Faith, Part 2

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”

Corrie ten Boom

Kirk Cameron’s Comment

It’s amazing to me that the people who say they cannot have faith in God because they cannot see Him will still fly in airplanes. Flying requires that you trust your life to two pilots you’ve never met, who are flying over 500 miles an hour in a tin can with wings, built by people you don’t know, and inspected by people you’ve never seen. Even an atheist has enough “faith” to fly in an airplane and trust in the things he wants to trust in.

Questions & Objections

Lesson

Every Christian should be familiar with the faith experiences of “Christian” and “Hopeful,” so richly illustrated in the great classic, Pilgrim’s Progress. Both Christian and Hopeful left the King’s Highway and fell asleep on the grounds of Doubting Castle. Giant Despair woke them and asked what they were doing on his grounds. They replied that they were pilgrims who had lost their way. Giant Despair, being stronger than both of them, drove them into Doubting Castle and threw them into a dungeon that was “very dark, nasty and stinking.”

For four long days and nights they lay there until Giant Despair’s wife, Diffidence (lack of self-confidence), counseled her husband to beat them without mercy. Giant Despair obeyed his sweet wife and beat them, then advised them to kill themselves (nice guy).

Christian and Hopeful actually considered the suggestion, but the fear of God stopped them.

The next evening, the big fellow returned, furious that they hadn’t taken his advice. Mrs. Despair suggested he show Christian and Hopeful a few skeletons they had in their closet. The hen-pecked hulk then took them down to the castle-yard, showed them the bones and skulls of those he had already dispatched, and explained, “These were pilgrims who trespassed on my grounds and I tore them to pieces.” The giant made no bones about the fact that he would do the same to them within ten days. Hopeful and Christian decided to pray. Good idea.

After about six hours of prayer, Christian cried, “What a fool I am, thus to live in this stinking dungeon when I may as well walk out in liberty. I have a key in my bosom called ‘promise.’ That will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle.” Christian then pulled out the key, unlocked the door, and they escaped—no doubt the wiser.

What a wonderful allegory of those who doubt the promises of God. How perfectly it describes our own experience. The second our minds doubt the promises of God, Giant Despair appears and begins to beat us without mercy. What fools we are to lie in such a dark, nasty, and stinking dungeon! The moment we take out the key of promise, we find release.

The way to measure the depth of our faith is to see how much joy we retain in tribulation. This fact was illustrated by what appeared to be a life-threatening situation in which Jesus and His disciples found themselves. They were in a boat during a violent storm. While the disciples panicked in fear, Jesus slept. That’s the peace that faith produces. The Bible said He also had an “oil of gladness above [His] fellows” (Hebrews 1:9). That’s because He lived in absolute faith in His Father. May God help us to have that level of faith.

Imagine that we told you that you would receive a million dollars when you finished this course. Think of it: if you simply complete these lessons, you would get ten thousand $100 bills—all yours. If you truly believed the promise, you would have immediate joy. If you didn’t believe it, you would have no joy at all.

If you have faith in the exceedingly great and precious promises of God, you should have instant and exceeding joy—and the joy of the Lord will be your strength. If you have no joy, then you don’t believe God’s promises—in essence, it means you think God is a liar. So if you are joyless, repent from the grievous sin of having “an evil heart of unbelief.” You should be able to say with the apostle Paul, “I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation” (2 Corinthians 7:4). The promises of God are still true no matter what the situation in which you find yourself.

Feathers for Arrows

Roman prisoners were usually chained with one end fastened around the wrist of their fighting hand, and the other end attached to the wrist of a soldier’s left hand. This left the soldier’s right arm free in case the prisoner attempted to escape. For greater security the prisoner was sometimes chained to two soldiers, one on each side, as Peter was in Acts 12:6. Meanwhile, “Peter was sleeping”! In a few hours he expected a sting-less death. Like Paul, he didn’t count his life dear to himself, so that he might finish his course with joy, and the ministry he has received from the Lord Jesus (see Acts 20:24). In this frame of mind he had fallen asleep, and he slept in perfect peace. Truly this is an example of someone who was eternally minded. Psalm 4:8 says, “I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for you, LORD, only make me dwell in safety.”

Words of Comfort

Sue mentioned that an overzealous clock on the kitchen stove was ticking too loudly, so (much to her dismay) I volunteered to fix it. When I pulled it to bits, I noticed that it was run by electricity. All I had to do to stop the ticking was to simply pull out one of the wires.

When I pulled on it, it bent and exposed a small piece of live wire. This was the same stupid stove that had set me on fire, so I decided not to proceed any further. I’m a wise man. The clock had stopped ... time was standing still. That’s all that mattered.

I carefully put the glass back on, which wasn’t easy (this was because I had accidentally broken the clips off when I removed it). The face was a little loose, but I had succeeded as a handyman. Job well done.

About two months later, I draped a dish towel over the oven handle and it caught the face of the clock. The towel pulled it back, causing the tiny piece of bare wire to touch some metal. That caused a small explosion with a flash of flame that frightened the living daylights out of me and blew out some of the household appliances. The stove had joined the clock. Now it didn’t work. That wouldn’t have been too bad, if Sue hadn’t been right in the middle of baking chocolate chip squares.

The incident also caused a gas leak bad enough for the gas company to have to come out and shut the gas off.

Questions

1. What is the name of the giant in Doubting Castle, and why is his name applicable for those who enter his territory?
2. What is it that tests our faith in God and what is the measure of faith?
3. Why would any of us lose faith in the promises of God?
4. What is the source of our strength to endure any circumstance? (See Nehemiah 8:10.)
5. Name someone in Scripture who slept when others would have been fearful.

Answers to these review questions are provided in the back of the printed book / source PDF.

Memory Verse

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Galatians 2:20

Last Words

Chrysostom, being led out to exile and death, could triumphantly say: “Glory to God for all events.”

Chrysostom