Page 22 - Fundamentals Ebook

toward sight, or at least toward a mixture of sight and spirit. But
true faith rests on the objective revelation of the Lord. I also desire
to show the difference between unbelief and struggling faith.
Unbelief has no desire to believe; struggling faith has the desire to
believe. God accepts struggling faith as faith. Faith is only as
strong as the Object it leans upon. God Himself is the object of faith.
The Indispensable Principle

I want to begin by reminding my heart and your heart of the
indispensable principle; total reliance on God’s Holy Spirit. I’d like
to share this verse and then we’ll look at the new material. Psalm
81:10, “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” Is that an
invitation? Is that a command? Is that a challenge? Is God saying,
“You can’t open your mouth wider than I can fill it?” Is it a
promise? I think that verse teaches us, “If you are ready to eat, I’m
ready to feed you.” We never have to overcome God’s reluctance.
We always have to lay hold of His infinite willingness.

Let me introduce what I’d like to look at now. It’s such a large
theme, that’s it’s almost impossible to do it in one lesson. The
foundation that I want to discuss is faith; what it means to trust the
Lord. How can we trust the Lord? I have some verses to illustrate
why this is very important. Hebrews 11:6, “And without faith it is
impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe
that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
Romans 14:23, “But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because
his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.” 2
Corinthians 5:7, “For we walk by faith, not by sight…” Galatians
3:11, “Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident;
for, ‘The righteous man shall live by faith.’” All of that is to say
faith is very important. If you don’t have it, you can’t please God.
Faith is reckoned as righteousness.

If you tried to study faith in the Bible you would see how large that
is. We could talk about faith as a gift from God. We could talk
about God being the author and finisher of faith. We could discuss
how it’s reckoned as righteousness. We could talk about it being