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Scripture Reading: Heb. 11:1, 6; 12:1-2; Rom. 10:17
I. We need to look away unto Jesus with undivided attention by turning away from every other object — Heb. 12:1-2 S. S. 1:4; Psa. 27:4.
II. Jesus is the Author of faith, the Originator, the Inaugurator, the source, and the cause of faith — Heb. 12:2a:
А. The faith of the believers is actually not their own faith but Christ entering into them to be their faith — Rom. 3:22 and note 1; Gal. 2:16 and note 1:
1. Our believing is our appreciation of Christ as a reaction to His attraction — Rom. 10:17.
2. In our natural man we have no believing ability; we do not have faith by ourselves.
3. The faith by which we are saved is the precious faith that we have received from the Lord, the God-allotted faith — 2 Pet. 1:1; Col. 1:12.
4. When we look away unto Jesus, He as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) transfuses us with Himself, His believing element.
5. This faith is not of ourselves but of Him who imparts Himself as the believing element into us that He may believe for us.
B. Faith is a substantiating ability, a sixth sense, the sense by which we substantiate, give substance to, the things unseen or hoped for — Heb. 11:1:
1. Substantiating is the ability which enables us to realize a substance.
2. The function of our five senses is to substantiate the things of the outside world, transferring all the objective items into us to become our subjective experience.
3. As the eye is to seeing, the ear to hearing, and the nose to smelling, so faith, our spirit of faith, is the organ whereby we substantiate everything in the unseen spiritual world into us — 2 Cor. 4:13:
a. We must exercise our spirit of faith, our mingled spirit, to believe and to speak the things we have experienced of the Lord.
b. Faith is in our spirit, which is mingled with the Holy Spirit, not in our mind; doubts are in our mind.
4. We do not regard, look at, the things which are seen but the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal — 2 Cor. 4:18:
a. The Christian life is a life of things unseen — Rom. 8:24-25; Heb. 11:27; 1 Pet. 1:8; Gal. 6:10.
b. The degradation of the church is the degradation from unseen things to seen things.
c. The Lord’s recovery is to recover His church from things seen to things unseen.
5. Faith assures us of the things not seen, convincing us of what we do not see; therefore, it is the evidence, the proof, of things unseen.
C. Faith is to believe that God is:
1. Without faith it is impossible to please God, to make God happy — Heb. 11:6a.
2. “He who comes forward to God must believe that He is” — Heb. 11:6b:
a. To believe that God is, is to believe that He is everything to us and that we are nothing — John 8:58 Eccl.1:2.
b. To believe that God is implies that we are not; He must be the only One, the unique One, in everything, and we must be nothing in everything — Heb. 11:5.
c. To believe that God is, is to deny our self; in the whole universe He is, and all of us are nothing — Luke 9:23.
d. I should not be anything; I should not exist; only He should exist — “It is no longer I, but Christ” — Gal. 2:20.
e. At his conversion the Lord told Saul of Tarsus, “I am Jesus” — Acts 9:5:
1) The Lord was saying, “I am the great I Am. I am the One that is. You must believe that I am and you are not.”
2) Eventually, Saul was over, and Paul came up — Acts 13:9.
f. This is faith — “O the joy of having nothing and being nothing, seeing nothing but a living Christ in glory, and being careful for nothing but His interests down here” — J. N. Darby.
III. Jesus is the Perfecter, the Finisher, the Completer, of our faith — Heb. 12:2a:
А. As we look away unto Him continually, He will finish and complete the faith that we need for the running of the heavenly race — v. 1.
B. When we look away unto Him, He ministers heaven, life, and strength to us, transfusing and infusing us with all that He is, that we may be able to run the heavenly race and live the heavenly life on earth — 2 Cor. 3:18.
C. We all have the same faith in quality, but the quantity of faith we have depends upon how much we contact the living God so that we may have Him increased in us — Rom. 12:3:
1. Faith in the progressing stage comes through our contacting the Triune God, who is faith in us — 1 Thes. 5:17.
2. The way to receive such a faith is to contact its source, the Lord, the processed and consummated God, by calling on Him, praying to Him, and pray-reading His word — Heb. 4:16; Rom. 10:12; 2 Tim. 2:22; Eph. 6:17-18; Heb. 4:2.
3. When we contact Him, He is overflowing within us, and there is a mutuality of faith among us; we are encouraged through the faith which is in one another — Rom. 1:12; Philem. 6.
D. Our regenerated spirit, our spirit of faith, is the victory that overcomes the Satan-organized-and-usurped world — 1 John 5:4.
E. The great irrepressible and unlimited power of faith motivates thousands to suffer for the Lord, risk their lives, and become overcoming sent ones and martyrs for the carrying out of God’s eternal economy, which is in faith — Heb. 11:36-40; Luke 18:8; Phil. 2:30; Rom. 16:3-4; Acts 20:24; 1 Tim. 1:4.
