Name: True Faith
Uploaded: 2019-03-04T14:56:43.000Z
Duration: 28 min 33 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Basic passive voice

Why are most people trapped by fears and worries? Because they lack faith! But what is faith?

Is it positive thinking? A certain feeling? One's church affiliation? Is it confidence?

Or hope? Or the simple belief that Jesus died for your sins? Or is it something far more?

Through the years, people have often told me, "Mr. Pack, I lack faith. I do not feel

the presence of God or His power in my life. How can I have more faith?"

Millions misunderstand this subject. Consider yourself. Do you have real faith? Is it sufficient

for salvation? Can you know? This series will explain how to have real,

true faith. God's Word holds plain answers!

The World to Come. The Restored Church of God presents David C. Pack. Author of 80 books

and booklets. Editor-in-chief of The Real Truth magazine. Read by countless and growing

numbers in every nation and territory of the world. In a violent age full of bad news.

Answering life's greatest questions straight from the Bible, and announcing the wonderful

good news of the World to Come. And now, David C. Pack.

The Bible states that "without faith it is impossible to please [God]." This is an incredible

statement—yet, it is in the Bible! Take it for exactly what it says. Just think! Anything

a person does, in attempting to be Christian, means absolutely nothing, if he lacks faith.

For without faith, he has no hope—no possibility—of pleasing God. Any who are not pleasing God

are Christians in vain. So having real faith is serious!

What about you? Do you lack faith to know that God is with you? To overcome sin and

guilt? To be healed of disease? To believe all things in His Word? To know that "all

things [will] work together for good" if you are serving God? To believe God will work

out injustices you suffer? To believe God will provide for you? To believe that you

can endure severe trials and persecution? Or that God will deliver you from them? Do

you lack faith to see the soon-coming kingdom of God more clearly and that you can be in

it? The Bible says that you need not lack faith

in any of these! You can develop real faith. However, God's Word says that most people,

in the age preceding Christ's Return, will not have sufficient faith to confidently claim

any of these or other promises in God's Word! This world is in trouble. Problems are escalating

everywhere for a world cut off from God. The Return of Christ is imminent. This event will

only occur after certain catastrophic events have taken place. Wars, famines, disease epidemics,

religious confusion, economic upheaval and catastrophic weather will have first rocked

civilization to its foundation. When speaking of our time—the last generation

before His Return—Jesus asked, "When the Son of Man comes, shall He find faith on the

Earth?" Think of the incredible implications of this question! Is it possible that true

faith could be completely gone from Earth at Christ's Second Coming? Jesus was able

to look forward, into our time, and know that conditions would exist allowing this to be

true—almost! A revealing article discusses the issue of

people's ignorance of the Bible. Notice: "It is clear that many Americans do not know

their Bible, and a recent George Barna study backs up that notion.

"Barna's research showed that 60 percent of Americans cannot name half of the 10 Commandments

and 63 percent can't name the four gospels of the New Testament. 81 percent believe that

'God helps those who help themselves' is a direct quote from the Bible…"

What a shame! What a terrible indictment of the nation with more Bibles than any other

on Earth. And it is the single greatest reason so little genuine faith exists.

But Jesus said He would build His Church and He promised it would never be destroyed. His

Church—God's Church—is where people do have faith according to the Bible definition.

Therefore, the presence of God's people on Earth will ensure that at least a few people

will be found to have faith when Christ returns. Notice this: "But the fruit of the Spirit

is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against

such there is no law." We must establish another important point

relating to the life of all true Christians. Real faith comes from the Spirit of God—it

is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. No one can have it—or even be a true Christian—without

God's Spirit. Read Romans chapter 8 verse 9.

But what is faith? Surely God would not state that those lacking faith cannot please Him—and

then withhold the correct definition of faith from all who seek to know it. Before examining

what the Bible says about real faith, it is helpful to examine what people think it is.

There are many common ideas about faith. If you doubt this, merely ask a half-dozen people

to explain it—to define it for you. Be prepared for a half-dozen ideas—probably all wrong—all

of them different from what the Bible reveals. I have known many people who believed that

faith is an intangible "feeling" that cannot be defined. It is often thought to be personal,

mysterious and unique to each person—off limits for anyone to question. This feeling

usually has no definition, structure, or clear purpose and, inevitably, is whatever people

want or need it to be. In other words, for almost every person, there is a different

description and definition of faith. It is strange how many people view faith this way,

yet the Bible does not say anything of the sort.

Others believe that faith is some kind of "positive thinking." It is as though as long

as people take an optimistic view and remain upbeat about events and circumstances, they

are demonstrating faith. The Bible nowhere describes faith with the words positive or

optimistic—though these are certainly good qualities of mind.

Other views of faith are that it is hope or confidence. Neither is true! Hebrews 10:35

does say that confidence is important. Notice: "Cast not away therefore your confidence,

which has great recompense of reward." While this passage reveals that confidence is vital

for Christians, confidence is not faith. Regarding faith being hope, I Corinthians 13 and verse

13 states, "And now abides faith, hope, charity [or love], these three; but the greatest of

these is [love]." If faith and hope are the same, why are they listed separately? Why

does God refer to them as "these three"? Counting love, shouldn't He have said, "these two"?

Obviously, faith is different from hope. Still others believe that one's faith is the

equivalent of the church denomination or affiliation they attend. This description of faith is

seriously flawed and unscriptural. Notice: "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as

you are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism [and the

verse continues]…" If faith is a church—and there are well over 2,000 denominations in

the United States alone—there cannot be just "one faith." This idea makes the apostle

Paul wrong. He should have said "thousands of faiths."

Related to this, many also talk of either "people" or "a person of faith"—you've

heard the term—merely because one is religious. This term has even come to encompass non-Christian

religions. Bear in mind you have just seen the Bible

state there is only one kind of faith! We will soon explore whether the Bible precisely

defines that one kind of faith or leaves individuals to guess its meaning.

The last and perhaps most common idea is that faith is any general belief that Jesus died

for your sins. As with the idea that faith is a feeling, the extent of people's personal

belief in Jesus' sacrifice becomes the deciding factor. Certainly we will see that the true

definition of faith does include this important belief. There is no doubt that if someone

does not believe the most basic understanding that Jesus Christ died for his or her sins,

this person does not have saving faith. Remember, without faith it is impossible to please God,

and if someone doubts Jesus died for him, he certainly is not pleasing God and will

not be saved! Believing in Jesus' sacrifice is a direction—an avenue—of faith, it

is not what faith is! It is now time for the most fundamental question

in this broadcast. Does the Bible give an exact definition of faith? Since it says there

is one faith, does it, in fact, give one definition of that faith? Is there a place where the

Bible says, "Faith is…" and a precise definition follows? If so, where is it, and what does

Subtitles ListPlay Video

True Faith

meditation

vital

reveal

physical