The Reality of Faith (part one) by Clifton Pickard

Part One: Peace & Covetousness

20 Hell and Destruction are never full; So the eyes of man are never satisfied. Proverbs 27:20

Has God given us everything? Well, first of all, He has given us the dear Son of His love. Jesus Christ is sufficient for everything. However, it would appear that some do not believe this. I wonder why that is. I was speaking with one of my friends from church yesterday and I was explaining to him how that so many preachers have gone away from preaching Jesus and preaching things that really do not have power. People have placed their faith in faith, placed their faith in themselves, and even placed their faith in the pastors or preachers who preach these things. People have believed in the wrong Jesus and do not experience the power that is truly available to them.

What is very ironic about this is that the preachers who preach some of these things are teaching about the power of God. However, I grieve when I see people who are truly deceived. It really is a masterstroke of the devil. He has people so duped that they truly believe they are experiencing the power of the gospel when in reality, they are living defeated.

I heard someone else say that it appears the church is teaching pop culture. I know that this is the truth. I see so many programs in the church that cater to entertaining people rather than challenging their soul. Messages of challenge and rebuke are seen as judgmental and harsh. People can go to church for years without ever changing because they are not living the reality of faith. Why is it that when you ask someone about their church, they tend to brag about how many programs the church has, the new building they are about to build, and how big the church is? Is God truly concerned with this? The last I recall is that the Lord values life. He never created man with the intention for man to die. He values life in man so much that He paid the price to secure life for man. This is something that the church has grown bored with. Where is the reality of faith? What is the reality of faith?

Is faith a force? Are words the containers for the force of faith? Are we able to create our reality or destroy the plan of God in our lives by the words that we speak? Is this faith? Did God use faith? There are those who would teach us these things, and the so-called people of God have tolerated it to the point of defending it when someone points out the error in it. The apostles fought against false doctrine and false teaching with fervency that it cost them their lives. Why is it that we as the people of God do not have the same type of commitment and concern for sound doctrine? Why is sound doctrine considered religious and false doctrine considered spirit-filled? I will agree, it is filled with a spirit, but it is not a spirit that is of God.

When the Spirit is in something, it testifies of Jesus. This is the ministry of the Spirit of God. When the people of God were endued with power on the Day of Pentecost, the reality that the Spirit was dwelling in them was not evidenced just by the speaking of other languages, but by the fact that these men who were once terrified to testify of Jesus now spoke boldly about what they had witnessed with their own eyes. Even when they were speaking in other languages, they were testifying of the wonderful works of God. Jesus did the wonderful works of God. The Spirit testifies of Jesus in whatever language is uttered!

What is the underlying point of all of these scattered thoughts? Well I opened this message with a question: has not God given us everything? Look at what the Apostle Peter writes:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 2 Peter 1:2 – 3

Peter says that grace and peace be multiplied to us in the knowledge of God and Jesus. Peter wanted grace and peace to be multiplied to the people of God. He could have desired anything to be multiplied to the people, but he wanted grace and peace. Grace is what we are saved by through faith. This word here can be defined by “the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues” (From Stong’s Concordance). Is this not a wonderful thing knowing that the Lord will continue to exert His holy influence upon souls that our hearts may be continually directed toward Christ? This is what Peter wants to be multiplied to the people.

Next, there is peace. Do you want to see one of the definitions of this peace? This word peace can be defined as, “the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is”. Do you know that one of the definitions of peace is to be content with the earthly lot no matter what it is? Wherever we are in life, we should be satisfied. This is truly living at peace. Being assured of salvation through Christ is peace. When you truly have a revelation of salvation, you will always be at peace. No matter if chaos is breaking loose all around, the soul who is truly at peace does not falter.

Do you realize that to not be content with whatsoever things you have is to not be in a state of peace? God has also made peace with us through the Son. We were once the enemies of God. We were at war with God. This is a war that we could never win. We were doomed to lose this war. However, God made a peace treaty with us through His Son. We experience the benefits of this peace just by having faith in Jesus. This is the reality of faith. Peace is a reality of faith. It is interesting because some people will preach “faith”, yet most of the congregation is covetous, longing to be rich, because they are teaching that you are living in lack if you are not increased with money.
Now to clarify seeing as I have been accused of teaching people that to be rich is bad (which I have never taught or will ever teach), or to discourage people from being rich, this is not what I am saying. I am saying that there are people who actually long to be rich; desirous to be rich because of what is being taught them. However, lest people are caught up on the word rich, let me further clarify the issue with this. Rich is relative. This is a fact. To a child, to have $100 is rich to him or her. For an adult, perhaps to have ten million dollars is rich. Perhaps in another country where they do not use American funds, perhaps to have a bunch of cattle is rich. Americans have become so arrogant that we think that God defines wealth the way that we do. Therefore, to be rich really is the person’s perception of what rich is. God never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Therefore, when God spoke about wealth and riches, it could not have been in an American context because America did not exist at that time. Therefore, the definition for wealth in God’s terms must obviously not be our definition of it. It really is very simple when you logically think about it.

I said all of that to say, that the issue is not riches themselves; the issue is the heart. Because it is the longing and desiring to have that, which one does not currently have that is not right. The person who is like this is the person who is not truly living in peace according to the definition of peace. It is the person who is not content with what has been given him or her that is the problem. I am convinced; it takes money to spread the gospel in this world. However, as my pastor has so wisely pointed out, he has spoken with people who actually are working in the mission fields. He said that for a couple thousand dollars, they are able to build tents in which they can train people, have church, and do ministry. Why then does it take multimillion-dollar domes here in America to “train” Christians who are not truly being effective in their society? We have surrendered so much of the Lord in our society and we have nothing to show for it but a bunch of covetous Christians who have not influenced the society, but have allowed the society to influence us.

The young woman that said that it seems that her church had begun to preach popular culture was the same individual who felt that she was not growing as a Christian. God has made us new creatures. We have to be fed spiritual food else, we will starve. The Word is the food that our spirits needs. There are cultures around the world that are very hostile to the message of Christianity and Bibles literally have to be smuggled in. There are parts of the world that do not even have the full complete Old Testament and New Testament Bibles because those would be to hard to smuggle in. We can go to any bookstore and find a printed version of the entire Bible.

However, we are so busy that we cannot find time to spend reading about the One who thought so much of us to buy us! We will not fill ourselves with the food that our spirits need. It seems like we have missed the point and it is a wonder that our society is in the state that it is in: the church has remained silent. We fight and bicker like little children, divided over small non-essential doctrinal issues, and we have the audacity to wonder why we are not experiencing or seeing the power that we see manifested in the Bible? We have the nerve to wonder why we are not seeing the power that we see across the world! People do not live the way that the Lord intended and we do not see the power of changes lives consistently because of what we have believed. This is a tragedy!

Peter said that he wanted grace and peace to be multiplied to them. Peter then says that God according to His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. I asked a question: has not God given us everything? Peter says that He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Life here pertains to the real, genuine life. It does not mean our definition of life. This is mistake that we tend to make. We do not understand word etymology. Words develop meaning over time. Therefore, when a word is translated into life in the Sixteenth Century, it could mean something very different in the Twenty-First Century. People seemingly forget this and begin to apply our meanings to certain passages that were not intended. Life in the Greek language is a much richer word than can truly be conveyed in our English language. Life does not mean a house, car, a few children, and a nice career. This has become the American definition of life. Life in the Bible is such much greater. God has given us all things that pertain to that life.

I will close with this. In the book of Genesis, we read about the creation of the world. We read about man’s origin. God formed man and gave him everything.

8 The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads Genesis 2:8 – 10

The word Eden means delight. Man was created in perfection, was good, and was placed in a place called delight. We cannot imagine a world without sin, without betrayal, evil, disease, no heartache, no pain, no disappointments, no failures, and a place of constant fellowship with the only God. He placed man in a place where He made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. This garden must have been amazing. Man had nothing but the senses for pleasure and God gave that which was pleasurable. Man had it all! God even informed the man,
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; Genesis 2:16

Man also had freedom unspeakable. They could enjoy the abundance of trees in the garden all of which were good for good and pleasant to the sight. Everything that God made we are told was good. If it was good enough for God to call it good, Who is the very essence of good, then how good must it have been? We have never experienced anything like it in our lives. What is more is that God even made relationships for man to enjoy:
God gave man everything (yeah that is the point perhaps I will stay on it this time) yet, everything was not enough for him. He was still not satisfied. He wanted more. Adam and Eve lived in paradise and paradise was not enough for them. Do you see what is buried deep within our hearts? Do you see why it is the same thing for us to be snared with the trap of covetousness seeing that we too have been given all things that pertain to life? God gave them all things that pertain to life. They experienced true life and that was not enough for them. How were these things so? Have you ever read this scripture?

20 Hell and Destruction are never full; So the eyes of man are never satisfied. Proverbs 27:20
Hell really is another word for the grave. The grave is never full; as long as there are people, there will be deaths. Therefore, the grave is never full because humans never are extinct. In the same way that graves are never full, the desire of man is never satisfied. We originated from those who thought that the creation of God was not enough though good and perfect, and desired more. Adam and Eve forfeited peace because they coveted that which was not theirs to have. Through covetousness, they lost peace. One of the realities of faith is peace.

Why do we not see the power and effect that the gospel intended in greater scales? The reason is because our culture is very covetous and money oriented, the church has had to change its message, conform to the popular culture, and the gospel has lost the intended effect in people’s lives. It is my dedication to do all that I can to equip people to fight for that which we have lost. The first step is to continue to speak about the reality of faith that we have. How can we change others if we do not first change ourselves? I hope this message has made sense and I pray that it will cause you to think deeply about some things.