A World That
Breeds Skepticism
1 out of
every 5 retirees over the age of 65 in this country has been a victim of a
financial scam... Since 1968, when the
International Olympic Committee started drug testing regularly, 139 athletes
have been caught using performance enhancing drugs during the Olympic Games and
have been stripped of their medals... In
2010 a human resources association found that over 53% of people lie on their résumés... No wonder we grow up to be suspicious! People lie, people cheat, people deceive, and
sometimes people are just plain wrong.
And so we’ve learned over the years to be skeptical and wary about what
we read or hear. And now we’re just used
to it. When you use a credit card at the
store the clerk might ask to see your ID just to make sure that your name
matches the one on the credit card - and we think nothing of it. When you read something in the newspaper you
might do some research of your own to make sure they got the facts right. When you get advice from a doctor it is not
out of the ordinary to get a second or even a third opinion. Because even when someone has good
intentions, they are not always correct.
And so it pays to be skeptical in this world. It’s worth the extra time and effort to check
things out a little more in depth than simply taking someone’s word for it.
We want
proof, don’t we? We want clear
information laid out in front of us that supports what we have heard or seen or
experienced. And if, by our
investigation, we find that something doesn’t quite add up or something is out
of line or something is missing, we immediately refuse to believe what someone else
has claimed because our intelligence and our knowledge and our research have
led us to a different conclusion.
We Submit God’s
Word to Logical Tests
And
that’s a healthy practice. It’s God-pleasing
to use the abilities and the resources and the common sense our Lord has given
us to evaluate things in this world. We run
into problems, though, when we apply that same kind of thinking to the Bible. We get into trouble when we take God’s Word
through a variety of logical tests, when we compare what God’s Word says with
our intelligence and our knowledge and our experience. Because when something doesn’t quite add up
or when something is out of line or when something is missing, we have difficulty
buying into what God clearly says.
Let’s use
a few examples: Jesus says in the Bible that he is with us to the very end of
the age. And we have read that and we
have heard that and we want to believe that.
But there are times when it seems like Jesus is nowhere around. And our observation is: “I’m alone! There is no one here to help me. There is no one here to support me. There is no one here to back me up. I am completely on my own. There is no doubt about it!” Our knowledge is contending with the clear
words of God. They contradict each other
and one of them will have to win. Which
one will it be?
God also
says in his Word that we are to pray to him and that he listens to our
prayers. But then we pray and we pray
and we pray for something and nothing happens.
So our experience says: “Prayer doesn’t work! There’s really no need to keep on praying if
the Lord isn’t going to answer me!” Our
experience is contending with the clear words of God. They contradict each other and one of them will
have to win. Which one will it be?
God says
in his Word that he loves us and that he works everything out for our good
because he loves us. But then we think
back to all of those horrible experiences that we have gone through and we
can’t think of one good thing that resulted from them. And then we have to go through another
terrible experience in the future, and every single part of it seems to be bad as
well. And our intelligence says: “God’s
promises don’t add up! If God really did
love me, if God really did make sure that all things would work out for my
good, then why are these things happening to me? What doesn’t he prevent them from
happening? Why doesn’t he stop them from
happening? I can’t see how a loving God
would permit these awful things to happen to someone he supposedly cares about!” And our intelligence contends with the clear
words of God. They contradict each other
and one of them will have to win. Which
one will it be?
Unfortunately,
it is our intelligence or our experience or our knowledge that sometimes wins
out, don’t they? Because God’s Word
doesn’t makes sense or it doesn’t seem right or it doesn’t add up and we become
frustrated with the Lord and start to doubt whether or not these things are
really true at all. And in the end we actually
end up trusting our minimal intelligence over the unfathomable intelligence of the
almighty God! We actually end trusting
our few decades of experience over the few thousand years of experience of the
eternal God! We actually end up trusting
our pitifully small bank of knowledge over the inexhaustible knowledge of the
all-knowing God! Now that doesn’t make sense! Why would we ever put stock into what we
think over and above what God knows?
Because we are that sinful. We
are that corrupt. We are that arrogant
as to think God’s will and God’s plans have to match up exactly with what we
expect to happen, and if they don’t, well then God must be wrong. Because we
certainly can’t be wrong! We certainly are never mistaken! It must be God who is at fault! It must be the Lord who doesn’t really know
what he’s doing!
Faith Goes Beyond Knowledge
As the
apostle Paul wrote his letter to a congregation in the city of Ephesus, he knew
that their intelligence and their experience and their knowledge would be in
sharp disagreement with God’s Word, just like ours is still today. And so when he prays for them in this letter,
he doesn’t pray that their intelligence would increase or that they would be
able to learn from their experiences or that their knowledge of earthly things
would be built up over time. Instead
Paul prays for their faith through the power of the Holy Spirit. “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with
power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that
Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Paul prays this prayer because faith trumps
intelligence; faith overrules experience, and faith goes beyond knowledge.
Intelligence
says: “It doesn’t make sense!” But faith,
worked by the power of Holy Spirit through the Word of God, says “It doesn’t
have to.” Experience says: “That has not
proved to be true in the past!” Faith,
worked by the power of Holy Spirit through the Word of God, says “It is true
nevertheless.” Knowledge says, “There is
not enough proof! There is not enough
evidence! There is not enough support to
substantiate these claims!” Faith,
worked by the power of Holy Spirit through the Word of God, says “I don’t need
proof. I don’t need evidence. I don’t need anything else to substantiate
God’s claims other than God’s Word.”
Faith is knowing that something is true even though you cannot see it, even
though you cannot explain it, even though you cannot fully understand it, and
even though you cannot logically figure it out.
Faith takes God at his Word even when everything else is screaming at you
not to.
But
faith isn’t a feeling. And it’s not an
opinion either. Faith is a belief based
on fact. The facts are found in God’s
Word. And the faith to believe those
facts is worked in our hearts through that same Word. And so when your intelligence says to you, “It
doesn’t make sense that God would forgive you; why would he bother with someone
like you?” Your faith can say, “He
forgives me anyway because he says he does through Jesus’ death on the cross.” And when your experience says, “It doesn’t
seem like the Lord has loved you in the past after all that he’s put you
through…” Your faith can say, “I know
that he loves me because that is what he has promised me in the Bible.” And when your knowledge says, “Maybe this
whole Christianity thing is just a hoax.
Maybe you aren’t going to go to heaven because heaven isn’t really
there. Maybe you’ve been tricked to
believe in this Jesus like so many people are tricked to buy into a lot of
things nowadays.” Your faith can say, “I
know Jesus is real. I know he is both
true God and true man. I know that he
lived on this earth as a perfect human being, died in my place, and rose from
the grave to solidify his victory. And I
know that I will end up in heaven because God himself has guaranteed in his
Word that whoever believes in Jesus will be saved.” Intelligence is relative. Experience can be interpreted different
ways. Knowledge is sometimes wrong. But faith is strong, not because you are
strong, but because the one in whom faith believes is strong. Faith is confident, not because you are
confident in yourself all the time, but because the words in which faith believes
are trustworthy. Faith is sure, not
because you are always so stable, but because the love of God on which faith
leans never fails.
Faith Believes How Wide, Long, High, and Deep Christ’s Love Is
“And I pray that you,
being rooted and established in love, may have power,
together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is
the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.” This is Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians and
it’s his prayer for us: that we would grasp this love of Christ that surpasses
knowledge. And Faith is really the only
thing that could grasp the love of Christ, isn’t it? Your intelligence laughs at Christ’s
love! Your experience scoffs at Christ’s
love! Your knowledge instantly dismisses
Christ’s love! But your faith “grasps”
Christ’s love like nothing else can.
Only the faith that the Lord has given me could believe that no matter
how wide I have opened myself up to the temptations of this world, Christ’s
love is wider. Only faith could believe
that no matter how long my rap sheet of sins grows every day, Christ’s love is
longer. Only faith could believe that no
matter how high I have built my tower of arrogance and disregard for God’s
Word, Christ’s love is higher. Only
faith could possibly believe that no matter how deep I’ve dug that hole for
myself over the years, Christ’s love is deeper.
Christ’s love is deeper, higher, longer, and wider than any sin of any
sinful person on this earth. And I
believe that. Not because it makes sense
to my intelligence, not because it lines up with past experience, not because
it satisfies my knowledge. I believe
that but because the Holy Spirit has worked faith in my heart through the Word
of God. “And I pray that you, being
rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints,
to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” for you
too.
In this
world of skeptics and scoffers, in the world of liars and cheaters, in this
world of uncertainties and inconsistencies, faith in the Word of God is a
powerful thing, isn’t it? But that faith
that you now have in your Savior is not because you chose to believe. Your intelligence and experience and
knowledge wouldn’t choose Jesus. It
wasn’t even because you wanted to
believe. Your intelligence and
experience and knowledge want nothing
to do with Christ. You have faith right
now because God wanted you to believe
and through his Word he convinced your heart that, despite everything else,
what he has done and what he has said and what he has promised is true. That is a powerful Word of God to convince you
of that! And thanks to the Holy Spirit
that is a powerful faith that now rests in your hearts. It is your most precious gift. It is your most prized possession. Because through it your Lord will take you
home.
Amen.
“Now to him who is
able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power
that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” - Eph. 3:20-21
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