Confidence and not Arrogance!

(Hebrews 11:6) “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

 I find it hard to hold back from the confession I now need to make. It is a confession of glee rather than sorrow and I have considered the difference between arrogance and confidence; all I am left to say is that I love my great Saviour more than I can express; He has ransomed me with His own life and yet almost twenty-four years down the line I am once again where I once was, so long ago. I thank God for my lighthouse; I owe my life to Him, as this is an obvious conclusion. Yet it is only when we experience His love first hand in our lives will we understand this to be true. There is so much I need to pen and yet there seems to be an overload of thoughts all happening at the same time. Maybe I should unpack them and take them one at a time; maybe it is time to write another book; less of me and more of my great Saviour, and yet He will only ever be great in our own eyes if we understand that it was Him who first loved us.

“The Shield of Faith” I think must be the topic and maybe even the title. So many of us lose our way because we do not understand the impact that faith in our lives; it is either miss appropriated or avoided in order to correct the mistake of others; we tend to love the “pendulum theory” (to counter the mistakes of others we overcorrect leaving us just as guilty). Therefore we are left battling against sin in our lives but not flying the “banner of faith” not using our shield to good effect, we begin to take the onslaught of the trials of life on our chin and before long we are dusting the dirt from our knees.

It is when we are arrogant that we are humbled. But confidence is something beautiful, and only when our confidence is in God’s ability. Subtle nuances of distortion to correct biblical application in our lives affect our ability to walk as victorious Christians and everything pivots around “unbelief”. How so? Let us hear from a great biblical teacher our brother who has long gone on to be with the Lord…

“I shall this morning invite your attention to two things—the man's sin and his punishment. Perhaps I shall say but little of this man, since I have detailed the circumstances, but I shall discourse upon the sin of unbelief and the punishment thereof.

I. And first, the SIN.

His sin was unbelief. He doubted the promise of God. In this particular case unbelief took the form of a doubt of the divine veracity, or a mistrust of God's power. Either he doubted whether God really meant what he said, or whether it was within the range of possibility that God should fulfill his promise. Unbelief hath more phases than the moon, and more colors than the chameleon. Common people say of the devil, that he is seen sometimes in one shape, and sometimes in another. I am sure this is true of Satan's first-born child—unbelief, for its forms are legion. At one time I see unbelief dressed out as an angel of light. It calls itself humility, and it saith, "I would not be presumptuous; I dare not think that God would pardon me; I am too great a sinner." We call that humility, and thank God that our friend is in so good a condition. I do not thank God for any such delusion. It is the devil dressed as an angel of light; it is unbelief after all. At other times we detect unbelief in the shape of a doubt of God's immutability: "The Lord has loved me, but perhaps he will cast me off to-morrow. He helped me yesterday, and under the shadows of his wings I trust; but perhaps I shall receive no help in the next affliction. He may have cast me off; he may be unmindful of his covenant, and forget to be gracious." Sometimes this infidelity is embodied in a doubt of God's power. We see every day new straits, we are involved in a net of difficulties, and we think "surely the Lord cannot deliver us." We strive to get rid of our burden, and finding that we cannot do it, we think God's arm is as short as ours, and his power as little as human might. A fearful form of unbelief is that doubt which keeps men from coming to Christ; which leads the sinner to distrust the ability of Christ to save him, to doubt the willingness of Jesus to accept so great a transgressor. But the most hideous of all is the traitor, in its true colors, blaspheming God, and madly denying his existence. Infidelity, deism, and atheism, are the ripe fruits of this pernicious tree; they are the most terrific eruptions of the volcano of unbelief. Unbelief hath become of full stature, when quitting the mask and laying aside disguise, it profanely stalks the earth, uttering the rebellious cry, "No God," striving in vain to shake the throne of the divinity, by lifting up its arm against Jehovah, and in its arrogance would

"Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,
Re-judge his justice—be the god of God."

…Then truly unbelief has come to its full perfection, and then you see what it really is, for the least unbelief is of the same nature as the greatest.
I shall attempt this morning, for a little while, to shew the extremely evil nature of the sin of unbelief.

And first the sin of unbelief will appear to be extremely heinous when we remember that it is the parent of every other iniquity. There is no crime which unbelief will not beget. I think that the fall of man is very much owing to it. It was in this point that the devil tempted Eve. He said to her, "Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" He whispered and insinuated a doubt, "Yea, hath God said so?" as much as to say, "Are you quite sure he said so?" It was by means of unbelief—that thin part of the wedge—that the other sin entered; curiosity and the rest followed;

But secondly; unbelief not only begets, but fosters sin.

But there is a third point. Unbelief disables a man for the performance of any good work. "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin," is a great truth in more senses than one. "Without faith it is impossible to please God." You shall never hear me say a word against morality; you shall never hear me say that honesty is not a good thing, or that sobriety is not a good thing; on the contrary, I would say they are commendable things; but I will tell you what I will say afterwards: All these things put together, without faith, do not please God. Virtues without faith are whitewashed sins. Obedience without faith, if it is possible, is a gilded disobedience. Not to believe, nullifies everything. It is the fly in the ointment; it is the poison in the pot. Without faith, with all the virtues of purity, with all the benevolence of philanthropy, with all the kindness of disinterested sympathy, with all the talents of genius, with all the bravery of patriotism, and with all the decision of principle—"without faith it is impossible to please God." Do you not see then, how bad unbelief is, because it prevents men from performing good works. Yea, even in Christians themselves, unbelief disables them.” (C.H.Spurgeon) - Delivered on Sabbath Morning, January 14, 1855, by the REV. C. H. Spurgeon At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.

What I find rather delightfully intriguing is this was at the beginning of Spurgeon’s ministry and he had understood the importance of faith as opposed to the traps of unbelief and look at the effect he still has on the church today. I’ll even go as far to say as it would appear that everything in our lives pivots around this truth.

Remember the shield of faith! It is glorious when we see our King as the “Conqueror Supreme”, praise His name, Amen!

Signing off

Tyrone