Living Hope Fellowship Church

FAITH OR SIN?

Training Material

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

FAITH OR SIN?

Preface

(unbelief is sin)

Romans 14:23 says, “. . . for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” 

Part of you has faith, and part of you has unbelief, and that is why your prayers aren’t being answered.  That is why you have confusion in your mind.  You need to get IN CHRIST.

You are working out your salvation with fear and trembling, or you are working iniquity.  Let faith take you higher, and your heart will be purified.

Peter did not want the Lord at first, because he knew how sinful he was.  He got saved, and then he had daring faith that caused him to walk on the water.  We see where Peter started, and things he had to go through, and then God used his shadow to heal the sick. 

God can do it with YOU, if you will believe and obey Him. 

FAITH OR SIN?

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

          Romans 14:23 says, “And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”  Whatsoever means anything, no matter what it is.  If the moving of it, the believing for it, the fearing about it, is not according to the Word of God, it is sin. 

          As children of God we operate in faith, or we operate in sin.  When you are first born again, God forgives all of your sins.  They are washed away by the blood of Jesus, by faith in His name.  Grace is sent to your heart, and Jesus’ blood cleanses and purges you from all unrighteousness, and you are saved.

          Most people don’t die immediately after salvation.  We continue in this world, and we have the potential to sin or to operate in faith.  We are working out our salvation with fear and trembling, or we are working iniquity.  Jesus said He will not know us if we work iniquity.  As we work out our salvation, it is a move of the Spirit of God, and He accepts us.  He is pleased with faith. 

          Either you have faith, or you have sin!  God hates sin, but He loves faith.  There is no “sort of” or “kind of” with God.  It is all one way or the other. 

          John 1:14 says, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. . . .”  Jesus came and took on flesh; He became human like us, but He overcame.  Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”  He became the perfect sacrifice for our sins, and wants our unrighteous ways and attitudes to be replaced by His righteousness. 

          When you get saved, you don’t immediately stop having a sinful type nature.  God’s Spirit has come into your life, but you still have potential to sin.  There is a place in God through understanding, prayer, and sanctification where we CAN cease from sin.  The new man Christ Jesus is placed in our heart after we believe, and He does not sin.  He desires to completely take over this mortal flesh and carnal mind where we can join with Jesus, and walk without sin and be perfect.  It is possible and it is commanded. 

          We are not called to get saved and free from the devil so that we can then decide whether or not we will sin.  We are called out of darkness into His marvelous light.  The devil comes out, the Lord comes in, and Christ wants to work in you.  God has given us abundantly His grace so we might walk like Jesus.

          The Christian can have unbelief in part of his walk, as he is yet young in the Lord.  Many Christians are fearful for their finances, their health and mind, and their family.  Some are fearful over the state of our nation and the world, and some are afraid just how they will make it till tomorrow.  When you fret and worry about things it is sin, because it is not of faith.  When you stop believing God, it is sin.

          As you put your heart and trust in Jesus, fear will leave.  Isaiah 26:3 says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” 

Peace will come on you that you don’t even understand at times.  Philippians 4:7 says, “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”  At that time, a person begins to walk by faith and cease from sin. 

You don’t have to commit sin to be sinful, because man has a sinful nature.  Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” 

John 3:17-18 says, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

When we are saved, we are still wrapped up in sinful flesh.  We still have the ability to commit sin, the ability to war and fight in our mind, the ability to wrestle with God.  We want to do good, but we have trouble doing it. 

Who can be saved?  Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

The next Scripture puts the fear of God in me.  That is different from other fear.  Luke 13:24 says, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” 

Their sinful nature took precedence over their faith in God.  Sin kept them away from the things of God.  They ceased to believe God, and they backslid.  We live in perilous times, but God has provided a way where we do not have to sin.

In Psalm 51:3 King David declared, “. . . my sin is ever before me.”  He was struggling with the sins of the flesh he had committed against God.  He loved God with all his heart.  God himself declared that David was a man after his own heart.  The throne of Christ came through David, yet David committed some abominable sins.  Some people are scared that something is going to get a hold of them.  They don’t trust themselves.  When they want to do good, evil is present, and they can’t get free. 

God has a plan and a place where sin shall not have dominion over you, but we have to GET there.  It is not automatic.  We need to risk everything for Jesus and sell all we have for that pearl of great price.  God gave His Son for you and me, so we should go on in faith in God.

Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”  Walking after the flesh is sin.  Spirit with a capital S in the Bible means the Spirit of God.  When you walk in the Spirit, there is no condemnation.  What a place to live! 

Romans 8:7-8 says, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”

We have to replace our mind with the mind of Christ.  When we are convicted, and first saved, God put a thought in our mind that we refused until that hour.  We were sinful and without hope in the world.  We needed a savior, and Jesus is the One.  When He put that thought in there, we wrestled and fought and tried to push it out, but it was there in front of us by the power of God. Thank God it was. 

We can’t ever put that thought out of our minds as we go on to the deeper things of God.  God has called us to walk perfect and upright before Him, and we must believe He will give us the power to do that.  He didn’t save us to stay where we are.  He has called all of us to come up higher in God and be sanctified.

Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” 

When somebody makes heaven their home, they have already attained it.  There is no ground to be gained, no witness to be had.  Therefore, Matthew 5:8 means that in this life the pure in heart shall see God!    

We need to see God.  When men and women in the Bible saw God, they were changed.  They found out how rotten they really were.  Daniel said his comeliness turned into corruption, and he retained no strength.  He had a little strength for a while.  He felt like maybe he was getting somewhere, and maybe he was somebody.  He was one of the presidents in the kingdom of the whole world in Babylon.  When he came before the Holy God of Israel, he found that God was all in all. 

Revelation 3:17 describes someone who doesn’t know their need for God!  It says, “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:” 

Sometimes we get into a place after we are saved for a while, that we think things are going pretty good.  If Jesus comes, we are ready to go, but then we get sedentary and satisfied.  We should always crave more of God.  We should always hunger and thirst for more righteousness.  God has prepared a table before us in the presence of our enemies, and He wants us to eat!  A lot of people are eating, but they aren’t believing! 

People come to church time after time, and hear the Word of God, and fellowship with the brethren.  They find out God loves them and wants them to come up higher.  However, they go home and do not change.  They eat, but they are not eating of faith, so it is sin, and it brings damnation.  

When we partake of the Lord’s Supper, and sin is in our hearts, we drink damnation, not discerning the Lord’s body.  (See 1 Corinthians 11:29.)  God wants us to get in line with Him, and He gives us power to do it.  How can we get out of the sinful nature and into the glorious faith nature where there is no condemnation?

How can you get in Christ?  When you get saved, Christ is in you, the hope of glory (see Colossians 1:27).  He expects you to grow up into the things of God, and He will take you over.  The last enemy to be destroyed is death, a dying to your old nature.  Then God will be all and all in your life.  Then not only is Christ in you, but you are IN CHRIST. 

In John 17:21 Jesus prayed, “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. . . .”  The Spirit of Christ comes in every believer as they receive Him, cleansing them from all sin as the devil goes out.  Then when you receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost, God’s power overflows you.  Redemption, sanctification, and salvation begin with the inward temple of the heart, in the treasury, where the most important things of your life are.  That is where God wants to take over and live. 

God doesn’t need to walk around in a helpless, hopeless body.  There is a day coming when we will wonder how we walked saved and filled the Holy Ghost power, yet we did not believe God.  James 3:11 says, “Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?”  We find that unbelief and faith come out of the same mouth.  Holiness and sin come out of the same mouth. 

How did the old saints perform mighty acts in the name of the Lord?  It was the Lord doing it. 

In Acts 3:6 Peter declared, “. . . such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.”  Immediately the lame man was healed, because Peter was consumed of Jesus Christ!  The very first time he ran into Jesus, he begged Him to leave him alone!  (See Luke 5:8-9.)

When you go by faith, Jesus is with you.  If you are walking in unbelief, you are in sin, and you are walking alone.  That is why it feels like God is a long ways off!  When you believe God, don’t you feel the closeness of the Lord and the love of God?  You feel the confidence that God is going to do something in your life.  I don’t care what the devil, the world, or the flesh says.  God has promised it in His Word. 

Peter saw the Lord and the miracle of the fish, and he knew He could save his soul, but he said he couldn’t stand to be around Him.  That was Peter’s normal nature, which wasn’t godly.  That is our nature concerning the things of God unless the Spirit of God is moving on us. 

The Spirit of truth makes you know it is real and it is for you.  You believe and damnation leaves.  Condemnation leaves.  Faith comes in, and in Mark 9:23 Jesus said, “. . . all things are possible to him that believeth.” 

Peter went through some things, but when Jesus got done with him, Peter realized he had nothing of himself to help the lame man.  He couldn’t do him a bit of good.  He did not start a giving campaign to help him get an operation.  However, Peter believed God to heal him.  The man looked, expecting to receive something, and Peter got a hold of him and he was healed.

First we see Peter in condemnation, unbelief, and sin in the presence of the Lord.  Later we see him in total faith after he sold out to God.  Nothing was impossible, and he knew it.  He walked with God so much that his shadow healed the sick!  (See Acts 5:15.) Somebody was walking with Peter. 

We are like Peter when his faith failed.  Peter thought he was ready to walk on water.  He said if it really was Jesus, for Him to call him to come to Him, and he would walk on the water also.  That is like us.  We say, I’m feeling good.  That service inspired me.  I’m going to win this whole state to God!  Why don’t you get your household first, and then think about the state.  Just be consistent in faith.  I want to see people whose faith is just as good the next day as when they talked to me after a service. 

Peter had been to a great service, and he saw Jesus walking on the water!  Matthew 14:28 says, “And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.”  He wanted to do something spectacular for God.  He wanted to show the unbelievers that Jesus was Lord.  That was admirable, and he DID walk on the water, but after a while he began to sink.  Perhaps he thought the Lord would calm the waves like he did another time.  He was out on the water, and he had faith, but the waves were big, because there was a storm in progress.  Maybe they were so big he couldn’t even see the Lord! 

You see the Lord at the beginning, and you believe for the end, but right now you are in the middle of our journey!  Part of you has faith, and part of you has unbelief, and it is sin.  That is why your prayers aren’t being answered.  That is why you have confusion in your mind.  You need to get IN CHRIST.

I am supposed to be a partaker of His divine nature!  If He can’t get me to quit worrying and fretting, how is He going to put that divine nature in me any further?  I have a HOPE of glory, but I don’t have any until God anoints me mightily and takes over, just like He did with Peter! 

The same measure the Lord used with Peter in the beginning when he said to come and follow Him, is the same measure He used when He reached down and got a hold of him when he began to sink.  We sink fast.  I wonder if Jesus had to run over to him.  He grabbed him as he was going down.  Peter was a fisherman, so he was a good swimmer, so why was he afraid?  There was a storm, and Peter may have been away from the boat a few hundred yards.  Peter had said, “. . . Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water (see Matthew 14:28).  Therefore, the Lord may have stopped where He was and let Peter come to Him!  Peter began to walk to Him, because Jesus was his Lord.  He didn’t look back, but Matthew 14:30 says, “But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.” 

Some of you aren’t looking back into sin, but you are looking to the left and to the right a lot!  You need blinders so that all you see is straight in front of you.  Proverbs 4:25 says, “Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.”  Some people have their left eye looking in unbelief, which is sin, and their right eye is looking at Jesus.  Sometimes they get cross eyed!  They come up for prayer, because they can’t see well!!!  I can tell you why you aren’t seeing well and why you are confused or discouraged.  You got your eyes off of the Lord.

I believe the devil sent a big wave to Peter to block out the image of Christ.  Have you ever turned around, and the boat you came out of was gone?  There wasn’t anyone to help and nobody to talk to.  If you can’t see Christ, and you can’t see the boat, you will start to sink!

Peter began to sink, and he would have been dead shortly.  Some individuals in the church are glad other people don’t see them drowning.  However, they see it quite well.  Matthew 12:34 says, “. . . out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”  You can rattle about faith a long time, but unbelief will come out if it is in there.  The anointing of God will break the yoke. 

Jesus caught Peter and set his feet on what, seconds before, he sank through.  Matthew 14:31 says, “And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”

Can you imagine Peter, a man, walking on the water?  Jesus did it as a man also.  Folks, we are right there right now.  We are out of the boat.  Why go back?  Who wants to be in the same boat with everybody else?  Faith will take you out there and keep you out there.  It will put blinders and a neck brace on you, and faith will keep you looking unto Jesus!  That doesn’t mean you will always see Him, but faith will take you on to where you DO.  Your heart will be purified, and you will have no condemnation. 

We don’t want our sins to be ever before us.  As David said later after he went on with God, “. . . I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:”  (See Acts 2:25.)

We see where Peter started, and what he had to go through, but look what God did with him.  God can do it with YOU, if you will believe and obey Him. 

Mark 11:22 says, “And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.”

CONTACT INFORMATION:

PASTOR KEVIN BADGLEY

LIVING HOPE FELLOWSHIP, P. O. BOX 111, GRAND CHAIN, IL  62941

CHURCH / FAX (618) 634-2541

E-mail 

These condensed Bible studies have been published to help new Christians in their new walk with the Lord.  Kevin Badgley, the author, is the pastor of Living Hope Fellowship Church.

This is a Living Hope Fellowship publication.