The Importance of Faith

**Pastor Joshua Kirstine** (0:00)
Today, we continue our time in Chapter 17, Luke's Gospel, as we focus on the next couple of verses found in verse five and six. For a little reminder of the context we find ourselves in this passage, Jesus just finished giving warning about the reality of the seriousness of the temptation to sin, and not being the one to tempt others to sin. Then, Jesus pressed the disciples to practice forgiveness. With these real life realities and struggles all around, how much our flesh is vulnerable to choose what doesn't honor God, the disciples, in this moment, turned to Jesus to ask for his help with increasing their faith. Look with me, Luke 17, 5 and 6 The apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, if you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea and it would obey you.
Here in verse 5, the apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith. We see the disciples are longing for increased faith in light of all that is constantly before them in this fallen world, as their ministry continues with the Lord.
Since hearing these teachings that he's given them as of late, it makes sense since faith is the cornerstone of our walk with Christ as we aim to honor God in anything. The late JC. Ryle said it this way, quote, faith is the root of saving religion. It is the hand by which the soul lays hold of Jesus Christ and is united to him and saved according to a man's faith will be his peace, his hope, his strength, his courage, and his victory over the world. Faith is a grace which admits of degrees. It does not come to full strength and perfection as soon as it's planted in the heart by the Holy Ghost. There's a little faith and great faith. There's weak faith and strong faith. Both are spoken of in scriptures. Both are to be seen in the experience of God's people. When the apostles made requests about faith, they did wisely and well. End quote. Church, it's my passionate prayer on this Lord's Day gathering that your faith increases, and you grow to walk by faith and not by sight more and more. Now, for our faith to be strong and steadfast, we need to have a solid biblical understanding of what faith even is, and how it works, and why it is so important to our lives.
Again, why is faith so important? The answer is we're desperate for faith because nothing we do outside of faith is ultimately good, or God-honoring. Paul said that so precisely in Romans 14, 23, for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
This is because anything that we do that is not in faith is not done unto the glory of God, to honor God. If it's not done in faith, its target, the why we're doing it, even if it's good, is on God's creation and not on him.
Even when we do horizontally great things, kind things, sacrificial things, if not done in faith, it is sin, Scripture teaches us. Because without faith, it's not unto the glory of God. God is not ultimately why we do it. And it's important that we see that apart from faith, our flesh has other goals. It has other motivations and other reasons for why we do what we do. And therefore, we need true faith so that the lives we live and the good we do do is ultimately done unto the glory of God above all else. A second clarity of why it's important, faith is important, is that faith is not something that we produce on our own. It's a gift of God. The Bible teaches clearly that before one is reborn by God's sovereign hand, being given, saving faith, the will, our natural will is only opposed to God. Romans 8, 7, and 8 The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Jesus also teaches the flesh left to itself only chooses sin and never chooses God until the Spirit of God gives new life. John 6, 63 John 6, 63 It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all. Many people, including myself, were taught growing up that man is free enough to choose God and believe in his gospel. But this is not what God's word clearly teaches. The Bible often and clearly reveals that man's will is not free. As many commonly think of free will, instead, man is the opposite of free in our natural state, in our conceived nature. We are enslaved to that nature, our sinful nature. The natural will of man is enslaved to sin, unless it's freed by the grace and power of God. People say or ask, do we make any choices then? Right? Don't we make choices every day? And the answer is yes, we do. But the bondage of the will of fallen mankind, the state we're all in, from conception until salvation, is enslaved to sin. It's bound. It's dead in sin. There's no spiritual life. Without the gift, God's gift of faith, we will never choose to do anything unto God's glory, because faith is not present.