The Word Study of Faith

Faith (4102) (pistis) in this context describes the Christian's personal confidence in God, Christ, His Word and His promises. Christians will be enabled to stand fearlessly firm against the roaring lion only if they lean wholly (which is what faith does) on Jesus' name, standing on the promises of God.

The noun "Faith" is in the locative case, the idea being that the stability to stand against the adversary is found in the sphere of one's personal faith.
 

Wuest adds that "The words "in the faith" refer to the believer’s own faith, the definite article here pointing to ownership. That is, the Christian is to stand firm against the onset of the devil, not in himself, but in the exercise of a faith that depends upon the strengthening and protecting power of God."
 

Remember that faith is not a feeling but "is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (_{Heb 11:1 and that believers are called to "walk by faith, not by sight." (2Cor 5:7-
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The basic nature of faith is confidence that things yet future and unseen will happen as God has revealed they will. Peter is saying that if this is our attitude, we will be enabled to stand firm.

Your faith will be firm if your trust is in the Solid Rock. Victory is not assured by the personal tenacity or intensity with which we cling to our personal beliefs. Victory is found in adhering to the finished work of Christ on the Cross, where Christ forever defeated our adversary the devil. Prior to His crucifixion Jesus declared
 

"Now judgment is upon this world (sentence is now being passed on this world); now the ruler of this world shall be cast out." (Jn 12:31).
 

Although the Cross might have appeared to signal Satan’s victory over God, in reality it marked Satan’s defeat. The sentence has not yet been carried out on the devil, but his doom has been sealed. He is still going through the world carrying on his evil business, but at the end of Messiah's 1000 year reign John records that the devil who deceived (the unbelievers in the 1000 year reign) was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
(Rev 20

 

The purpose of trials is not to weaken our faith but to strengthen it. Trials are not allowed by God to make us "bitter" but "better". The outcome depends on our attitude - receptive versus resentful.

Thomas Watson…Faith is the grace which does Satan most harm; it makes the most resistance against him. "Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour! Resist him, standing firm in the faith." 1Peter 5:8, 9. No grace more bruises the serpent's head—than faith. It is both a shield and a sword, defensive and offensive. It is a shield to guard the head and defend the vitals. The shield of faith prevents the fiery darts of temptation from piercing us through. Faith is a sword which wounds the red dragon.

 

Charles Simeon warns that…Unbelief is a powerful instrument in the hands of Satan. He excites it in us that he may turn us from the faith: we must therefore hold fast the doctrines of faith. We should not suffer ourselves to be moved from the hope of the Gospel: this is our anchor whereby we must outride the storm (He 6:19-We must also steadfastly exercise the grace of faith. This is the weapon whereby we overcome the world (1Jn 5:4, cp Gal 6:14; and by this shall we triumph over Satan himself (Ep 6:16-

 

Let not the ungodly despise this adversary; but let them seek deliverance from him through the Gospel (Acts 26:18); and let the godly be continually on their guard against him (2Co 11:3), so shall they experience that promised blessing (_{1 Peter 5:8, 9 The Means of Defeating Satan's Malice)http://archive.org/stream/horaehomileticae20sime#page/n7/mode/2up}

Spurgeon in his sermon The Roaring Lion (click for full text) comments on Steadfast in the faith writing that we should

Seek to obtain a clear knowledge of the doctrines of the gospel, and then get a good grip of them. Be ready to die, sooner than give up a particle of God’s revealed truth. This will make you strong. Then take hold of the promises of God, which are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. Know that to every doctrine there is serve opposite promise. Have ready for every attack some strong word commencing with "Is it written?" Answer Satan with "Thus saith the Lord." — "Steadfast in the faith." Remember, all the water outside of a ship cannot sink it. It is the water inside that perils its safety. So, if your faith can keep its hold, and you can still say, "Though he slay me yet will I trust in him," (Job 13:!5) Satan may batter your shield; but he has not wounded your flesh."

In Acts we read that the churches were being (passive voice = church acted upon by outside force, the Spirit of the Living God) strengthened (stereoo - verb form of stereos
 over and over the church was being made firm and solidified like muscles) in the faith, and were increasing in number daily. (Acts 16:5)

Knowing God's Word

 

 

In Psalm 32 verse 8 the Scripture says, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go. I will counsel you with My eye upon you." Then He says this, "Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding."

There is no virtue in not understanding.

There is no virtue in a lack of information.

There is no premium on not knowing.

In Psalm 73 and verse 22 the psalmist writes, "When my heart was embittered I was senseless and ignorant and I was like a beast before You." Senselessness and ignorance before God is considered to be that which is characteristic of an animal, not a man.

In the prophecy of Isaiah 1:18 you remember these familiar words, "Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord." \

In Jeremiah 4:22 we read these words, "Words of condemnation for My people are foolish, they know Me not, they are stupid children and they have no understanding."

In Hosea the prophet says in chapter 4 what would sum up a very important truism, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." God has never put a premium on mindlessness, just the opposite, just the opposite.

Turn for a moment to Philippians chapter 1 and let me remind you of some verses there. Verse 9 says, "And this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God." Going through that backwards, we are to be filled with the fruit of righteousness so that we may be sincere and blameless. To do that, we must approve the things that are excellent and to approve the things that are excellent, we must have real knowledge and all discernment.

In 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 5, Peter writes, "Now for this very reason also applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence and in your moral excellence, knowledge, knowledge."

Beloved, I just say this by way of reminder. We are called to know. We are called to use our minds, to understand the truth of the revelation of God.

Not to engage ourselves in experience as that which determines truth, not to be caught up in mysticism, but that is ever becoming the mode of operation of the church today. That is why you see the blurring together of Catholicism, liberalism, charismaticism because it is all predicated on the same kind of mystical approach which wants to bypass the mind to feel God. The late Rufus Jones wrote, quote: "Whenever I go to church I feel like unscrewing my head and placing it under the pew in front of me because I never have any use for anything above my collar button," end quote.

We're not here to make you feel, we are here to make you think because proper action and proper response comes with proper understanding. Christianity is a matter of the mind.

Do I need to remind you how the Bible describes the mind of the sinner, the mind of the unregenerate, the mind of the one without God?

In Romans 1:28 it says he has a depraved mind.

In 2 Corinthians 4:4 it says he has a blinded mind.

In Ephesians 4:17 he has a futile mind, or an empty mind, or a useless mind.

In Colossians 1:21 he has an alienated mind, that is. it is alienated from God.

Romans 8:5 and following. "For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God for it does not subject itself to the law of God for it is not even able to do so."

So the unregenerate man

has a depraved mind,

a blind mind,

a futile mind,

an alienated mind that can be summed up as a mind of the flesh.

He can't think properly.

He cannot understand the things of God.

They're foolishness to him.

But on the other hand, the New Testament tells us about the mind of the believer.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 16 it says, "But you have the mind of Christ," a Christ-like mind.

In Romans 12:1 and 2 it says we have a renewed mind.

In 2 Timothy 1:7 it says God has given us a sound mind. And so we are able to think on things that are virtuous, things that are pure, things that are noble, things that are good.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 5 Paul says, "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." Your thoughts must be captive to obey Christ. And wherein has Christ revealed His will but in the Scripture. And so as our minds are filled with divine truth, as that filling of the mind with divine truth becomes woven into the fabric of our lives, then that begins to control our conduct. William James said, quote, "The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes," end quote. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "A man is what he thinks." And the Scripture says, "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he."

Beloved, the purpose of preaching and the purpose of teaching is to pour truth into your mind, to pour it in your mind in a persuasive way, to pour it into your mind in a convicting way, to pour it into your mind in a clear and precise and definitive way. That is its purpose.