a brand of self-confidence, though he calls it faith; it is the assumption, to use his words, that "you and God can do anything." Now, however, comforting and stimulating this may be to the human ego, it only seems reasonable that God will not always be disposed to go along with us and help us in whatever we may choose to do in our daily affairs. No, the strength we seek through faith is not the psychological strength of self-confidence, but the selfless strength to do God's will rather than our own. If we know through study and meditation what God's will is, we through the prayer of faith may obtain his help. Self-confidence places the faith in the wrong being. Our faith must be in God and in Christ. Even the Apostle Paul admitted (II Cor. 1: 9). "But we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead."

The indispensable part which thinking plays in achieving self-control should now be fairly obvious. Only by careful thought can we become thoroughly familiar with what is right and what is wrong. Furthermore our thinking will help us to discern why it is right or why it is wrong. Moreover, only by thinking the matter through can we appreciate the practical wisdom of doing only what is right and the sheer folly of doing what is wrong. There is not a single sin which is worth committing. Even non-religious but thoughtful people can reason that it is to their present advantage, even in this world, to do only what is generally accepted as right. Adding to this temporal advantage what we know to be the eternal advantage of complete obedience, should we not be able to reason ourselves out of the desire to sin?

Let us consider just one illustration of our thesis that it is possible to control our emotions by means of thought. Perhaps many of you have had the experience of being reprimanded and humiliated by the boss. What did you do about it? You probably stood there and took it quietly for the simple reason that you were smart enough to know that to give vent too your rage and let the boss have it back might have serious economic repercussions. Thus the desire to retain a salary proved a strong enough motive to control the potent emotion of anger. If emotions can be controlled by such worldly reasoning, why cannot we accomplish their control by spiritual reasoning?

The emotion of fear is perhaps the most potent and the most difficult of all to control. It is so difficult because in our complex civilization it is activated in such subtle ways. We might run away and hide from a bear, and we can easily keep out of the way of crocodiles, but we cannot run away from the necessity of making a living, and we cannot escape the subtle deception of human society. Furthermore, the more intelligent we are the more we can see to fear. The very ignorant among men do not generally go around imagining impending trouble for themselves. They merely take whatever comes. But the more intelligent people who should by virtue of their capacity for thought have the strongest faith often turn out to be the worst worriers. Even Abraham through his fear for himself and for Sarah when in the countries of Pharoh and Abimelech took the way of human expediency, not sufficiently confident that God could and would protect them both. The problems and excitement of the present press so hard upon us, and the present seems so real and all-important to us. Unless we have developed the spiritual vision to make the future seem as real as the present, we shall find ourselves giving in to the potent urges of the present. We must learn to endure as "seeing him who is invisible" who is the greatest reality of all, knowing that all power is in his hands. We must realize that his guardian angels are about us to care for us as needed. We must realize that no power can withstand God's will; therefore if it be his will to protect us, there is no power on earth that can harm us. On the other hand, we must realize, that if he wills that harm or trouble befall us to try us or chasten us, we cannot do anything to avoid it. This may seem at first glance on almost fatalistic attitude. Nothing could be farther from the case. To trust blindly and ignorantly in God's protection as the Mohammedans do in Allah is the exact opposite of the faith of Abraham. The faith of Abraham is a faith founded upon knowledge and not upon ignorance. It is a faith developed by diligent thought and not by carelessness.

In view of these facts, to fear and to worry are basically staggering at the promise of God through unbelief — a refusal on our part to take God at his word and to believe that what he has promised he is also able to perform. Does this honor God? Will he be pleased that we doubt his ability or his loving kindness to protect us from harm? How can we love him, if we say to him in effect, not thy will but mine be done?

Though thinking the matter through must first be done, we must perfect and prove our faith by practice and trial. An unpracticed faith, as James says, is dead— stillborn. Only by working do we put life into our faith, and become faithful on our own part. The quality of our faith will be shown by the way it stands up under trial and temptation. Again from James we quote (Jos. 1: 2-4) "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience, but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." To what purpose, do you suppose, God permits us to be tried? Is it so that God can determine the quality of our faith? A little reflection will show that this cannot be the purpose of it. How can God who knows everything fail to know the condition of our faith, even as Jesus knew that Peter's was so weak that he would the some night thrice deny him? If our faith is inadequate, we may be chastened as correction for our mistakes. It must be evident therefore trial and chastening are sent for our own "profit that we may be partakers of his holiness." Trial and chastening make it clear to a thinking believer where weaknesses lie. If he is sincere, he will think over every trial carefully and will strive to discover what it is within himself that needs correction. After such careful self-analysis he can then proceed to take the necessary corrective measures and start to improve and to purify himself. With each successful exercise through trial and chastening he is a better servant of God; he is stronger and richer in faith.

If it seems that we have over-stressed this importance of thinking on our own part in the development, of our faith, may we not reply that, after all, faith itself is a matter of thinking? The faithful person is distinguished from the unfaithful by the way in which he thinks. He has placed his hope and trust in God rather than in himself, and the things he loves are the things he has learned from God. Furthermore such thinking is not muddled or wishful thinking as supposed by the worldly wise and clever. On the contrary, it is straight and intelligent thinking — thinking guided and educated by the word of the living God. We cannot avoid this obligation to think for ourselves, for faith is not a substitute for thinking. It is actually a product of it. We must think our belief into faith for without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing to God.

In conclusion and by way of exhortation, Brethren and Sisters, let me urge upon you the importance of diligence in this matter of developing our faith to the highest possible degree. In view of the "time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation" which even worldly people of foresight can see coming soon, we are going to need every bit of faith that we can muster. If it be hard to keep up our courage and to bring our emotions under control with only the trials of what people call "normal" times, think what it will be when the fury now being prepared is unleashed. We know not the day nor the hour when our Lord shall call us. Though brethren have regarded the call imminent for a century and more, that is no reason to slacken our efforts. Death can overtake us today, and so far as we personally are concerned, the Lord is then here. The only alternative to faith is fear, and we are told that (Rev. 21: 8) "The fearful and unbelieving" along with other classes of transgressors against God "shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death." By faith we understand that God is once more to shake the earth and also the heaven which will signify the removing of those things which we now see that they may be replaced by things which do not yet appear. Why, then, should we be engrossed with the temporal things about us which are ready to crumble, even through their own rottenness? The faith of Abraham looks toward the future to the "city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” To this we should look with the vision which only faith supplies. "Toward it we should direct our steps with the self-discipline and confidence which only faith can give (II Cor. 4: 8). "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

John S. Peake