Faith: Perfect and Imperfect Faith

The Word of Truth Ministries

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Perfect and Imperfect Faith
-Part 2: Conclusion-
[4,600 word sermon--Print out and read]
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Perfect Faith and Imperfect Faith
James wrote that faith without works is dead being alone. [James 2] His contention was that there is a faith that is alive, and there is a faith that is dead. Dead faith must be of necessity considered imperfect faith. It is dead therefore impotent to change a situation or to bring about the attention of God. God is the God of the living, not the dead. [Mark 12:27] James is saying that it is dead faith because it has no works with it. It is not enough for a person to believe [accept as true] God's word alone. [James 2] With believing there must be doing as well. Without the doing, you have only a head faith, which is nothing more than accepting the word of God as true. That, James said, is not enough--the devils also believe, but they merely tremble. [James 2:19] A saint of God must do much more than that, if he is to say in truth, "I believe God." He/she has to do that which he or she believes because faith without works is dead. This is God's standard!

Paul said that the word preached profited some nothing because it was not mixed with faith. That is, the word profited them nothing because although they believed with their heads, [a dead faith being alone] they did not believe into doing the word. [Heb.4:6]

Faith and love are much alike, they must be done, not merely said. Notice this: if you confess with your mouth the Lord and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. [Rom. 10:9] Believing in the heart is often the pivotal point where many fail. Paul said with heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. With the heart--the center that motivates action--man believes unto the doing of righteousness; with the mouth he says it, but there must be the doing of that which he says or else there is dead faith, as James says. [Rom. 10; James 2]

The heart is the center of our behavior and actions. One can know many things--that is of the head--but if one believes a thing and does it, the heart motivates that doing. Notice what Solomon said, "Out of the heart are the issues of life." [Prov. 4:23] The issues of life are action things that define the person, who we really are. There are, as Paul said, many vain and unruly talkers, but what a person does is who a person is. The proverbial young boy said, "Your words may be wise and true, but I would rather get my lessons from the the things I see you do." People say a thousand things and often mean none of them, but what they do is who they are and what they mean. That action is from the heart! Paul styled his actions and behavior while he was in Judaism as a conversation in the Jews religion. He knew that his actions were, in fact, his words. [Gal. 1:13]

Jesus spent much time talking about the role of the heart in the actions of man: He said in one instance, "Out of the heart a good man brings forth good things, and an evil man brings forth evil things." In another instance he said, "Out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, thefts, etc." These are actions that are motivated by the heart of a person. [Prov. 4:23; Mat. 12:35;Mark 7:21] Evil men do as they are and good men do as they are; they do it from their hearts.

So the one who believes from the heart, believes unto the doing of God's word, not to some head or mental gestalt belief that is static. Often I see these "I believe (mentally) and I am now saved" Christians as scam artists who are attempting to do nothing more than talk their way, as it were, into heaven; spiritual con men who have misread the word of God, or allowed a preacher to misread the word of God and mislead them into believing that faith requires nothing more than saying "I believe." That is far from faith, and one who tells you that you are saved has unwittingly or wittingly deceived you. You are still in your sins if that is the nature of your salvation.

How many Christians are muttering the words and not doing the actions and still think they are saved? They are not! You cannot obey the wrongly interpreted word of God and think that God will honor that. He will not, because of a wrong interpretation of God's word is not God's word! It is not what God is saying, and man can apply all forms of human rationale to justify an incorrect response to God, HE will not accept our obeying something HE has not said. For God to do so is for him to make himself a transgressor of his own word. [Gal. 2:18] To misinterpret God's word, regardless of how tenacious a person may persist that he is correct, is like a man being told to go to a certain street--let's say Treat Street--and turn left, and that man goes to Fleet Street and turns left. He has gone the wrong way, and he has not done what he was told to do. No one will honor that mistake; it is not what the man has been told to do!

Each Christian is obligated to know the correctly divided word of God; there is no acceptable excuse for not knowing it, when we have been commanded by God to study to show ourselves approved of him; there is no excuse when we have been given apostolic patterns to follow by those who walked and talked with him; when God has and will open our understanding to his word if one is willing to see and accept the light of God available among his present day saints in light ministers. [2Tim. 2:15; James 4:17] For God's way is line must be upon line, precept upon precept according as HE has stated them. And, never forget this, all man's righteousness is just filth in God's sight if it is not done God's way. [Isa. 28:9-13; Isa. 64; Heb.8:5] If we disregard his word with human rationalizations, justifications, and excuses, we stand on sinking sand, not the rock of his word, which is Christ!

True faith in God's word motivates action to obey it completely. Mere head faith believers are those who hear the truth and accept it as true but do nothing more. [See Mat. 13] That is of no avail. Such a faith is dead. Notice again the close similarity between faith and love: Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my word...." [John 14:21-24] With love, as is with faith, there is always the doing, and the failure of the doing is the failure of faith and love. Without the doing, that one who says he has faith is merely looking into a mirror at himself and walking away with no remembrance of what type of man he is. [James 2] He is deceiving himself in many areas.

Jesus has done it all in reconciling us back to God, but since we are back in the presence of God, we must obey God's word. There is a line in an old song that says, "Must Jesus bear the cross alone and all the world go free?" The song answers itself by saying, "No, there is a cross for everyone, and there is a cross for me." The type of "Christian" who has misread the word of God and wants the "I'll do nothing faith," will say that God's word says he has nothing to do and that there is nothing he can do. That is a failure of understanding God's word. Indeed, Jesus said, when beckoning sinners to him, "Come unto to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." But he goes on to say, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." [Matt 11:28-30] The reason many want to accept a salvation with a make-believe faith is because they do not want to really see this salvation as God gives it. Salvation is freely given, but there is a cost thereafter if you accept it. Matter of fact, Jesus said if you do not take up your cross and follow him, you are not worthy of him. We have to take up our cross daily when following him--that is a process of denying ourselves, laying down our very lives, families, and possessions sometimes. [Mat. 10:38; 16:24]

The cost of faith in Christ is great; we must drink of his blood and eat of his flesh--an expression Jesus used to symbolize the harshness of this way to the flesh and behavior of man. [John 6:51] Paul said that we must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. [Phil. 2:12] And, indeed, if the righteous scarcely be saved, (and they shall) where will the sinner and ungodly appear? [1Pet. 4:18] We have deceived ourselves and allowed others to deceive us about the things of God. This way of God is narrow and few there are that find it and walk in it. [Mat. 7:14]

The Billy Graham type of give your heart to the Lord and you are saved right where you are has nothing to do with God's truth and all to do with what man wants God's truth to be. But desiring a truth different from God's truth does not make your desired truth God's truth. God's truth and it alone is acceptable to God! Not withstanding the national historic statue of Billy Graham or any other great personage, we must believe God rather than a man. [Acts 5:29] Such a notion of salvation is not the door to the sheepfold, I assure you by God's word! To be saved and become a Christian God's way, and that is the only way, you must do it God's way and it alone. Anything else is vain. See A Discussion of Being Born Again Correctly.

These are the ways of men who have little to no understanding of perfect faith. Theirs is a head faith, a dead faith that is impotent and not regarded by God. There is a way, Solomon argued, that seems right unto men, but the end of those ways, is the way of death! [Prov. 14:12] Jesus asked the question, "When the son of man comes, shall he find faith?" [Lk. 18:8] It may have been that he looked down through time and saw the apostate notions of faith--dead faith--in the land and posed this question as a prophecy. Indeed, can you not see that statement as prophecy, even as it this one: "If Satan cast out Satan his kingdom is divided and cannot stand." [Mat. 12:26;2 Thes.2:3-4] Today we have watered down his word, its meaning, and all things God set as landmarks in his house. [Prov. 23:10]

Faith always requires more than mental formations. Look at the actions that accompanied the man brought to Jesus with palsy: The people brought him to Jesus lying on a bed, and Jesus seeing their faith.... Jesus saw their actions (they brought him) and healed the man. [Mat. 9:1-2] James, no doubt, having been there when this was do, said show me your faith without thy works and I'll show you my faith by my works. [James 2:18] Jesus saw works and called it faith. James said that had he not seen works, he would not have called it faith.

The men believed that Jesus would heal the man of his palsy, and believing they took him to Jesus, but it was the men's faith found in their works that wrought with their works, and by that faith being accompanied by works, was their faith made perfect. [James 2:22] And only perfect faith is actionable faith; all others faiths are dead, being alone. James is so bold as to say, "...By works a man is justified, and not by faith only." [James2:24]

Please understand this, there is no contradiction between the teachings of Paul in Romans and Galatians with that of James in his writings. Paul argues fervently that no man is justified by the works of the law or the deeds of the Law. We are justified by faith. However, when Paul speaks of faith, he assumes that we understand that he is referring only to perfect faith. He repeatedly refers to the works of the Law, saying the Law cannot save us or justify us, but we are saved by grace through faith.

Indeed, only the work of Christ can justify us, as we have faith in that work. And for us who will accept that work of Christ, we must do so God's way. For one to offer Romans 10:9-10, or the Billy Graham type of salvation as the way to salvation for a sinner is a mistake in guidance that can kill one wanting to come to Christ. This Romans 10, scripture is not the entrance door into the Kingdom of God for a sinner. And for it to be offered as such shows a profound lack of understanding in a very essence aspect of the doctrine of Christ.

A study of the first instance of one being brought into the church/being born again/saved is in Acts 2. Peter had preached the gospel, the mixed multitude had heard it and believed it. Then they mixed their faith with works and made faith perfect. They believed the preaching of Peter and asked him, what must we do? Peter did not give them a Billy Graham type of direction or a Romans 10 discussion. Instead, Peter said repent, be baptized and God will do the rest. They believed and acted upon their belief, hence, they perfected their faith by works. [Acts 2:35-39]

Romans 10:9-10 is an explanation of what happens when one goes through the door that was opened by Peter on the Day of Pentecost, the actual birthday of the church. On that day Peter said what Jesus had told Nicodemus was necessary for every person [John 3:3-5] and what Jesus commanded his disciples to do just before he left them. [Mat. 28:19; Mark 16: 15-18; Luke 24:47] Peter said at the opening of the church to all who wanted entrance:

Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord, our God, shall call. [Acts 2:38-39]

This is the only door to the sheepfold that God has authorized and will recognize; Paul offers the theological reasoning of this action, not the methodology of entrance--Peter offers that. And throughout the new scripture we see this door opening the same way; that is God's pattern. [Acts chapters 2, 8, 10,19] There is no example of the Billy Graham type of entrance ever seen in scripture! After the apostles had all died and the church had been partially and a little later totally taken over by Rome, we see many departures from that apostolic door opened by Peter and followed by all others, both deacons and other apostles.

In Acts 8, we see an Ethiopian eunuch who is taught the word of God by Phillip, a deacon and a minister/evangelist. To demonstrate action-faith that is unto salvation, let us examine this opening of the church's door. The Eunuch was reading the words of Isaiah, and Phillip, at the behest of God, approached the man and asked if he understood what he was reading. The man was intelligent and recognized that he did not and that it would take someone with an open understanding to help him. And Phillip was that man. Phillip preached Christ to this man, and as they were going along the way, the eunuch saw water and asked Phillip to be baptized, and Phillip baptized him.

From this we can see that Phillip's message was the same as Peter's: Repent and be baptized in water in Jesus name and God will give the Holy Spirit. But concerning faith, notice the man believed but did not understand the word, but with his faith he put works to it and his faith was made perfect. He asked Phillip to be baptized as a work of perfect faith.*** If a person believes the word and that word requires actions, that believer will do the action.

In Hebrews 4, Paul speaks of imperfect faith. Paul said that to some faith was ineffectual because they heard the word, but it did not profit the hearer because that word was not mixed with faith. By this he means that the word was not mixed with perfect faith that does the work, instead of imperfect faith that is static/ non-doing faith. The word was correct, but they did not do what God's word said do, hence, it was an unprofitable word to them. But to that person who hears the word of God correctly interpreted and preached, and adds faith to it, that word will be profitable unto life eternal. On the other hand, if the word is wrongly interpreted and preached, and one does it, it is unprofitable because it is not what God is saying. To have the word work for you, it must be the word of God rightly divided/interpreted and it must be mixed with perfect faith (belief and action). Dear saints of God, God only honors his word.

Conclusion
In conclusion, first, I want to apologize for the length of this message; only true students of the word of God can plough through these long words and possibly enjoy what is written. I never intended to write at this length on this subject, but as I worked on this concept, the floodgates would not close easily; furthermore, I felt compelled to give all that I had gotten from the Lord on this matter. But because the spirit of this prophet, and all prophets of God, is subject to the prophet, I have just stopped this, my labor in the word, lest I bore you beyond measure.

Second, since this is a rather long sermon, I think it is necessary to summarize some of the relevant truths arrived at. Of course, these are not all of the findings and conclusions herein--to give them all is to rewrite the sermon. But the relevant aspects must be highlighted, for I would hate for you to miss the forest because its trees overwhelm you. So I offer some truths from this sermon in conclusion:

1.) Hebrew 11:1 is not a definition of faith, but a statement about faith
2.) Faith is to believe (accept as truth) the correctly interpreted word of God and to act precisely and correctly on that word with the haste and diligence demanded by God.
3.) There are two types of faith--perfect and imperfect faith. Only perfect faith is acceptable to God.
4.) Perfect Faith is achieved only through the process of belief of God's word mixed with doing God's word
5.) The wrongly interpreted word of God is not the word of God; it is not what God is saying, but what man is saying. God will honor only his word rightly divided.
6.) God does not see, think, or behave as human beings do. For God, human beings are evil outside of him--our doings and our thoughts are convoluted and confused.
7.) Faith comes by hearing God's corrected interpreted/divided word. To hear is to know; to see is to know; and we get knowledge through our senses. The more knowledge we acquire, the more faith we acquire.
8.) Our failure to get knowledge is a failure to acquire faith, and without faith it is impossible to please God. And a failure to acquire knowledge brings about a destruction of God's people.
9.) Faith and knowledge are intimately connected: To get faith, you must get a knowledge of God and his creation and actions.
10.) God's voice is seen and heard throughout his creation, even in the mouths of men and creatures that know not God
11.) God has shown us patterns of the spiritual order through the natural things he has made. Hence, the natural order is often a pattern of the spiritual order of things. See them and learn about spiritual things, because God's DNA is in all that he has made.
12.) Romans 10:9-10 is an explanation of the theological process of salvation; it is not the methodology for salvation. That was given by Peter the first day the church was establish, on Pentecost, and has been practiced the same way every since by the saints in light. See Acts 2:38-40; that is the methodological way one enters into the church. In Romans 10:9-10, Paul offers some theological explanation, but to use that explanation as the door for a sinner to enter into the church is backward and ineffective.
13.) These truths of God are very precious and should not be given to dogs; if they are not desired, never force them on an unbeliever or one who is called a brother.

Finally, my brothers and sisters in the Lord and friends, be assured that although I love the word of God, this sermon has been a great labor indeed, but it is a labor of love--I love the word of God, for it is medicine to my flesh and spirit; through and in it I live and am alive. [Prov. 4]

I love God's word as my food. Yet, it take great pain and effort, and, in this case, great pain to thrash through the word of God, attempting to clarify it for the saints. I sincerely hope that this labor is not in vain, and that as you read, you are edified, and that you hold fast and use that which you have learned to grow in the Lord.

In this gospel vineyard, I seek only to plant and water through my preaching and teaching; God gives the increase. But that increase comes only when the word of God is mixed with faith. Then is the word profitable to the saints that they may explore the spiritual things of God. Do not allow the enemy to steal the truths of this work--study, consider, and get an understanding of what is said herein, and God will give you an understanding in all things. [2 Tim. 2] For God has anointed these words and this ministry. If you have wondered from time to time what, precisely, is it about this ministry that makes it so different, it is the anointing of God that is upon this ministry and upon us.

And with that said, may the blessings of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ, bless your spirit. In Jesus name, I submit these truths to you.

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*Jesus was asked to increase their faith and he responded by teaching them the value of faith and what could be done were one to have a very tiny measure of it. That answer is seen by those unfamiliar with the word of righteousness as not responsive to their request. But it was because Jesus acted upon a knowledge he had about the nature of faith. And operating on that knowledge he teaches us something.

Another instance of this seemingly non-responsiveness is found in John 12: The Greeks came to Jesus' disciples and requested to meet with Jesus; his disciples did not know what to do with that request because they knew that it would render Jesus unclean according to the law. But they had seen Jesus do many things that were contrary to the law so they decided to simply lay the request of the Greeks out to Christ and see what he would do. After stating the Greeks' request for a meeting, Jesus started a long monologue, "The hour has come...." And Jesus never answered them, as found in scripture. Instead, Jesus answered God--they were merely God's voice saying to Jesus that his hour of Calvary was near and he had better get himself ready to tear down the wall that separated Jews from Gentiles. They wanted to see Jesus, but their time was not then--the wall had not been torn down so both Jew and Gentiles could come to God. And through their request, God was reminding Jesus that the awful, brutal and beautiful purpose for which he had come into the world was fast approaching. So Jesus hearing God's voice, exclaimed, "The hour has come..." So whereas his response is baffling to many, it can be understood if properly seen in this context.

In Mark 8, Jesus heals a blind man partially and had to redo it. Jesus spat in his eyes and asked the man how was his vision and the man said that he saw men who looked like trees walking. Jesus then took the man and touched his eyes and the man saw things clearly. This appears to be an instance where Jesus made a mistake. But Jesus is the very God of very God, so he cannot make mistakes. And accepting that truth as context, we then ask, what, then, is the message Jesus is giving/teaching us? Since it is the case that God makes no mistakes, but he teaches lessons, we see this redoing of a flawed healing as a message.

There are many people who have had a touch of God but did not see things as they are. Many as still seeing men as trees. They need to have a second touch of God to see things as they really are. I submit Apollos in Acts 18 and the disciples of John the Baptist in Acts 19. And hadn't they received those second touches, they would not have had the truth and clarity of God. Apollos was mighty but partially sighted; the disciples of John the Baptist were sincere but blind.

**Taking my doctorate was with great personal and financial costs. I had to focus all my attention, ambitions, and energies on completing the work and ensuring that I endure the seeming treadmill I was on. I had to make them acknowledge that I was worthy to be admitted into the halls of intellectuality through my studies, and through my having added to and expanded the field of study. I had to reach my known and unknown limits and still exceed them. That is how precious that degree is. And unless you see it that way, you will never force the door open. The Ph.D. degree is not given; it must be taken! Likewise are the things of God--the violent take it by force. Most Christians need to become desperate and spiritually violent men.

***Many preachers require no acts of faith when instructing a sinner to get saved, but they do when asking for an offering. They want you to give as an act of faith. They can't take faith at its word when the want money; then they must have works! How strange of them.

See Faith- Perfect and Imperfect Faith: The Complete Sermon

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